Panasonic’s Response To Concern Over Binocular Dysphoria

 title=Panasonic are well and truly on the 3D TV bandwagon. This morning I had the opportunity to check out a pre-production sample of a 50-inch 3D plasma at Panasonic HQ, and asked them about concerns over Binocular Dysphoria, as brought to our attention by Mark Pesce on Byteside the other week. Here was their response:

To be fair, I sort of put Panasonic’s Director of Consumer Electronics Paul Reid on the spot when I asked whether there had been any research done to test the potential damage done from continuous 3DTV watching, but this was his response:

“I don’t have any information at hand on any specific research studies, but one thing I could say is that Panasonic’s been developing 3D for many, many years and we’ve been evaluating, testing, viewing tens of thousands of hours of testing and we’re absolutely confident that our 3D solution will meet every safety standard and we don’t see any issue in that regard.

Fundamentally, we would encourage anyone who feels any sense of discomfort watching 3D to stop watching. And if they’re a little bit unsure, then they should spend time in a retail store for themselves viewing 3D and come to their own conclusion.”

Panasonic’s Group Marketing Manager for Viera Matt Pearce added:

“I think the other important point is that this is a 2D TV as well. It’s an option, it doesn’t have to [display]3D, you can watch the content in 2D as well…

It’s safe to say obviously that if there were issues we’re not going to bring something to market.”

They’ve promised to look into the issue a little more for me to see whether or not Panasonic’s done any research during the development of the technology into this, and I’ll obviously let you know their response.