From: G.Brown@dcs.sheffield.ac.uk
Subject: LEGAL: Legal/health and safety issues in VR
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 12:23:02 GMT


Hi Folks,

I am teaching a course on legal aspects of computer science at the  
moment, and I was wondering whether anyone has any comments on health  
and safety issues associated with VR. I'm aware of the epilepsy  
debate, but the recent stuff about the new Sega VIRTUA has set me  
thinking...

Am I right in thinking that long-term (or even short-term?) use of VR  
can affect the perception of visual space? I seem to remember reading  
somewhere that a company developing VR games banned its employees  
from driving for at least one hour after working on the games, to  
allow their visual systems to become accustomed to the real world. If  
such guidelines are not observed, there appears to be some  
interesting health and safety issues. For example, imagine that  
little Timmy has been playing with his VIRTUA system for a couple of  
hours, and then tries to ride his bike on a busy road...

Is anyone out there considering health and safety aspects of VR? My  
other area of interest is liability for computer-assisted mistakes.  
Although I realise that it is very premature to be discussing  
liability for VR-assisted injuries, I would be interested in any  
comments you have.

Cheers,

Guy Brown

_______________________________________________________________

Dr. GJ Brown
Department of Computer Science
University of Sheffield
Regent Court
211 Portobello Street
Sheffield S1 4DP
UK

email: g.brown@uk.ac.sheffield.dcs

[Mod (Mark): Are you sure it was VR Games?  This sounds a lot Tom Furness's 
	tale of	Air Force pilots trying to drive after going through their
	simulator.]