Monitors: not quite perfect, yet.
- From: "Attila the Hunn" <pumaconcolor@[redacted]>
- Subject: Monitors: not quite perfect, yet.
- Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 11:57:45 -0600
>From: "John J. Lee" <phrxy@[redacted]>
>You may well feel your eyes adjust, but not because the monitor is in some
>way 'a distant point'. Optically it *is* a flat (ish) surface.
Actually, I'm referring to the way the eye perceives it. I can't remember
where I had it explained to me, but because of the way a monitor works, the
human eye doesn't look at it as it would a piece of paper, and this is what
affects me. My eyes feel like they're looking past the monitor, and they
feel sore after awhile.
>I think if you can see a > 70 Hz (ish, don't know the exact number)
>monitor flicker, you're either imagining it, or you should take yourself
>along to the nearest medical institution for their education!
Just like the human body's temperature isn't exactly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
for everyone at all times, there must be a range of variation for vision. I
can't sit there and watch every line get drawn on the screen, but there is
always a shimmering effect, and even on the best monitors I'm aware of what
seems to me a kind of visual humming. I just try to ignore it, but I can
only do that so much, and I have to work on many varied workstations in the
course of a day. Adjusting everything only makes things a little less
obvious, and I can't very well adjust them all. In any case, the newer
monitors are much easier for me to look at than those crappy old green and
amber models used to be. As for flat panels, they've got similar problems.
Less apparent flicker, but the distance thing is still a problem. I'm sure
technology will eventually come up with solutions to my little nit-picking,
though. I'm more than able to work with the machines I use.
--Andrew Lee Hunn