Apple’s Vision Pro could rewire people’s brains, distort the way they perceive the world and cause ‘simulator disease’, study suggests

Apple’s Vision Pro headset could warp reality in new ways, creating a world that looks different for everyone.

In the wake of the Vision Pro’s release, researchers set out to discover what long-term use of a virtual reality headset would do to our cognitive functions, and what they found was alarming.

A team of eleven researchers from Stanford University and Michigan University took turns wearing various passthrough headsets, including the Vision Pro, the Quest Pro, the Quest 3, the Varjo XR-3, and several night vision goggles.

So-called ‘passthrough’ technology blends the real world with virtual reality that may be slightly off-center from what we are used to and can distort our sensory functions and the way we move through the world.

At first, the researchers had difficulty navigating while wearing the headsets in both public and private spaces, noticing that objects seemed closer or further away than they were.

They walked with someone nearby to help them in case they tripped or bumped into something and initially reported feelings of nausea, eyestrain, headaches and dizziness – all signs of “simulator sickness.”

One of the most widely accepted theories as to why simulator sickness occurs is sensory conflict theory, in which a person experiences a discrepancy between the visual system, our sense of balance, and the body’s ability to sense movement or the location of a place or object.

The researchers found that one of the most critical problems with the passthrough headset was distortion, which caused the world to be shown through a prism or fun mirror.

“Anyone who has spent time in a museum’s hall of mirrors that makes people look taller, thinner, or rounder understands this concept,” the researchers wrote in the study.

The headphones distorted straight lines, making the edges appear curved and increasing or decreasing the distance between objects.

Researchers reported having difficulty pressing an elevator button because the buttons seemed further away from their fingers or had difficulty bringing food to their mouth.

“Because wearing passthrough technology involves seeing the world through a small number of cameras, there is often a discrepancy between the location of a user’s real eyes and the location of the camera screen,” the study said.

But after wearing the Vision Pro for a few hours, the researchers noticed that their brains adapted to the virtual world, and that picking up objects or navigating while wearing the headset was not difficult.

“These headsets can not only add things to the real world, they can also remove them,” Jeremy Bailenson, lead author of the study and director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford, told me. Business insider.

He told the outlet that he realized the headset was editing his environment while he was playing a Quest 3 game, saying it “turned off” parts of the walls around him in the real world and replaced them with a virtual one. scene.

“I’ve been doing VR and AR for a while, and I’ve never seen removal work so well in my life,” he said.

Although the researchers’ senses adapted to the passthrough technology, when they took off the Vision Pro headset they noticed that their perception had been reversed and it was now the real world that looked distorted.

Researchers likened the experience to wearing prism glasses that make objects appear to shift to one side, and you may initially miss the attempt to reach something because your brain and eyes are used to working together in one way. to work.

But after wearing the glasses for several hours, your brain will adapt to figure out where your hands reach so you can grab things despite them looking off-center. But when you take off the glasses, your brain won’t automatically adjust back to normal levels. of perception.

“When you take off the glasses, the brain still wants to move your hands as if everything has shifted, causing you to reach in the wrong direction for a short time,” the study said.

Not only has the VR headset broken down walls and barriers and disrupted the way the world looks, but it also resulted in delayed responses and missed social cues.

Bailenson and his team describe the feeling as “social absence,” where people feel physically disconnected from others.

The study authors warn that people should be wary of using VR headsets based on their research and previous reports. They say people shouldn’t assume that virtual presence can replace face-to-face interactions.

Reduced personal contact can cause distrust in others or cause people to become “non-humans,” meaning not fully present.

“What we’re going to experience is that by using these headsets in public, the common ground disappears,” Bailenson told BI.

‘People will be in the same physical place and experience simultaneous, visually different versions of the world. We are going to lose common ground.”

The authors noted that more research needs to be done to understand the long-term effects of continuously wearing passthrough technology such as the Vision Pro headset.

“It may be difficult to imagine the world portrayed by the film Ready Player One, where everyone (the characters) wears headphones all day long, in their public and private lives,” the researchers said in the study.

They continued, “Few people can even fathom a norm in which face-to-face interaction is largely mediated by passthrough headsets.

‘But the largest technology companies tell us very transparently that they are building this world. We have to listen to them.’