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On several occations the topic has come up about someone could possibly get a siezure & or some other neurological affect (negative) from viewing some animations.  Has been joked about ..  What do you think about this?

People with epilepsy can be sensitive to sounds or bright, flashing flashing patterns.  Such things certainly can trigger a seizure by stimulating particular brain activity.  It's extremely rare for such a thing to happen with a healthy person though, although particular patterns can certainly induce vertigo (dizziness) which happens when the perception of motion from the eyes don't match up with the perception of motion from the inner-ear (ie. you are not moving but your eyes tell your brain that you are.)

A number of years ago there was a story from Japan about an episode of Pokemon that had intense flashing in one scene that triggered more than a handful of children around Japan to have seizures:  http://animefan25.tripod.com/seizures.htm  (not sure how accurate this source is, I didn't bother to read or verify it, I just googled "pokemon siezure episode).

 read the first paragraph of this wikipedia article on photosensitive epilepsy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy).

Seizures can even be caused by driving past trees in bright sunlight i.e. where the light ripples bright/dark - people particularly susceptible cannot drive for this reason.
This problem is why any TV footage containing flash photography usually carries a warning.

Call it a health issue or a sensitivity it is an indication of the parallel processing function of the central nervous system which is a distributed system. The highly computational aspect of diffraction grating analysis in the visual system combined with a phased audiometric analysis in the auditory system alone would easily account for this phenomenon! Just thinking about that makes me dizzy! :embarrass:

Combine with that the other sensor systems and pow! any misalignment produces nausea etc as a dislike/disgust reaction.  That most of us appear to cope with this is probably an assumption that has limited value, as we all complain of disease in this modern fast moving technological world. Sensory overload may or may not be an evolutionary selection pressure but it sure feels like that sometimes. No wonder we had Luddites and anti progress reactionary parties, and  now increasing autism identification. This is not so much a health issue as a demographic distinction of the human and animal populations.

I am not advocating trashing technology by the way, just balance. And as usual this is a highly individual responsibility and requires the ability to iterate to achieve it.

All have brought up great points! The 1st time I had concidered this was when I had posted fractal art in my "Ponderings" group in a social networking sight. A member who is a lawyer just stated that it could cause a siezure.  hmmn  I remember once when I 1st started with ChaosPro I had everything going at once.. color-cycling etc. got a headache.  BTW I have neurological damage from spinal cord injury& yesa a t times bright lights can be annoying. Yes can be dizzying, mezmerizing.  Maybe could be used to control others?  :tease:  I seriously doubt though that those with epileptic seizures would be perusing fractal art. Maybe, maybe not..

Hello Darwin!  Why would anyone with these issues be cruising the net looking for psychedelic animations in the first place!? Perhaps to deliberately create a problem, then a lawsuit .....?
People need to grow brains and be responsible.

but that takes me to the point to include an epilepsy warning in our site!

Of course there are awesome dudes out there looking to have a problem and blame someone else, but I think most epileptics are aware of their situation and do everything they can to avoid problems.  I used to work with a guy who had epilepsy and he made sure to steer clear of things (predominantly bright lights) that made him feel queasy.  He used to comment that he liked the cloudy weather of the city that we worked in much better than all of the sun of the state he lived in previously because the brightness frequently caused problems for him. 

Trifox no need to worry here.  Anyone who has those issues would not be surfing here. I have slight issues with light, but I have enough common sense to take care of myself. (even tho I tend to be a "moth to the flame") :dink:

yes, but it is "theoretical" possible to trial against it, in us everything is possible, so, i added that to the imprint section of the site

Or the addage "better be safe than sorry"   :D

I once created an acrylic painting that was specifically designed as an optical art experiment.  The color choices, along with the widths of the lines, definitely had an effect on those viewing it.  In fact, while I had it laying on the floor once, the house cat at the time would approach it cautiously, then jump back suddenly as if the painting were trying to grab the cat.  (It was loads of fun to watch the shenanigans.)

I am now considering a similar experiment using fractals within a video.    :evil1:

But this has got me thinking about using subliminal messages/scenes within fractal videos.  All sorts of possibilities come to mind with this train of thought.
Maybe a quick flash of the words "Vote For Me" or "I Am The Best" could be used for the next Competition!!!  :nastyteeth:   :devil:
 

I put subliminal stuff in my contest video this year : http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=2106

It's near the end, but may have been too subtle.

It didn't work.


EDIT - Forgot I could just put the video here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2aG0bFpdkg

The incredibly subtle subliminality begins around the one minute mark...

Hello Darwn :hmh: Common sense does not sem so common anymore.  Subliminal messages (I believe) used to be used on Tv, but now illegal.  Hypothetically speaking (ofcourse) :dink: if I were to do subliminal messages in video, how many frames per sec. would get the job done?   :hmh:

What about images like this?

(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff11/Bentwinged-Angel/Mand0005.png)

Do they have the same effect?  They do tend to start to animate after looking at them a bit. Anyone know how that works?

BTW Socratease your subtlwe message could scare someone into a siezure!  (porbably should have a disclaimer)  :evil1:

The above would be more hypnotizing rather than create seizures.

I just recently joined this forum because I was looking to create a origami fractal cube.  I saw this post and I felt as if I needed to comment.  I have been diagnosed with epilepsy and have suffered three grand mal seizures.  Bright, flashing lights is was can trigger my seizures.  I find it quite offensive that you would think that people that have this disorder would come on this website just to watch a couple of videos and file a lawsuit.  I have come here looking for different art forms that people have created and what they can come up with.  I asked around on another forum about what everyone is talking about on this thread and this was her response.  "Sometimes certain colors or bright flashing lights like strobe lights can trigger seizures for some people. This is known as being photosensitive. People that make fractal videos need to put a warning on the videos or they will be fined by people and the FCC can also go after them."  I do not think that the FCC would actually come after people who create these fractal videos, but I think that it would be nice for the administrators to put some kind of warning, either when you sign up, or on the main page, about watching fractal videos, and their potential of causing seizures.  Trust me, I am being responsible with what I watch on this forum and I certainly would not file a lawsuit if one of these videos were to cause me to have a seizure.  I watch these videos at "MY OWN RISK" and I know that it may cause me to have a seizure.