30 Mar 09 First Person Shooters good for the eyes

Interesting article on livescience.com about how playing PC FPS can improve the eyes ability to perceive ‘fine contrast differences’ in tests. This is the ability discern slight differences in shades of gray, or contrast sensitivity, and could make the difference between seeing the car in front of you or not seeing it, if driving at dusk or in fog.

In the new study, her team tested the contrast sensitivity function of 22 students, then divided them into two groups: One group played the action video games “Unreal Tournament 2004″ and “Call of Duty 2.” The other played “The Sims 2,” which is richly visual, but does not require as much visual-motor coordination…

..Those who played the action games showed an average 43 percent improvement in their ability to discern close shades of gray — close to the difference Bavelier had previously observed between game players and non-game players — whereas the Sims players showed no improvement.

Yay, another positive sideeffect of gaming!

link: http://www.livescience.com/health/090329-game-vision.html

Tags: Computers, Games, science