Anti-Glare Computer Screens That Work in Sunlight? 32
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? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:FlatPanels, maybe? (Score:3, Informative)
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? (Score:1)
Re:FlatPanels, maybe? (Score:1)
Just my 2 cents worth
Re:FlatPanels, maybe? (Score:2)
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! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Monitor Hoods! (Score:3, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Informative)
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 (Score:3, Funny)
TFT screens indeed (Score:2, Insightful)
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? (Score:2)
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 (Score:2, Interesting)
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 (Score:2, Interesting)
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 (Score:1)
Already covered? (Score:2)
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 (Score:2, Funny)
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 (Score:2)
Building in front of the window (Score:2)
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! (Score:3, Insightful)
Had a conversation with my optometrist on the whole eyestrain issue. His suggestions:
transflective lcd (Score:2, Informative)
Of course, you will need to add LVDS interface, inverter, and a box.
Transreflective TFT screens (Score:1)
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 (Score:1)
Wear a hat and use a monitor hood (Score:2)
You need shade (Score:3, Interesting)
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 (Score:1)
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 (Score:1)