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Suitable cleaning wipes


jakethorn

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I will start running experiments using a Vive Pro Eye in the next month. To protect the the participants I want to use cleaning wipes on the headset. Is it safe to use alcohol (70%)/isopropyl/ethanol wipes on the lenses and chassis of the Vive? Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm no HTC staff but I wouldn't put any chemical liquid on the lens or exterior of the HMD (unless HTC specifically say its OK to do so). I would think any form of chemical would have an effect on most contact surfaces. A good option is to use disposable fabric eye masks or cushion wraps, the former being cheaper. For the sponge eye cushion I usually use a slightly damp cloth to clean it once in a while but I would be getting spares as soon as new stocks are in. 

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methanol/Ethanol will be fine, isopropranol can dissolve some plastics.

Something you could do to help protect participants -> there are removable pads on the inside of the HMD, these quickly get sweaty and would be unsanitary, you could change these out with every participant and use one (or several) person's session to bath and dry the pads a previous user used.

For the harder parts of the HMD soap and water would be just as effective, so something like babywipes will be fine for the hardware.

You need to be aware that no-matter what you do that these precautions will not be 100% guarantee to prevent cross contamination and to stop the spread of diseases that can be transmitted by contact. And that if you're specifically doing this because of one disease that's currently on everyone's mind then you should make sure your users are aware this is only a precaution and not a guarantee and they should make the decision for themselves whether to take the risk anyway. If I were to take my VR to share I'd be doing all this as much as I can anyway regardless of the extra diseases currently in the population I've had Conjunctivitis once and I wouldn't want to get it again or be responsible for spreading it.

See https://www.healthline.com/health/infected-eye

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@jakethorn Mirroring everybody else's comments, isopropanol/ethanol are super not safe to use on the lenses - they'll start to cloud up. They're safer to use on the chassis but long term use will start to degrade things like the adhesives.

We'd generally recommend replacing the stock foam cover with something like a PLU VRCover and then using Clorox wipes for your disinfection passes. The disinfectants in Clorox wipes are CDC approved against coronaviruses and will help minimize your risk of tranmissions - you'd want to ensure the headset is unplugged and you want to ensure every part of the surface is visibly wet (but not soaking). The problem with things like Clorox wipes are that they need time to air out - at least 10 minutes in a properly ventilated area. If you hand someone an HMD that's been hit with a chlorox wipe that hasn't been properly aired out, it will cause irriation to the user's eyes and could potentially cause more serious harm.

I've sent a note to our hardware team for confirmation of what I've said above as chemical disinfection gets tricky very quickly due to interactions with the plastics.

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Thanks everyone for your input! It's been very helpful! I also bought some disposable masks to protect the foam cover, but will probably end up delaying the study a bit longer to be safe.

 

@VibrantNebula By the way, this was the reply from the hardware team: "We can not confirm at the moment on how to disinfect the vive but we would be releasing soon a guide on how to clean the vive so please stay tuned to our website," so I guess I will wait a bit longer and keep checking www.vive.com for more info.

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my bet is that they'll want to make sure whatever they recommend is good enough to solve the worries about Covid

A mask between skin and the foam cover might not be enough, sweat can and will drip down foreheads through the foam and out the other side picking up contaminates on the way.

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  • 1 year later...

I know what you mean. Besides, I think that many people have encountered difficulties when cleaning their house or car, and to make it easier for you to do this, I recommend the site! On it you can find a lot of useful things for cleaning the house, which will greatly facilitate this process for you. Use it, it's really very useful. 

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