We Need to Look More Carefully Into the Long-term Effects of VR

When you think about it, virtual reality is such a step change in immersion, mediums like TV and video games seem abstract by comparison. What we’re not asking enough, is what impact this might have in the long run.
This is virtual reality‘s second coming; we’ve been tinkering with the idea since Morton Heilig built the Sensorama in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until the 90s that VR got its first “boom”. Sadly Hollywood’s promises of breathtaking alternate universes were beyond what the technology of the era could reach, dooming it to failure. But even back then, people had concerns about what long-term exposure to VR could do to the human mind. A study carried out at Michigan State University concluded that VR rewired the brain, but was unable to determine if longer term effects were possible.
Now we’re in 2017, VR is back (again), and still we’ve done little to interrogate whether our brains are even ready for this next level of human-machine interfacing. But it’s coming: various researchers have revealed to Wareable that work is underway to look further into the impact virtual reality could have on our brains and eyes.
Read the full article featuring commentary from Dr. Albert ‘Skip’ Rizzo on Wareable.