Tablet PC's in Bright Sunlight? 37
chadma asks: "I'm developing a program to be used on a Tablet PC; the unit will be used outdoors >80% of the time. I've seen some tablets from ViewSonic and MotionComputing and wondered if anyone had any experience or suggestions in the best screen for high sunlight conditions. Has there been any study or anyone with experience that could suggest the colors we use in the design? Would a white background with black text be most appropriate?"
NEC, Fujitsu (Score:3)
Many PDAs are also usable in direct sunlight, so if your software is portable, you could run it on something like the Sharp Zaurus.
May be way out there... (Score:3, Insightful)
Allowing your users to choose the colour scheme of the program, to provide the best visability in whatever conditions they're in?
Re:May be way out there... (Score:1)
I also think that alowing users to change the colour scheme is a great idea.
Re:May be way out there... (Score:1)
Remember - giving the user options they can't understand *isn't* choice. It's a burden.
It's also abdicating your responsibility as a UI designer. This guy is asking exactly the right questions.
Outside in the sun means sunglasses (Score:2, Insightful)
The Brightest Color (Score:5, Informative)
You'll get the higest contrast with the brightest and darkest color. Black is, of course, the darkest. The brightest is that slightly chartruse yellow you see on some emergency vehicles and safety gear. It's the brightest because it stimulates the most receptors in the eye (the maximum overlap between the red receptors and green receptors). For the same reason, it'd also be the most efficient for a given visual level.
Higher contrast is harder on the eyes, but you'll be fighting sunlight so the contrast of the screen will be relatively much less than that of the environment.
To keep the glare from the screen down, wear polarized sun glasses You might even be abloe to combine them with a polarizing filter on the screen to make it more visible while the environment appears darker.
Re:The Brightest Color (Score:2)
Black on yellow is the most likely to catch our attention, particularly in our peripheral vision. But the eye is most sensitive to green. I wouldn't recommend black-on-green, though.
Higher contrast may be harder on the eyes, but I'm not sure how that matters when viewing a laptop in sunlight. The contrast will be so poor if the bright bits of the screen are illuminated by a backlight as opposed to the sunlight. Try getting one without a backlight at all (like the *o
Re:The Brightest Color (Score:3, Informative)
The eye IS most sensitive (ie. has lowest threshhold to fire) to green. There are more green receptors or the green receptors are more sensitive than the red, and definitely more so than the blue.
But yellow (slightly to the green side) is the brightest apparent color, because of the overlap of red and green cones. It sounds like it contradicts what you said, but it doesn't. Yellow can be from yellow (wavel
Black/Yellow (Score:2)
In terms of the glare I would suggest that you do not use a dark background. Glare is by definition reflected light so by using a dark background you increase the perceived glare.
On a different vein, my glasses are treated with an anti-reflective coating that allows people to see my eyes instead of white discs (and makes night driving a pleasure instead of a stress). Does anyone kno
Trans-Reflective (Score:2, Informative)
These work best in bright sunlight, although can appear washed out in dim indoor use.
I'm still wondering... (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:I'm still wondering... (Score:2)
I will be when they improve a generation or two. I'm an artist and a tablet PC would be great for my drawings. The problem is they're the price of a laptop, but have about half the power and screen quality of them. When that equalizes a bit, I will likely purhcase one.
Re:No apostrophe required. (Score:2)
Then there's Dave Barry's comment: In modern English spelling, an apostrophe is used to warn the reader that an "s" is coming.
Re:No apostrophe required. (Score:1)
"...In modern Engli'sh 'spelling, an apo'strophe i's u'sed to warn the reader that an "'s" is coming."
Don't you feel 'safer now? I hate being 'surpri'sed by the letter between "r" and "t".
Re:No apostrophe required. (Score:2)
(We might note that Dave didn't do this, either. Sometimes he misses a dumb joke, too.
Linux on Tablet PCs (Score:1)
Places to ask... (Score:4, Informative)
Cholesteric (Score:4, Interesting)
Usability testing, anyone? (Score:1)
Advice from a user (Score:5, Informative)
The TabletPC is a wonderful tool. I wouldn't give mine up for anything in the world. Well, maybe something with a greater monetary value that I really wanted, as I would then go and buy myself another TabletPC - they're not in short supply.
Regardless of that, there's really a couple solutions:
a) If your application is a commercial app, designed to be run by just about anyone that chooses to purchase it, I'd suggest creating a "skins" menu for it, similar to the option within Franklin Covey's [franklincovey.com] tabletplanner 3.0. This will allow your outdoor mostly users to pick a high contrast scheme, whereas the indoor users (or users who avoid using it until they are indoors) will pick a different one. Heck, even allow some form of button mapping to different schemes, mapped by default to your presets that test best under different conditions.
b) If you're targeting a vertical market and intend to design the whole solution, start to finish, I recall someone designed a TabletPC designed specifically for use outdoors. You could work that particular model into your design specs, and test your app out with the PC in question and the best looking/working colors, etc.
I apologize, as I do no recall what the specific model or maker was - I suggest you ask your question in the general forums at TabletPCBuzz [tabletpcbuzz.com]. They will be able to provide you with further information.
Best of luck,
-Jack Ash
do it old school (Score:1)
get one of those camera hoods from around the turn of the century...
circular polarizer? (Score:2)
Anyone know if circular polarizing filter material is available in sheet form?
LCDs in Sunlight conditions. (Score:3, Informative)
For LCD viewing in sunlight conditions, you want to have a brightness of at least 150 foot Lamberts. Generally the CCFTs will degrade over time, so derate that by 50 foot Lamberts. You are looking at a spec of 200 foot Lamberts in your backlight brightness. Not common in off the shelf laptops.
The contrast ratio needs to be greater than 200:1. The higher the better.
You also want Anti Reflective coating applied to the front of the LCD. This causes reflections in the screen to be diffused and blurry, instead of sharp and clear.
I wish I could help (Score:3, Funny)
I have a motion computing M1200, and it is passable in bright overcast skies. I'm curious of whether it would actually perform better in direct light compared to the diffuse depressing grey that is standard here.
If I ever see the elusive daystar, I'll bring my computer outside and give it a try.
Direct sunlight? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Monochrome LCD (Score:2, Informative)
That said, there's been some great work done on making daylight-viewable displays for the newer TabletPCs
Re:Monochrome LCD (Score:3, Informative)
The screen is not the best screen in the universe, but it uses an LCD technology called 'transflective' or 'trans-reflective' display which combines the reflective backplane used in older LCD displays (think digital watch) with a backlight. Color saturation is somewhat lessened in direct sunligh
Motion Computing is Great, but Screens Suck (Score:1)
Motion Computing M1300 (Score:2, Informative)
fujiitsu siemens st4121 (Score:1)