Greetings,
A resonable concern. But if a flickering applets can bring on an epileptic
seizure, what about strobing, fast cut, tv commercials that have a dynamic
intensity range much greater than a flashing applet. I am not epileptic,
but find I must close my eyes and/or cover them and/or turn away
from the tv while those kinds of commercials are showing. I find
them just plain painful to my eyes.
The exposure to these kinds of commercials is far wider than the
exposure to flickering applets, yet no incidents have been reported
by the news media. I'm sure they'ed jump all over a story like that.
Ken
In article <5ga84a$oda at gazette.engr.sgi.com> patcar at symph.esd.sgi.com (Pat Caruthers) writes:
> In article <Pine.GSO.3.95.970313182528.24163C-100000 at holyrood.ed.ac.uk>, Anthonie Muller <awjm at holyrood.ed.ac.uk> writes:
> |>
> |> Hi everyone,
> |>
> |> I know that fluctuating light can induce epileptic attacks
> |> (by the way, is any mechanism known? I am a biophysicist, and know a
> |> little bit about epilepsy).
> |>
> |> Now Applets flicker a lot.
> |> I know that the flicker can be diminished with double buffering,
> |> but nevertheless some flickering remains.
> |>
> |> Can I choose a certain sleep time value in my Applet?
> |>
> |> Should I put a disclaimer for epileptics on my website?
> |>
> |> Does anyone know about the legal aspects of this all? Can I get sued?
> |>
> |> Or is there no problem at all?
>> wow.
> a new set of questions.
> a whole new set of potential legal pit falls....gee, thanks.
>> This is photosensitive epilepsy.
> it is not a common form but does seem to be becoming more common
> these days. Possibly it's just being more noticed because of all the
> flashing lights around us.
>> photosensitives usually are responding to blinking at a frequency < 30Hz
> but there are some who have trouble with the refresh rate of normal monitors
> (which is more like 75Hz). In general though, the faster the rate the
> less likely it is to trigger a seizure.
>> It seems that you are more likely to slow down (and hense potentially
> aggravate) the flicker by sleeps.
>> I have never heard of any suits taking place, but i have heard of some
> game manufacturer's putting in such a warning. Warnings generally imply
> that some lawyer at least Thought there was a rist of a suit...
>> your call about CYA.
>> pat
>>
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