First up, strabismus implies you're primarily using your dominant eye, and ignoring input from the other eye. In this state, 3D vision based on different inputs to each eye won't do anything for you. If you weren't solid on eye gaze coordination for 3D perception before viewing 3D video, I can maybe buy that it increases the risk that you don't settle in properly. But if you do have eye gaze coordination already, I would believe that 3D vision you can easily track - i.e. alter your gaze point appropriately to coordinate images from both eyes - would not impair this skill, and may even improve it.<p>I played around with stereograms a bunch when I was 12 or so. I got to making my own using graph paper, creating a random dot pattern, and then carefully repeating it with adjustments to generate the desired depth cues when viewed with crossed vision - the near approach - or parallel vision, the far approach.<p>So, I did this for many, many hours over a period of weeks. The most practical upshot - if you can call it practical - is that I'm now extremely good at "spot the difference" puzzles, as I can change the intersection point of my eye gaze at will, even to the point of infinity (parallel gaze) and slightly beyond (so that my eyes are actually looking outward in slightly different directions). The practice of conscious control also decouples corneal focusing from gaze direction as desired.<p>Another slight plus is that I find it reasonably easy to relax my eyes, putting on a "1000 yard stare", including distance-focusing my eyes. I often do this when I'm sitting by the computer, but caught up in thought. FWIW, I'm slightly short-sighted, but have experienced no loss in visual acuity in 20 years of almost entirely indoor, close computer work.<p>I feel pretty confident from my personal experience in saying that I'm not afraid that there will be any side-effects from 3D video. But I am only an anecdote, and I don't own a television, much less would I consider buying a 3D TV.
The argument is that because watching 3D movies forces your eyes to focus in a different way (which is true), you'll forget how to properly focus objects in the real world. I think that's a bit sensationalist, and akin to the argument in the 1800s that the enormous speed of railways is hazardous to your health.<p>It's not even like 3D images are a completely new invention. The article even mentions stereograms, which have been around for many years, force your eyes into a position that's even more extreme, and have been really popular at one point. I don't remember a widespread outbreak of lazy eye because of those pictures.
I just hope that ten years from now 3D televisions won't have become the standard to the point of buying a regular HDTV being impossible.<p>I mean, 3D is nice for a change but I just feel like it was the new way for companies to create another high priced product to make people want to replace their already expensive and recently bought TVs without that much value being added to the product.
The reason he gives for 2D monitors being bad for your eyes is spot on.<p>However, it seems to me that these would actually be better because they would make your eyes change thier depth of focus more.<p>Looking at sterograms can actually improve your vision by strengthening eye muscles that aren't frequently used in our computer - don't go outside and change focus much - age.
Incidentally, I experience this every time I put in or remove my contact lenses. Because they are in a different position than my eyeglass lenses, the refraction affects image distorsion such that for a few minutes afterwards (especially if I am outside looking at large distances) it's somewhat disorienting.<p>It's not obvious to me that the "risk" talked about in the article is real, though. It seems that what they talk about in the article is that strabismus is when your stereoscopic vision does not develop because one eye does not align properly to your viewpoint. This is fundamentally different from the fact that your 2 eyes have to align slightly differently when viewing 3D video compared to the normal world. If you have strabismus, 3D video just won't work. It seems like a stretch to say that because you have to shift your aim point, you will lose the ability to align your eyes properly completely. In fact (like barrkel hinted at, too) it seems like this would be <i>practice</i>, not detrimental.<p>But this is obviously only speculation on my part...
After reading: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406714" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406714</a><p>Sounds like it may be a way to turn your kid into an artist :D
In order to respond to this post with the level of seriousness it deserves, I have prepared my true comment in a visual form:<p><a href="http://skitch.com/petercooper/dkny7/3d" rel="nofollow">http://skitch.com/petercooper/dkny7/3d</a>