A group of researchers at Stanford University has found that frequent use of “pass-through video” and “mixed reality” headsets can cause illness, interfere with depth perception, and cause social problems.
The researchers, who called themselves “headset veterans,” said they encountered significant hurdles in using the headsets in their “relatively short period of use.”
Eleven researchers spent at least 140 minutes over the following two or three sessions: meta quest 3 Headset, released in 2023. SCNR Participants reportedly engaged in normal activities such as talking, walking outside, cooking, and eating. All headset users also had a chaperone who lived in normal reality for safety reasons.
“We took an observational approach that was more naturalistic and really dove into this medium in an exploratory way,” said James Brown, co-author of the book. study.
among them press release, Depth perception and distance to objects seem to be the most challenging for headset users. Actions such as high-fiving and bringing the spoon to the mouth proved difficult, even when the spoon appeared to reach the user’s lips.
“Even if the world you’re looking at is real, it certainly has a video game-like ‘foreignness’ to it,” Brown points out.
Although the researchers quickly learned to take distance into account, they were concerned that overcompensation could cause permanent effects after wearing the headset for long periods of time.
“The companies that make these headsets want you to wear them all day long, but what are the after-effects and how long will they last?” Jeremy Bailenson, professor at Stanford University. “Possible scenarios include misstepping while walking down the stairs or misjudged distance while driving.”
Visual sequelae included misjudgment of distance, simulator sickness, and disruption of “social connection,” also known as “social absence,” the study said.
Social issues include the inability to recognize facial expressions from a distance, and the possibility that users may simply disappear from their surroundings.
“People in the outside world felt very disconnected, like they were watching on TV,” Bailenson added. “People walking or biking near you or sitting near you didn’t feel physically real.”
Nevertheless, the study acknowledges that technology improves with each new headset, although it still falls short of human visual ability. Words were used to describe some experiences, such as slow, grainy, and distorted, which sometimes blocked a large portion of the user’s field of vision.
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