3D TVs come with a big list of warnings, as you can see in this list from Samsung:

Photosensitive Seizure Warning and Other Health Risks

Epileptics in particular are cautioned about the glasses. The warnings aren’t so unusual today – everything from Aspirin to toasters have warnings too.

But the last one warning in Samsung’s list is starting to get more attention:

Viewing in 3D mode may cause disorientation for some viewers. DO NOT place your television near open stairwells, cables, balconies or other objects that may cause you to injure yourself.

This problem with 3D glasses is called binocular dysphoria. The following video explains the problem and also explains where the concern is coming from:

One quote from the video:

Your brain has about 10 different cues which it can use to detect depth. When you are in the theater you are only getting one clue, which is parallax. So what happens is that while you are in the theater your brain is ignoring all the other depth cues – throwing the other nine away and training on just the one. This creates a situation that is known, technically, as binocular dysphoria. Now what happens is when you leave the theater, your depth perception will be screwed up. It will snap back to normal… but it takes different times for different people.

This has been known for some time. For this reason, people using virtual reality flight simulators are often asked to wait 24 hours before flying a real plane.

But now the concern is growing that young children who use 3D glasses (or 3D games like the Nintendo 3DS) for long periods of time might have their vision systems damaged by the effects of binocular dysphoria. This article discusses the problem:

WARNING: 3D Video Hazardous to Your Health

In the 1960s, Nobel Prize winning research by Drs. Hubel and Weisel came up with a critical period during which the optic nerves learn stereopsis – the time up to 7 years old. Doctors thereafter used this critical period as the point-of-no-return for treatment of lazy eye. The old way of thinking was that lazy eye can’t be treated after 7 years old.

However, recent medical science indicates that the nervous system never stops learning and re-learning. Doctors today will tell you it’s never too late to try to treat strabismus – or re-teach the optic nerves the trick of binocular vision. The chances of success may be diminished beyond seven, but there’s still a chance.

So, if it’s never too late for the optic nerves to learn correct vision, one can surmise that it’s also never too late to learn bad habits that could create visual problems.

The problem to be feared with 3D in the home is that children and adults can watch 3D for hours at a time, day after day. So the effects on eyesight might be much more pronounced than have been seen in the past.

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