mee@pbhyf.pacbell.com (Margrit E. Eade) (03/14/89)
I'm looking for help / resources / references for a friend who has
developed severe eyestrain problems from working on a SUN workstation.
This person had worked on terminals for years, but developed blinding
headaches and eyestrain after only two hours of working on a new SUN
workstation with white background, black lettering. She is also one of
those people who can detect fluorescent light flicker (when others can't).
Although she has stopped working, the problem has gotten progressively
worse, prevented her from reading, or watching TV.
Any good directions to start out to research a problem like this? Please
e-mail to {att,bellcore,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!mee Thanks in advance
for any replies or help.
I apologize if this was previously posted; I was unable to verify th
original posting.
Margrit Eade
Pacific Bellharp%terra.pkg.mcc.com@mcc.com (Christoph North-Keys) (04/05/89)
>This person had worked on terminals for years, but developed blinding >headaches and eyestrain after only two hours of working on a new SUN >workstation with white background, black lettering. She is also one of >those people who can detect fluorescent light flicker (when others can't). It's almost tradition for the computer-bound to eventually turn off all lighting in their office in an attempt to avoid glare and flicker, and it seems that's is high time we tried to analyze and solve the eyestrain problem. In humble pursuit of this goal, I am including my personal impressions. Let me point out that all points stated were arrived at through empirical means, and that therefore I may be in error. Factors believed to contribute to eye fatigue/degradation in computing: 1. Working with flourescent lights rather than incandescent will produce the visual equivalent of the audible "beat" between two musical notes not quite in tune. This produces eye-strain. 2. Working with reflections from other light sources in the monitor will tend to cause mental and visual strain due to the ambiguity between the displayed and reflected images (glare), and due to conflicting visual impressions of focus depth. 3. Working on monochromatic monitors causes a type of eye fatigue due, apparently, to a lack of stimulation variance. 4. Working for extended periods without periodically focusing on objects at different ranges, particularly in cubicles and windowless offices, may contribute (as does reading) to gradual degradation of the eyes' ability to adapt to varying focal distances. Recommendations for the computer-bound, based upon preceding: * find a comfortable location with a view. * place your monitor and keyboard so that your gaze can easily rest (and shift focus depth) by shifting to an outside view. * use incandescent lighting on materials when lighting is necessary. * avoid flourescent lighting like the plague. * arrange to have a glare- and reflection-free view of the monitor. * sit at a comfortable distance from the monitor, preferably over 2 ft. * take advantage of a colour monitor whenever possible. * arrange to use coherent, easy colours in your work environment. (ex: MediumGreen, MediumBlue, RedBrown, Gold, Parchment, Black) * use easily readable fonts, fontsizes, and linewidths. * if trapped with a monochrome monitor, I find it usually more comfortable to use white characters on a black background. This can be accomplished by: 1. On a Sun console: echo -n '^[[q' /* where ^[ is and esc */ 2. In SunView : use the '-i' option to suntools 3. In X11 : use the '-rv' options to tools or the '*reverseVideo:true' resource. * seek more information. Best of Luck, -Christopher North-Keys, harp%mcc.com@uunet.uu.net SysAdm, Pkg/Int, MCC.
mmorse@note.nsf.gov (Michael Morse) (04/05/89)
> I'm looking for help / resources / references for a friend who has > developed severe eyestrain problems from working on a SUN workstation. I think this is a problem that must be addressed, but no one will talk about it, sort of like the emporer's new clothes. You can add me to the list of people who get severe eyestrain from working on SUN's. The only thing I've been told that helps is turning off flourescent lights, which is not practical in my office. Does anyone know how to change the display to white on black? --Mike
jrg@apple.com (John R. Galloway) (04/24/89)
In article <8903211336.aa01045@note.nsf.gov> mmorse@note.nsf.gov (Michael Morse) writes: >X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 224, message 2 of 13 >list of people who get severe eyestrain from working on SUN's. The only >thing I've been told that helps is turning off flourescent lights, which >is not practical in my office. Does anyone know how to change the display >to white on black? > Not only are flourescent lights annoying, but often office environents are far too bright. It is my understanding that uniformly flooding the entire building with bright light (what happens with the standard celling flourescents) is NOT recomended by current eye research, even for standard work let alone terminal work. I don't have the candle power numbers handy but can likely find them if your interested (or call your local optometry dept in a nearby med school). If you can not turn them off, just stand on your desk and untwist the blubs in the fixture right over your tube (I am known for having a "dark spot" over my cube/office, at several companies). Then buy a desk lamp or two. Also personnaly, I MUCH prefer black on white, and until color tubes have equal resolution with monochrome disagree with the previous (not the one from Michael) statement that color tubes are easier on the eyes. Then again with my (bad) vision I use a 16 point font on my sun (instead of the default 12), so perhaps my experience is not typical. apple!jrg John R. Galloway, Jr. contract programmer, San Jose, Ca These are my views, NOT Apple's, I am a GUEST here, not an employee!!
randolph@sun.com (Randolph Fritz) (04/24/89)
Christoph North-Keys contributes a number of good suggestions on office lighting for use with Suns. I'd like to add one. I highly recommend Bell Labs' book on office design for terminal users, *Video Display Terminals: Preliminary Guidelines for Selection, Installation, & Use*. The book covers furniture, displays, and lighting. It includes an extensive bibliography. I believe the price is $12 and it's available from: AT&T Technologies Customer Information Center 2855 N. Franklin Road PO Box 19901 Indianapolis, IN 46219 1-800-432-6600 ++Randolph Fritz sun!randolph || randolph@sun.com The opinions expressed herein are in no way official Sun policy.
caloccia@nisc.nyser.net (William Caloccia) (04/24/89)
[ > I'm looking for help / resources / references for a friend who has
[ > developed severe eyestrain problems from working on a SUN workstation.
[ I think this is a problem that must be addressed, but no one will talk
[ about it, sort of like the emporer's new clothes. You can add me to the
[ list of people who get severe eyestrain from working on SUN's. The only
[ thing I've been told that helps is turning off flourescent lights, which
[ is not practical in my office. Does anyone know how to change the display
[ to white on black?
One question, are you working with monochrome tube which have the
anti-glare coating ('ocli' option). The coating has been an option on the
monochrome tubes for quite a while. (It comes on colour tubes by default,
and is similar to anti glare coatings on terminals such as the WYSE 50 and
DEC VT220.
>From what (little) I recall of a human factors in design class, a couple
advantages of black on white are:
studies have shown that people can read black on white faster than
they read white on black
the white background helps to 'cancel' glare and distortion due
to other lighting sources reflecting off of the screen.
I've had to do some convincing to get my bosses to pay the extra money for
non-glare screens, but I think that it has paid off.
Of course, they all think I'm a bit strange for putting semi-opaque
diffusers (printer paper) beneath flourescent lights, but....
--bill (caloccia @ NISC.NYSER.Net)knutson%sw.MCC.COM@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) (04/24/89)
>* place your monitor and keyboard so that your gaze can easily rest > (and shift focus depth) by shifting to an outside view. I don't agree with this at all. Ergonomics suggests that everything we might look at should be at the same focal distance to reduce eye strain. You can get a feel for the problem by holding a finger at arms length in front of you alternately focusing on your finger and something further away. After a short time, your eyes will start to hurt. Holding your finger closer will accelerate the problem. What you really want is to have the monitors, work surface (all those listings), keyboard and mouse all the same distance from your eyes. Turning off lights may help reduce strain while looking at the screen, but it is going to increase strain when trying to read those listings in the dark. Get a desk lamp to help light up your reading materials. Jim [[ Who still uses program listings? That's what extra windows on your screen are for! :-) --wnl ]]
paul@decwrl.dec.com (Paul E. Black) (04/24/89)
Let me suggest a radical solution. Reduce the focusing strain on the eyes
by closing the iris (and making the pupil) as small as possible. How?
Add MORE light to the general environment (without glare, of course). For
example, I use black characters on a white background, keep the
fluorescent lights on and have an outside window on my right unshuttered.
(I'm fortunate to have a window with a northern <away from the sun> view).
How about the glare? I keep the monitor tilted *down* to avoid
reflections from the overhead lights and slightly to the left to avoid
reflection from the window. The fairly high amibent light on the terminal
makes any glare less noticeable.
I agree with the suggestion to give your eyes break by looking at the
mountains out the window, playing ping pong (really! think about your eye
focus), or even looking down the hallway.
Paul E. Black | UUCP: ...{pyramid,amdahl,ames}!oliveb!cirrusl!paul
CIRRUS LOGIC, Inc. | Internet: cirrusl!paul@olivetti.com
1463 Centre Pointe Dr. | Voice: 408-945-8305 extension 210
Milpitas, CA 95035 USAugoday@cs.buffalo.edu (Abdi Oday) (04/24/89)
In article <8903211336.aa01045@note.nsf.gov> mmorse@note.nsf.gov (Michael Morse) writes: >X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 224, message 2 of 13 > >> I'm looking for help / resources / references for a friend who has >> developed severe eyestrain problems from working on a SUN workstation. > >--Mike I agree, my solution is to reverse the screen. Having a black background with white writing is must more pleasant for the eye, than staring at a white (light) background for an extended time. I don't know what the best way to do this is, but I usually do it while envoking sunview/suntools. Here is how I do it. sun4: % sunview -n -f 255 255 255 -b 0 0 0 sun3: % suntools -n -i The above examples are for a color sun4 and a black/white sun3. I am not sure about any other combinations. Hope this helps -Abdi Abdi Oday Phone: (716) 636-3004 University at Buffalo BITNET: ugoday@sunybcs.BITNET Internet: ugoday@cs.Buffalo.EDU UUCP: ...!{ames,boulder,decvax,rutgers}!sunybcs!ugoday
Dunstan_Vavasour@gec-epl.co.uk (05/06/89)
It has recently been suggested that the 100 Hz (120 Hz in US) flicker from
fluorescent light tubes interferes with the human eye's ability to rapidly
move from one point of text to another, and can cause the eye to
"overshoot" the new point of focus. This considerably increases the amount
of eye movement involved in reading text, causing eyestrain.
A hypothesis: Could it be that conventional (White/green/orange/whatever
on black) terminal screens have longer decay times on their screen
phosphors ? If there were to be even a very slight oscillation on the
screen brightness levels this could lead to eyestrain via the
aforementioned mechanism. The comments about colour tubes being easier on
the eye COULD result from colour phosphors having slower decaying screen
phosphors than monochrome ones.
Someone who knows about screen phosphors might be able to totally dismiss
this hypothesis. It is quite likely, though, that the benefit of
extinguishing nearby fluorescent tubes is not only the reduction of glare,
but the removal of a light souce of oscillating amplitude.
Dunstan Vavasour
Systems Design Division
GEC Electrical Projects "Solving your problems
Boughton Road is our business"
Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 1BU
Tel: (+44) 788 542144 Ext: 3535
Fax: (+44) 788 60767
Email: dv@gec-epl.co.uk
dv%uk.co.gec-epl@uk.ac.ukc (JANET)
...mcvax!ukc!uk.co.gec-epl!dvphil@arizona.edu (Phil Kaslo) (05/06/89)
What i've found helps for me is to use the biggest font I can
find, in suntools. i.e., i put in my .defaults file
/SunView/Font "/usr/lib/fonts/fixedwidthfonts/gallant.r.19"
Works good.
Phil Kaslo
Dept. of Computer Science 602-621/2760
University of Arizona phil@arizona.edu (internet)
Tucson, Ariz. 85721 {cmcl2,noao,uunet}!arizona!phil (uucp)tpc@watmath.waterloo.edu (Tom Chmara) (05/06/89)
In article <8904052057.AA02060@marconi.sw.mcc.com> knutson%sw.MCC.COM@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) writes: >X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 241, message 4 of 15 > >>* place your monitor and keyboard so that your gaze can easily rest >> (and shift focus depth) by shifting to an outside view. > >I don't agree with this at all. Ergonomics suggests that everything we >might look at should be at the same focal distance to reduce eye strain. > >What you really want is to have the monitors, work surface (all those >listings), keyboard and mouse all the same distance from your eyes. My opthalmologist spent some time talking at a "lunchtime learning" seminar about exactly this subject. The net product of this endeavour will be to gain for yourself a case of "accountant's eyes". This is what is now known as "loss of accomodation". In other words, you DIMINISH your ability to "accomodate" changes in focal distances. His recommendation was that workers at VDT devices look into the distance every once in a while (something at a significantly different focal distance from the tube). This would reduce the impact of your VDT use as far as accomodation goes. What you're setting yourself up for is a tremendous dose of trouble. ---tpc--- I am sole owner of the above opinions. Licensing inquiries welcome. Tom Chmara UUCP: ..utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!tpc BNR Ltd. BITNET: TPC@BNR.CA
smiller@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Steven M. Miller) (05/09/89)
In talking with various folks around here I have found that eyewear can make a big difference. Most folks who wear contacts report they suffer eyestrain with them in and tend to wear their glasses to work. Folks who wear glasses report that UV coatings really help. I personally have found that I can easily work 12 hours a day or more without eyestrain with the coatings compared to less than 8 without. -Steve -Steve Miller, U of MN