My 8-year old son would take his Nintendo DS everywhere with him if I let him. I have always tried to impress upon him that playing your video game for hours on end, while fun, was not “good for you”. He’s never pressed me as to why it wasn’t good for him, luckily for me; because I’m not sure that I could give him a better answer than “because I said so”. He has always believed me and dutifully turned off his DS when I have asked him to. Turns out, the new Nintendo 3DS, which allows the player to see in 3D without the use of special glasses, is not only harmless, but may actually be helpful in identifying vision problems.
“Now, the American Optometric Association (AOA) is looking into the new Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system for its potential to help uncover subtle vision problems. The 3DS is Nintendo’s latest version of its dual-screen portable gaming system. One of the screens is innovative because it allows the gamer to see 3-D without the use of special glasses. Nintendo warns not to allow children under the age of 6 to use the 3D effect (which can be switched on and off) because it may harm their vision. Some optometrists say that the 3D screen is not only harmless for all ages, but can also help identify vision problems such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (eye turn).”
If a child is unable to see the 3D effect, this could be an indicator of an eye problem which could not be otherwise diagnosed by looking at eye charts.
Score one for technology and zero for Moms against video games.
[...] blogged last week about how the Nintendo 3DS had a use as a medical application. According to imedicalapps, it seems that yet another “one [...]