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Comment by titzer | Hacker News Reader

I can tell you what, that much screen time right on your face is going to fucking ruin millions of eyes.

Is there some basis for thinking that? AFAICT your eyes/brain seem to overlook the physical location of the screen and are tricked into variably focusing based on simulated depth.

It's not just focal distance, but also accommodation and general eye coordination. (Today's) VR screws up your visual neurological systems and studies show this:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00036...

Worth it.

Are "focal distance" and "accomodation" separate issues? Isn't accomodation focusing on an object at a certain distance?

Sorry, I meant to also mention convergence, which is the movement of the two eyes together to focus on near objects because of line-of-sight. This is perhaps the bigger problem.

>are tricked into variably focusing based on simulated depth

No, the focal distance in a headset is fixed. The light hitting your eye is always coming in at the same angle.

The actual focal distance on a Quest 2 is about six feet, that's further away than I keep my desk monitors.

The issue isn't (only) the focal distance. The difference is that your desk monitors don't encapsulate your entire eye cavities and cause pupil dilation, pumping blue light directly onto your retinas, which has been suspected to accelerate macular degeneration, night-blindness, and dry eye, as well as cause poor sleep.

https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/blue-light-health

Can't you use blue light filters in VR like you can with regular monitors (eg Flux or Windows Night light)?

Yes, that is a system level software option in the Oculus menu, along with brightness control.

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