Samsung Issues 3-D TV Health Warning: If You Start to Feel Dizzy, Stop Watching; With Children, Watch Out for Lightheadedness and Involuntary Movements Like Eye or Muscle Twitching, as Well as Cramps and Nausea
April 26th, 2010This is right out of some Sci-Fi dystopia. The zombie drones will be entertained, programmed and socialized by screens that require warnings and disclosures, like pharmaceutical packaging inserts. Many of the zombie drones will be so stupid, dazzled and confused that they subject their own zombie dronelings to these technologies as well.
Who needs horror films when present reality is offering up such an immersive waking nightmare?
Now with 25% More Duh!
Via: Globe and Mail:
One manufacturer’s warning about 3-D TV’s may prompt parents and pregnant women to think twice about the new technology.
Samsung Electronics Canada, which recently introduced its 3-D TV in this country, admits the company has only now started to study the long-term effects of watching 3-D television using its “active” glasses which shutter on and off.
“Your left eye shutters 60 times per second and your right eye shutters 60 times per second (with the glasses),” marketing director Robert Gumiela said in an interview.
“We’re not sure how you react to shuttering, but we’re issuing this warning: ‘Be very careful. If you start to feel dizzy, stop watching’.”
Samsung issued a 3-D warning several weeks ago and Gumiela says it was done “to make sure we’re doing our due diligence.”
The advisory also urges parents to watch their children for lightheadedness and involuntary movements like eye or muscle twitching, as well as cramps and nausea.
Gumiela was asked why pregnant women, the elderly and people with serious medical conditions were also told to avoid its dizzying effects.
“We don’t have any concrete evidence yet, but the legal teams have just said, ‘Let’s cover all bases just in case’,” he said.
Samsung does not recommend watching 3-D “if you are in bad physical condition, need sleep or have been drinking alcohol.”
you gotta love Korea, the “honest” version of American capitalism:
paraphrase: “we have no clue as to what effects our products might have on you, but hell, our lawyers are doing everything in their power to prevent us being sued or prosecuted!”
(btw, i live in Japan, where the situation is similar but may involve more idealizing and fantasizing, and, where deemed necessary, weeping during US congressional committee hearings)
I know this technology has been around for several years. The first ones I saw were for PC games, but you had to have a monitor capable of 120Hz (60 frames per second per eye). They didn’t really get accepted mainstream. I only ever knew one person who bought a set, and he never used it.
Now that big names are shoving it into all the mainstream stores, we’ll really start seeing what it does to people.
All I can say is, good luck to the early adopters. You may have the first version of something neat (which will be superseded by an incompatible version 2 next year), or you now have the 2010 version of a Betamax player (it’s neat now, and a decoration in a few years).
We’ve all seen it with various technologies over the years. I bought a nice TV over a decade ago. It has composite and S-Video inputs. Today? Well, it’s at my moms house, because she needed a bigger TV to see with. Myself? I don’t watch enough TV to warrant having anything better than an old 20″ CRT. If I get a picture, I’m happy. I grew up in a rural area where we only got broadcast TV from about 100 miles away. It was mostly static on a good day, so I’m very happy being able to actually see a picture. 🙂
I’m reminded of the Max Headroom show’s Zik Zak Corporation’s motto:
KNOW FUTURE
Now, gimme some more of them blipverts!
I came across an article about the possible harmful effects of constant 3-D exposure a couple months ago that might interest some. It’s by Mark Pesce, a guy who was apparently an early VR pioneer:
“All of this is rolling forward without any thought to the potential health hazards of continuous, long-term exposure to 3D. None of the television manufacturers have done any health & safety testing around this. They must believe that if it’s safe enough for the cinema, it’s fine for the living room. But that’s simply not the case. Getting a few hours every few weeks is nothing like getting a few hours, every single day.
One of two things is about to happen: either 3D television will quickly and quietly disappear from the market, from product announcements, and from broadcast plans, or we’ll soon see the biggest class-action lawsuit in the planet’s history, as millions of children around the world realize that their televisions permanently ruined their depth perception. Let’s hope 3D in the home dies a quiet death.”
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2813511.htm
@Druff:
thanks for the abc link.