Anti-Glare Computer Screens That Work in Sunlight?

Belfont9 asks: "The company I work for operates in a very sunny climate, and our facilities rely almost completely on natural light. The problem for our coders is that all that light makes reading a computer screen for many hours truly painful - even if we use the standard 'anti-glare' screen covers. Dimming the entire rooms (eg through the use of shades) isn't an option. Could the Slashdot community suggest some good computer screens for use in such conditions?"

FlatPanels, maybe?

[GreyWolf3000]

I've had the exact same problem, but when I got a laptop, the problem you're describing diminished greatly (although having such a small screen created new problems). Perhaps getting flat-panel LCD monitors would be worth the much higher costs (especially if you go beyond 17"). A large monitor taken down to lower resolutions also sometimes helps. Also, telling browsers, ides, irc clients, etc, to override system colors (mostly for backgrounds) and replacing white darker, vanilla "off-white" colors might help alot (and won't cost money :)

Re:FlatPanels, maybe?

[funky womble]

I agree that changing colours helps a lot. Laptops are good too (but can have other problems - like on mine I can't swap the keycaps to Dvorak layout, which I don't know well enough to not need to look occasionally, but do know well enough to never want to touch qwerty again :-)

I've been using #453dad background and #9191d6 menus, white text, with the monitor brightness turned way down. I find these colours work a bit better than white-on-black (since black monitors also show quite a lot of reflections) and much better than black-on-white... The other day I realised how similar they are to the Commodore 64 standard colours, quite interesting since I think they were likely to have been chosen to work under not-quite-ideal viewing conditions.

Works great on a lot of things, but websites can be difficult - certain colour text .gifs with a transparent background are a particular problem - and I also had trouble with a lot of websites that set bgcolor but not text, link and vlink... Opera is a big help, just modify the user stylesheet and you're only a ^G away from a readable page if something really doesn't work.

White backgrounds are pretty horrible looking if you get used to something else, *and* they waste electricity on CRTs :-) Maybe they wouldn't need so much lead in the tubes to block electrons if standard desktops had darker backgrounds too. Maybe it's all a plot by space aliens to cause us to be exposed to radiation so we mutate quicker... Yeah, space aliens, that must be it.

Re:FlatPanels, maybe?

[GreyWolf3000]

And I don't know much about this but when a black screen goes suddenly white (or from dark to light in general) on CRT monitors, the picture widens significantly. This makes it hard to do set the screen size.

Re:FlatPanels, maybe?

[mjoconnor81]

Damn all you insensitive people with window offices. I work in the basement. I have noticed that the flat pannel monitor I use does a good job of cutting down on the glare from the florecent bulbs. Which brings me to my point. Roomer has it(according to the best buy salesman) that a flat screen TV cuts glare by 60-80%. I would imagine the same would hold true to a flatscreen monitor or flat pannel monitor.

Just my 2 cents worth

Re:FlatPanels, maybe?

[Electrum]

Damn all you insensitive people with window offices. I work in the basement. I have noticed that the flat pannel monitor I use does a good job of cutting down on the glare from the florecent bulbs. Which brings me to my point. Roomer has it(according to the best buy salesman) that a flat screen TV cuts glare by 60-80%. I would imagine the same would hold true to a flatscreen monitor or flat pannel monitor.
I too have to work in a basement with only a sliver of a window to provide natural light. The only light I use in the room is an Eclipse Light [thinkgeek.com]. These things absolutely rock. They eliminate glare completely and light up the work area perfectly. And they look cool too (although the older ones were cool looking IMO).

Monitor Hoods!

[ihtagik]

Yeah that's right, Monitor Hoods! [google.com] [google.com] I know they lok a little goofy but after having the please of using a LaCie monitor [lacie.com] with one of these things a while back during an unexpected outdoor coding session, I swear by them. PS: no affiliation to LaCie or any monitor hood company, honest

Re:Monitor Hoods!

[Garg]

I'll second this. I recently moved into an office where one whole wall is a window (is that an oxymoron?), and I'm in Orlando, Florida. Needless to say, the sun can be pretty intense (except every afternoon when it rains... I'm starting to mold here).

Anyway, one of the first things I asked for was a monitor hood. It's made all the difference in the world. I can still code and keep the shades open, so I can watch the babes, er, scenery every now and then... Whoops, here comes some scenery now. Gotta go...

Garg

Roll your own

[realgone]

Count me as one more vote for monitor hoods; the things are life savers. There was this one agency I used to work for that got unbelievable sunny, starting around noon every day. Made trying to design print pieces near impossible, since the light and glare would tend to wash out all colors on-screen. Those hoods were the only thing that kept me sane.

But here's the best part: forget LaCie, you can make your own hood in a couple of minutes for a only couple of bucks. Heck, we used to do it all the time.

(1) Run down to your local Pearl/Staples/etc and buy a poster-sized piece of black mounting board. (Or any other reasonably thick, dark and matte -- i.e., non-glossy -- material will do.)

(2) Measure the width of the front of your monitor casing and cut a piece of board to slightly more than that width by, let's say, 18 inches deep. That's the top.

(3) Cut two more pieces, half the width of the first but the same depth. Those are the sides.

(4) Now all you need to do is get some strong tape -- again, matte black if you can find it -- and tape the pieces together: side - top - side.

(5) Place atop the monitor, tape side up, and let the side fins flop down. (For another couple of bucks, add some velcro tabs to keep the whole thing firmly in place.) Welcome to the Land that Glare Forgot.

Re:Roll your own

[tenman]

(6) Take wheels off of home.

TFT screens indeed

[barryvoeten]

Had that same thing, red eyes, hurt. Switching to a TFT screen help a lot. Cost money? Nope.
Calculate the cost of some sick days, a missed
project deadline...

Goggles?

[smoon]

Sounds like you want either a reflective LCD display or one of those fancy-schmancy computer google thingies. Looks like Xybernaut [xybernaut.com] (among others) offer such things for sale. Just search for wearable computers.

Granted a bunch of people wearing opaque computer goggles, possibly with computer gloves navigating their own private 3-d world might make for an odd looking group to an uninitiated visitor. Make sure to keep a few regular CRTs and schedule visits carefully.

Spray

[beswicks]

I've never tried this on monitors, but, you can get spray for use when taking photographs of 'shiny' things, which stops the flash from refecting straight back at the camera.

I did a quick google search and found this [airseal.com]. It would certainly be a cheap place to start.

Change your schedule

[Basje]

In many southern european and in tropical countries, people sleep during the afternoon, and work early in the morning and in the evening. This could help you too.

Or, even more extreme, code during the night and sleep during the day.

I realise this is not an answer to your question, which is a way to implement a solution to a problem. Rather, it may be another solution to your problem. Plz give it some thought.

Re:Change your schedule

[douglas jeffries]

Or, even more extreme, code during the night and sleep during the day.

... he's a programmer and he's OK, he codes all night and he sleeps all day.

Already covered?

[Chris Pimlott]

There was a similar question [slashdot.org] a while ago about sunlight-viewable screens. The information there may be of use.

To parrot my own previous comment, NEC sells a laptop called the Versa DayLite [neccomp.com] (aka the LaVie MX [dynamism.com] in Japan) with a special "reflective LCD" screen that makes it usable outdoors. It also allows it (along with a second internal battery behind the screen) to run up to 8 hours.

On the downside, the screen isn't very good indoors - NEC says it's "suitable for occasional indoor use". The user reviews I've read agree with this (but for your application this doesn't seem too important). PCWorld also has a review. [pcworld.com]

Patio Umbrella

[Anonymous Coward]

Grab one of those large patio umbrellas for your cubicle. Orient the shade for maximum effect.

When management comes around, it's easy to take it down, and it doesn't occupy much space. When management complains, point out that the architect was an imbecile. People want light, but indirect, diffused light, not direct sunlight. I can only imagine how much higher the heating and cooling costs are for a building like that.

There's your problem right there

[Hell O'World]

Sunlight? Send those coders back to their caves! Or at least set up little tents for them. Too much light may interfere with their monitor tans.

Building in front of the window

[zenyu]

If you place a building that is 4-5 floors taller than yours outside the windows that are a problem you'll get the benefit of natural light without all the eyestrain problems. The light from the sun will never be direct so you won't have the glare problem. I guess you could do the same thing with concrete walls 50ft outside the windows, but it looks kinda funny as compared with a building across the street. Clouds also help, and there is a building in Switzerland that creates a cloud about the building, this also results in diffuse lighting, and might be cheaper if you can't move to a building with enough shade.

I really like natural light, but if your window gets direct sunlight you generally have to completely block it out and use indoor lighting. Some places dim and brighten the indoor lighting by computer to create the effect of sunlight, others use fiber optics to get sunlight into windowless rooms. There are solutions, but comfortable sunlight is a premium that generally costs ya something unless you live somewhere glummy(cloudy and damp) like England or San Francisco.

I want my glare!

[fm6]

I looked at the cost of putting up a building just to block out direct sun from my office. Too expensive. Besides, what about the people who have to work in the new building?

Had a conversation with my optometrist on the whole eyestrain issue. His suggestions:

• Close the blinds. No way, that crow outside the window would be offended.
• Get "computer glasses". These reduce eye strain by being finely tuned to help you focus on your specific monitor setup. I got them, and they work -- but they're not practical for me, since I don't just look at the monitor.
• Lower your monitor so it's at least 10 degrees below eye level. This one suprised me: everybody has tons of computer accessories designed to raise their monitors. I had a machine in an AT-style case -- designed to have the monitor sit on top -- and my monitor came with one of those swivel pedestal that raises it even further. But when I move the monitor off the computer and got rid of the pedestal, it did indeed help. Enough to make other measure unnecessary.

transflective lcd

[fabio.parodi]

Try to find transflective lcds. They reflect external light: more light, more bright images. The problem is, most trasflactive LCDs are b/w and small. Few manufacturers have color VGA-size products: for example, lg-philips makes LC121S1. Someone told me that also NEC has one.

Of course, you will need to add LVDS interface, inverter, and a box.

Transreflective TFT screens

[Cuchullain]

I know that some sailing companies sell transreflective TFT screens.

These are screens that behave like a gameboy advance screen. IE the screen is backed with a mirrored surface as well as a backlight. Thus in high light conditions they become more visible, rather than getting washed out by the sun.

These are very common in competitive yachting, and the leading companies sell laptops and flatscreen monitors that are transreflective. They are about 1.5 to 3 times more expensive than the regular screens but are usually dust and water resistant also.

Good luck,

Hope this helped.

Cuchullain

Re:Transreflective TFT screens

[dfj225]

I've never seen a transreflective screen used as a true computer monitor, but based on the previous post, if it really is like a game boy advanced screen, you might want to watch out on cloudy days. I find that the GBA screen is very dim when not in direct light. I'm sure your boss wouldn't accept "its cloudy" as a reason for not being able to work ;-)

Wear a hat and use a monitor hood

[mellon]

This probably sounds silly, but when I was living in Arizona and had problems with sun-laser-light crawling across my desk during the day, I found that a broad-brimmed hat was very helpful during certain periods of the day. It's not enough on its own, but it definitely helps. Stylish, too! :'}

You need shade

[KurdtX]

You should check out lacie [lacie.com] monitors [lacie.com]. Notice the little screen "hood" they use? Not that I'm suggesting you buy one, but I've worked with guys who did the same thing with some cardboard & scissors or an umbrella. One guy even brought in a kiddie pool (turned upside down) - he won major style points for that one.

Maybe once management sees the proliferation of umbrellas and cardboard they might get the idea that if they don't solve Engineer's problems, they're going to solve it themselves, no matter the cost to the company's "image". Yeah, the execs outlawed umbrellas and cardboard where I used to work, but the Engineers developed the attititude: "What are you going to do, fire me?". Sure you could argue that it would just give them a reason to fire you, but I found it actually only gave them reasons to get rid of the programmers who couldn't cut it anyway, so it worked out for the rest of us. I left 'cause my internship was over and I had to go back to school, but last I heard neither side had budged, and had become a moot argument.

redesign

[corian]

You don't need to block light or change lighting facility-wide... Just set up some cubicles or temporary walls around you coders. As long as they are high enough to block some of the light they will block some of the light.

Problem solved.

Use a compaq iPaq handheld

[thelinuxking]

The compaq iPaq handheld is actually designed to work in direct sunlight. When I use mine in direct sunlight, it looks and works great, and doesn't give reflections back.