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10 years of safer TV
People with photosensitive epilepsy have been able to watch television more safely for the past 10 years thanks to the success of a special device called the Harding Flash and Pattern Analyser (opens in a new window).
Professor Graham Harding, an expert in photosensitive epilepsy, helped develop the Harding FPA system ten years ago, to prevent photosensitive seizures happening in susceptible viewers.
Television broadcasters and producers have to comply with strict Government Office of Communication (Ofcom) regulations and use the Harding FPA system to do this. News stories and programmes need to give a warning if there is going to be a high level of flashes.
Professor Harding said, 'I am delighted that people with photosensitive epilepsy and those who do not yet know that they are photosensitive, are now protected when watching their favourite television programmes.
'The new and frequent warnings when the guidelines are not met raises awareness for everyone that this is a problem we neglect at our peril. The new guidelines for the computer game industry will also help and we are working on an International Standard for image safety on all visual presentations.'
In the UK about one in every hundred people has epilepsy and of these, up to 5% have photosensitive epilepsy. This is when seizures are triggered by certain rates of flashing or flickering lights or images between 3 and 60 hertz (flashes per second) or contrasting light and dark geometric patterns, such as black or white stripes or checks.
