3-D TV May Make You Sick

The new wave of 3-D televisions offers something for almost everyone: nausea, seizures, cramps, dizziness, muscle-twitching, disorientation and strokes.

By "almost everyone," we mean children, teenagers, pregnant women, people with a family history of epilepsy or stroke, the elderly, people with serious medical conditions and people who drink. Those are among the groups cited in a medical warning posted online by Samsung, one of the manufacturers of the new 3-D TVs.

Samsung's 3-D TVs use battery-operated shutter spectacles, not the passive polarized ones. In sync with the flickering of the broadcast image, the specs alternate back and forth in blacking out the image in each eye, faster than the eye can perceive, to create a stereoscopic illusion. As a result, the warning states, some viewers may experience such side effects as lightheadedness, confusion, motion sickness, eye strain and loss of balance. More serious side effects include epileptic seizures and strokes. Children and teens are especially susceptible, as are people who are aged, pregnant or drunk. The warning urges viewers to take frequent breaks during 3-D presentations and, lest they become disoriented, not to place their TV near stairwells, balconies, cables or anywhere else where they might trip or stumble.

How much of this warning is legal boilerplate crafted by overprotective lawyers, and how much is a genuine medical threat? Consumer Reports has already noted that a small percentage of people won't be able to see 3-D images: those with such eye disorders as strabismus or amblyopia. In fact, if such viewers try to watch in 3-D, they may suffer from eyestrain (that is, dry, irritated or painful eyes).

Dr. Norman Saffra, director of ophthalmology at New York's Maimonides Medical Center, tells the New York Post that there's just "a small method to the madness," suggesting that the only people who really need worry are people with eye conditions and drinkers.

Gamers, who are especially likely to sit in front of the tube for extended periods of time, may also be at risk. Gaming blog Kotaku cites Nintendo president Satoru Iwata as calling for an investigation into the "possible health effects" of prolonged use of 3-D videogames. New York state assemblyman Steve Englebright has proposed a bill requiring videogame retailers to post warnings of the potential for epileptic seizures, warnings like the one Samsung has issued for its 3-D TVs.

Other manufacturers with 3-D TVs on the market already, including Panasonic and Sharp, have yet to issue such warnings, and even the Samsung warning appears only on the company's Australian website; visitors to Samsung's U.S. website won't find it.

Still, if your pals have been drinking, you might want to take away their 3-D specs. Friends don't let friends watch drunk.