5 ms·

Speaking in terms of eye health, does it matter if the screen is right in front of my eye if the focal length is farther? Or is it still unhealthy?

cassianoleal 3y ago
I won't pretend to actually know the answer but I've seen many people saying that VR can improve myopia due to the distant focal point. Assuming that's true, I imagine this would have similar effects.
charcircuit 3y ago
The physical distance does not matter except for the heat it produces
wkat4242 3y ago
No it does not matter at all. The optics focus it much further away. As far as your eyes are concerned the display isn't right in front of them. In fact if those optics weren't there you wouldn't see anything except a few coloured blobs. The amount of brightness your eyes are ingesting is also much lower than walking around on a sunny day without sunglasses. Remember our eyes work logarithmically so the outside could be tens, hundreds of times as bright.
- The5thElephant 3y ago
  But if I understand correctly the optics can't recreate how our eyes focus on near and far things in reality. So if something is supposed to be 100 meters away it will still be physically like focusing on something 1-2 meters away due to how the optics work. That's the whole VAC issue mentioned in the article.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    That's true. They still can't without eye tracking and physically moving lenses. I've seen a prototype in the news that could do that. But of course it's mechanically highly complex. Perhaps liquid/gel lenses could do the same job (similar to how our eyes work). I've never heard of this actually causing harm though, except some questions were raised about kids whose eyes are still developing. It would be similar to looking through a microscope or binoculars for hours, which is not unheard of in human history (e.g. researchers, lookouts on ships)

5 ms·

Speaking in terms of eye health, does it matter if the screen is right in front of my eye if the focal length is farther? Or is it still unhealthy?

by alpark3 3y ago

cassianoleal 3y ago
I won't pretend to actually know the answer but I've seen many people saying that VR can improve myopia due to the distant focal point. Assuming that's true, I imagine this would have similar effects.
charcircuit 3y ago
The physical distance does not matter except for the heat it produces
wkat4242 3y ago
No it does not matter at all. The optics focus it much further away. As far as your eyes are concerned the display isn't right in front of them. In fact if those optics weren't there you wouldn't see anything except a few coloured blobs. The amount of brightness your eyes are ingesting is also much lower than walking around on a sunny day without sunglasses. Remember our eyes work logarithmically so the outside could be tens, hundreds of times as bright.
- The5thElephant 3y ago
  But if I understand correctly the optics can't recreate how our eyes focus on near and far things in reality. So if something is supposed to be 100 meters away it will still be physically like focusing on something 1-2 meters away due to how the optics work. That's the whole VAC issue mentioned in the article.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    That's true. They still can't without eye tracking and physically moving lenses. I've seen a prototype in the news that could do that. But of course it's mechanically highly complex. Perhaps liquid/gel lenses could do the same job (similar to how our eyes work). I've never heard of this actually causing harm though, except some questions were raised about kids whose eyes are still developing. It would be similar to looking through a microscope or binoculars for hours, which is not unheard of in human history (e.g. researchers, lookouts on ships)