Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:29 am Post subject: Particles and Epilepsy (info update)
I was voting in the "Silver" themed Daily Outfit Contest, and finally noticed what everybody was talking about, working with particles, or creating particles.
I actually thought that the particle patterns were cool, and the idea is really bringing IMVU to a new era of developing...
...however there are concerns. I'm not sure if particle developers have spoke to IMVU staff about this, or have had warnings by staff. The concern is with users who suffer from seizures, such as the epileptic type. If something is bright enough and flashes fast enough, it will cause a person to go into a seizure, (usually the violent convulsions).
I know that epileptic people are forewarned not to be on the computer as it is, as warned by their health care practitioners, but let's face it, people are stubborn.
Why am I bringing this up? The reason is, that I noticed as I was voting, there was a flaw in one developer's particles: if you panned out further away, the particles turned into bright white boxes and began to flash very fast...as a normal user, it was hurting my eyes and gave me an instantaneous headache, the same thing happened when I zoomed in too close to the avatar with the same particle on.
Another avatar was surrounded in an aura which was a bright white color, it didn't flash, but it was an intense white, it was icing on the cake headache wise.
With the way particles currently behave, (differentiating in each possible release) and due to the client not being fully stable yet, I'm encouraging users to be very careful when dabbling in particles and put a warning on their product. Otherwise people will start battering IMVU with complaints... due to the possibility of the client causing them to behave in potentially dangerous medical way.
Once a version of the client which better supports particles is out, I would suggest dabbling, and then putting a note on your pages that the product would work best on said version.
Its not a lecture, its not telling you guys what to do, its a suggestion and a humble opinion from a user who knows all too well what can happen to someone with epilepsy. _________________ In loving memory of Tiggerrific
Last edited by on Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
I know its an odd example but if you go into a long hall-way with fire alarms/sirens with strobes, you'll see that they're synced with each other at a certain speed, this was an ADA requirement due to people having epilepsy...just a little extra info. _________________ In loving memory of Tiggerrific
Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 6631 Location: Australia
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:53 am Post subject:
Oh gosh, I never even thought of that. I think putting a warning on particle products would be a good idea. I have some problems with dizziness and I find that I can't look at particles for very long without it making me feel ill.
Do you know what the legal requirements surrounding this sort of thing are? I think computer games are required to have a warning if they have those kinds of effects. _________________ Cassiopeian credits are the shiniest!
What I've found is that particles that include PNGs with partial transparency do not play well with items having additive blending. If they are in a room along with an additive blending item, the particles themselves can glow. This may be behind the effect you describe. _________________
Also, here's the wiki page specifically on Photosensitive epilepsy, scroll down to video games and web-designs as this would specifically benefit the particle developers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy
Also, here's a bit of info on strobe lighting too (which are on fire alarms, to alert deaf people), and have other uses too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strobe_light _________________ In loving memory of Tiggerrific
Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 1569 Location: USA - FL
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:01 am Post subject:
My husband suffers from epilepsy since he had his stroke.
Anything that moves too fast over a long period of time and even different smells sets off a seizure, even though he is on meds. Therefore I do my cleaning during the middle of the night. lol
It is best from people that suffer from epilepsy to stay away from this type of things on IMVU.
Usually people with epilepsy have some type of idea what sets their seizures off, at least we do in the case of my husband.
I can not say that all people with epilepsy knows what triggers theirs. _________________
People should be made aware of this, let the IMVU bot post on everyone's homepage. This is a serious matter and should reach those who do not frequent the forum as well exspecially those who suffer from seizures as right now they might have no idea what kind of danger they're in. _________________ Emolicious Public Room
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