[dj_gitmo]

Do the adjustable lenses work if you have an astigmatism?

This biggest concern I have about VR, especially for work, is that it forces you to spend too much time looking a screen that is very close to your eyes. This is known to cause myopia and digital eyestrain.

Do any VR headsets attempt to address this problem? Can a headset force your eyes to change focal distance either using the display, or more likely, a physical lens? Ideally the headset would slowly, but consistently, force you to change your eyes focal distance. Is that something that Eye Tracking would enable?

Also, does eye tracking work properly if your eyes are slightly misaligned?

[jsheard]

As far as your eyes are concerned the screen isn't actually that close, the optics in VR headsets are arranged such that the perceived focal distance is always about 2 meters away. That can have the odd effect of "fixing" nearsightedness in VR because no matter how far away something is in virtual space, your eyes only have to focus at ~2m.

[entropicdrifter]

To be fair, though, staring at a screen for 8+ hours a day can give you digital eyestrain and nearsightedness even if it's 2m away the whole time.

[jsheard]

True. I think there have been attempts to make headsets with dynamic focal distance, but to date none of them have been commercialized even at the high end.

[hnuser123456]

Yes, just prototypes: https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-butterscotch-varifocal-prototy...

[corysama]

The lens page https://store.bigscreenvr.com/products/prescription-lens-ins...? asks for SPH and CYL. My understanding is that CYL is your level of astigmatism.

All available VR headsets have a fixed focal distance, usually 2 meters, regardless of how close or far the virtual content is from your head.

Eye tracking is done independently per eye.

[dharmab]

VR headsets use lenses which focus the image at a long distance. It is like standing outside and looking at a distant hill, not at all like holding a phone up to your eyes.