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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4079 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 7, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I wouldn't worry about IR lighting. I do not recall any evidence or claims that it causes damage to vision, unless we're talking the enormous intensities needed to cause thermal burns. If staring at a campfire doesn't cause people to go blind, a Vision Pro won't, though that might explain the mediocre battery life haha.

While hand tracking is great, especially for UI interactions, I consider it inadequate for games, where dedicated buttons or peripherals of some kind seem ideal. If not a controller, then at least haptic gloves.

What is especially frustrating to me is that, as far as I'm aware, Apple didn't make any effort to ensure compatibility with existing peripherals. I don't think you can use traditional VR controllers with it at all, the closest is pass-through for physical keyboards. It seems like a no-brainer feature, even if they didn't see the need for lighthouse tracking.

I wouldn't worry about IR lighting. I do not recall any evidence or claims that it causes damage to vision, unless we're talking the enormous intensities needed to cause thermal burns. If staring at a campfire doesn't cause people to go blind, a Vision Pro won't, though that might explain the mediocre battery life haha.

The problem is a combination of strong IR (or UV) light, without simultaneous bright visible-spectrum light. The human eye absorbs energy across a much wider spectrum than it can actually see, while the mechanisms that control pupil dilation are tied to visible-spectrum light only, and this can allow a lot of energy into the eye from a source that's not that bright compared to daylight. This is a big issue for DIY kits, where it's hard to source reliable and consistent parts and implement reliable behaviors, but I'm just a little paranoid that a lot of the literature on this matter may not able to measure low-level harm.

What is especially frustrating to me is that, as far as I'm aware, Apple didn't make any effort to ensure compatibility with existing peripherals. I don't think you can use traditional VR controllers with it at all, the closest is pass-through for physical keyboards.

Yeah. Or have an additional in-house controller option. It's not a huge surprise given Apple's weird emphasis on One Interface To Rule Them All, but it definitely puts a variety of capabilities and a lot of software titles off the table.

For near-infrared radiation (around 760 nm), which is emitted by most IR emitters used for VR eye tracking, ICNIRP has set a limit value of 0.8 W/m2 for continuous exposure over a period of time3. This means that if an object with an area of 1 m2 is exposed to a continuous near-infrared source with an intensity of 0.8 W/m2 for more than one hour, there is a risk of thermal damage to the cornea or iris.

The source you linked to strongly recommends not crossing that threshold.

However, I would assume that Apple's headsets are bright enough that they cause a pronounced pupillary response, and that their engineers are competent enough to stay within the same limit. After all, they've worked with IR and infrared LIDAR for ages, they know what they're doing.

I see it as very unlikely that it would cause even noticeable harm.

Sadly, Apple does love itself a walled garden, and telling users it's their way or the highway. Oculus, even after the Meta acquisition, has been far more tolerant of tinkering.

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