According to a survey from the University of Rochester in New York, adults that play lots of action video games can possibly improve their eyesight.
Those who play see significant improvements in “their ability to notice subtle differences in shades of gray.”
“Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery — somehow changing the optics of the eye,” said Daphne Bavelier of the study.“But we’ve found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped.”
The study divided 22 adults into two groups, with one group playing “Call of Duty 2″ and “Unreal Tournament 2004.” The second group played “The Sims 2,” a slower game that requires much less hand-eye coordination and reaction time.
Each group played exactly 50 hours of the games over nine weeks. By the end of the training, those in the first group showed a 43 percent improvement in “their ability to discern close shades of gray,” whereas the second group had no improvement.
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Sony America director of hardware marketing John Koller has confided that the company plans to make “big pushes this year” towards downloadable games for the PSP handheld, releasing most digital versions on the same date as it’s UMD physical counterpart.
The now timed release of digital games should force the quick death of UMD, the proprietary format that has been hated by retailers and consumers alike.
“Holistically, the idea of digital distribution fits into the world as we go forward,” Koller said. “Not to say that retail isn’t of extreme importance, because it is. But the idea of offering content to consumers, to make it easy, you can wake up in the morning, download something and go, it’s very appealing.
“So one of our big pushes this year is to be sure that the right kind of content and the right kind of games in particular are placed on the PlayStation Network for download on the PSP.
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Samsung has noted today that a two year old LCD patent dispute with Sharp has now been settled, with the Tokyo court upholding Samsung’s countersuit.
In 2007, Sharp sued Samsung over unspecified infringements, and Samsung quickly filed two countersuits as well as asked the US International Trade Commission for a full investigation into the matter.
The WSJ adds that “patent-infringement lawsuits are common in the highly competitive flat-panel display industry,” especially as competition increases and market share becomes more important.
