From: John Wann Subject: Re: HUMAN-FACTORS: Children, VR, and home entertainment Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 17:14:47 +0000 Marc Bernatchez replied (at length) to Robin Hollands mail: > I don't see why you and Mr. Wann felt so attacked by these light remarks >I and other made. Marc if you read both of my messages you will see that I most definately avoid any suggestion of "attack" on either side. - I objectively pointed out that are making "authoriative" statements about an area (human ocular motor control and development) where you do not appear to have expertise. I don't want to stop you airing your view - provided you make it clear that it is a merely personal view from someone who only has limited knowledge of the area - but promoting web-pages where you construct an illusory user<->expert "interview" with yourself is suggesting you have some specialist knowledge in this field. My term for this was "unwise" and I consider the content of your "interview" also to be unwise and hardly the "light remarks" you suggest above Excerts include: > Most of the current HMDs (the low end ones especially) don't respect > most of these human factors. Even worse, some companies just jumped > on the VR hype band wagon and tried to make big money out of it > without worrying about the harm these HMDs could do to the > users. A game company once tried to sell a cheap HMD for > use with their game stations but stopped short when they > realized the potential lawsuits they could face > due to the dangers of misuses of such devices by kids. > Extended use of HMDs in their current state is not possible. > The actual period of use of an HMD is about 5 to 10 minutes. > Just think of the possible problems if these units would be > used by kids on their game console for over an hour... Even > for adults, an overused HMD can indirectly kill them. After > immersion, if an adult drives a car or does a similar activity > involving high use of his visual cues, he can be involved in an > lethal accident. "Light Remarks" indeed ! The observation that both Robin and I were making - is that you haven't actually researched the effects you suggest, but there are groups that have (including our group) and you haven't bothered to read the vison research background before you make your pronouncements. I'm also guessing that you haven't talked/listened to many HMD manufacturers either because the people I know at various High-Low end HMD companies have read the background, have searched out the research and in some cases have commissioned research. John W ********************************************************* Dr John P. Wann < J.P.Wann@rdg.ac.uk> ********************************************************** Action Research Laboratory: Development, Rehabilitation, Immersive Virtual Environments (Wann, Mon-Williams, Langaas, Smyth , Swapp ) Supported by: Action Research; EPSRC: European Commission ARL - DRIVE Department of Psychology University of Reading PO Box 238, Reading RG6 6AL, UK +44 1734 318532 Fx +44 1734 316604 ***********************************************************