CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU (Werner Uhrig) (02/23/86)
[ from SCIENCE-86, March 86, Current News HIGHLIGHTS, page 10 ] Eyestrain, headaches, and other ill effects of working at a video display terminal aren't eased by changing either the office lighting or the color of the characters. So say researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, who studied 35 people as they worked at VDTs with white, green, or amber characters in rooms with incandescent or fluorescent light. A likelier cause of strain, they found, was sitting too close to the screen or making it too bright. [ no source or reference given, unfortunately, because I don't believe it and suspect that "the press" may be misunderstanding or falsely condensing what the researchers, whoever they may be, studied and concluded. In any case, from personal experience I dispute that office lighting and color of display is not significant. Ill-effects? 35 cases? hmmp - Werner ]
ccrdave@DENEB.UUCP (Lord Kahless) (02/26/86)
We've consistently found that
1) Green monitors are harder on your eyes under fluorescent
light.
2) Amber monitors seem to be the easiest to work with.
3) CHEAP green screen terminals whose color temperature is
right around that of the fluorescent lights leave me and one
of my coworkers literally sick after a work day. (Headache,
nausea, etc.) In contrast, the same make and model of
terminal with an amber monitor is o.k.
4) GOOD green monitors are better than equivelent quality
blue monitors. I am specifically thinking of my experiences
with DEC Rainbow micros and 220 terminals.
5) Fluorescent lights in general are a pain. Here is one
story: Wyse 75 terminals have this nausea colored green
monitor. I've used twin terminals at two sites, one under
institutional fluorescent, one under house incandescent
lights with some natural light. Under fluorescent lights, my
eyes gave out. Under natural light, I find the terminal
fine.
6) Color terminals, even when set to green, amber, whatever,
tend to be harder on the eyes. (Lower resolution, etc.)
7) Flickering reverse video drives me nuts. Wyse 75 magic
cookie specials are the worst.
I have also noticed that people tend to turn up terminals way
too bright, and that they tend to use them in rooms which are
at the brightness level for reading, which is way too bright
for CRT work.
Interestingly enough, people who are used to cheapo micros
get used to the green monitors better than those of us who
have finer tastes. I know of some Apple ][ people who PREFER
the terminal which makes the people who work with me
literally throw up.
{dual,lll-crg,ucbvax}!ucdavis!vega!ccrdave
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. |
| Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched |
| C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All |
| those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. |
| Time to die." -- Roy Baty, Nexus6, N6MAA10816, Combat |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+cs111olg@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU (Oleg Kiselev) (02/28/86)
I find that displays with a solid-formed character (can't see the bars and dots that make up the image) are MUCH LESS tiresome on the eyes than the standard screens (for example IBM-PC monocrome screen). Also, the darker and the less reflecting the display is - the easier it is to see the text. In fact, a mediocre(sp?) terminal with a "Glare Guard" (there are many different ones on the market) is MUCH better on the eyes. The best displays I've worked with were the AT&T 6300 PC with a B&W screen and a glare guard, and an NBI multi-window workstation (U! or tws) that had a B&W non-glare screen with black-on-light-gray windows. Oleg Kiselev, ucla-cs!oac6.oleg
storm@DIKU.UUCP (Kim Fabricius Storm) (03/02/86)
I don't think that the original posting reached me, but I would like to mention that there is a growing concern in Denmark and Sweden, that CRT's may impose birth defects, embroy damages, and may lead to miscarriages when pregnent women are working with them. Some even state that they may decrease the furtility of men and women. It think that the Swedish helth organizations recommend that pregnant women completely avoid working with CRT's, or at least use them less than two hours a day, and the Danish labour unions recommend the same. ------------------ Kim F. Storm, storm@diku.UUCP (seismo!diku!storm) Institute of Datalogy(=CS), U of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, DK-2100 OE
matt@SABER.UUCP (Matt Perez) (03/02/86)
As I understand it, CMU tried to get IBM to agree to general distribution of Andrew, but CMU `lost'. I agree with you, and IBM has probably lost as well on an opportunity to make Andrew a dominant force.
pilotti@TELESOFT.UUCP (uuKeith -- Sendmail Warrior) (03/04/86)
Hi!
Any comments on "normal" vs. reverse video? I use "reverse"
(dark on light) and constantly get ribbed by my coworkers who
mostly use light-on-dark (the status-quo "normal").
I sometimes feel I can read reverse better at a distance, and
that it is more "natural" (ala dark letters on light paper),
though I rarely can be convincing to a "non-believer"!
Thanks for the article...
/+\ Keith
________________________________________________________
KEITH F. PILOTTI -- TeleSoft (619) 457-2700 x172
10639 Roselle St, SanDiego, CA 92121
<pilotti@telesoft.UUCP> <pilotti@UCSD.ARPA>
...{decvax,ucbvax}!sdcsvax!telesoft!pilottiGUMBY@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (David Vinayak Wallace) (03/14/86)
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 86 18:04:18 pst
From: <sdcsvax!celerity!telesoft!pilotti at ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
Any comments on "normal" vs. reverse video? I use "reverse"
(dark on light) and constantly get ribbed by my coworkers who
mostly use light-on-dark (the status-quo "normal").
I got the same reaction at Xerox (only in reverse) as I use
white-on-black. My rationale (apart that after years of it I find it
hard to change) is that the less light my eyes have to deal with the
better. And nothing is worse than attempting to read an out-of-focus
or saturated black-on-white screen!
For clarity, what I do is:
o close the blinds
o use as dim a screen as is clearly visible, with as high contrast as
possible
o use incandescent lights. Fluorescents are usually too bright.
These changes easily give me two or three hours more with the console
before it becomes impossible to focus.
I sometimes feel I can read reverse better at a distance, and
that it is more "natural" (ala dark letters on light paper),
though I rarely can be convincing to a "non-believer"!
I can simpathise! But black-on-white, being actively bright, doesn't
remind me of a sheet of paper which is passive. Mais chacun a son gout!
david