Accommodative load from handheld game consoles in kindergarten children

  • Toshihiro Sakata
  • Masaru Miyao
  • Hisao Ishigaki
  • Yoshio Shiraiwa
  • Shin'ya Ishihara
  • Masashi Furuta
  • Takaaki Kondo
  • Hideaki Toyoshima
Original Article
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Abstract

We analyzed and compared the visual accommodation of kindergarten children who were gazing fixedly at images from three different sources: Nintendo Game Boy DMG-01TM (non-backlit type game console: NBGC), NEC PC EnginePI-TG6TM (color backlit-type game console: CBGC) and a cartoon drawing (drawing). Subjects for the experiment were 13 4- to 5-year-old kindergarten children. The contrast ratios were, in the order, 1.1 (NBGC), 3.1 (drawing), and 3.4 (CBGC). These values show that the contrast of the NBGC screen was considerably lower than the others. The mean accommodative power increased when looking at all three types of image: a drawing (1.75±0.52 D; mean±S.D.), CBGC (1.82±0.61 D), and NBGC (2.26±0.50 D). Compared with the other 2 targets, NBGC required stronger accommodation, indicating that the legibility of the NBGC was poor. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for the values of accommodation for each type of target. There were significant differences among the 3 targets (p<0.01). Significant differences were seen between NBGC and drawings (p<0.01) and NBGC and CBGC (p<0.05) using paired Scheffe test, but not between CBGC and drawings. This supports the finding that the legibility of NBGC is low due to dark and low contrast screens with poor resolution.

Key words

handheld game console accommodation legibility contrast children mobile phone 
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Copyright information

© Japanese Society of Hygiene 2001

Authors and Affiliations

  • Toshihiro Sakata
    • 1
  • Masaru Miyao
    • 2
  • Hisao Ishigaki
    • 3
  • Yoshio Shiraiwa
    • 3
  • Shin'ya Ishihara
    • 1
  • Masashi Furuta
    • 1
  • Takaaki Kondo
    • 4
  • Hideaki Toyoshima
    • 4
  1. 1.Aichi University of EducationKariya
  2. 2.Graduate School of MathematicsNagoya UniversityNagoyaJapan
  3. 3.Aichi Institute of TechnologyToyota
  4. 4.Department of Public Health Health Information DynamicsNagoya University Graduate School of MedicineNagoya

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