Protect your eyes from computer.

[vati]

Hello.
Im am one of those ingeneers that spend a lot of time working on my computer.
I am making some research on how to prevent the eye damages from computer.
Many of us engineers,achitects,drafters,designers that use softwares like AutoCad,
Sap2000,Etabs or any other BIM software,use diferent background color.
I have asked many people and anyone have his arguments abaut this problem.
And I have mine too.
I use a black background because the white color that we see in the scren is composed
from three diferent colors produced by three diferent pixels
1-red
2-blue
3-green
When we see a black color in that part of the scren all the pixels are off.
More pixels are off less is the risk of damage of the eyes.

But there are others that think that the contrast betwen the black background and the
object that you are working on causes more damages to the eyes.
Let's hope that someone here is an expert on the filld.

[kostis]

my doctor told me that, for every hour of work in front of my computer my eyes need a 10 minute rest..

[chigozie]

But it will not be possible for us to take off our eyes from the computer every 10 minutes, turn around and come back as to continue with our work. Please ask your doc an alternative to this 10 minutes issue.
Regards
Teddy

[ynopum]

Vati,
The real damage to the eyes comes from:
- The long time forcing them to focus on a fixed distance - this brings the lens muscles a lot of effort, combined with irreversible strain of the lens. Later you'll need glasses to be able to focus distant objects.
- The long time of non blinking - that brings dryness.
- The long time of fixed eye direction - and not rotating your eyes enough. This strains the eye muscles.

Any other harmful effects are negligible, and are mostly result of nervous symptoms. Those are easily recoverable after a day of relax.

About your particular question -the background color. The science says that you are forcing your nerves when you are watching light objects on dark background. This is result of the eye/brain evolution leading to a mode called "night vision". This mode consists of neglecting the focus distance, combined with inductive sensibility of the neighboring photo-cells adjacent to the illuminated cell in you retina. That means simply (in technical terms) your eye is increasing it's sensitivity by giving false signals to the brain that the light felt on more cells, This one leading to lack of proper focusing feedback. In nature it is OK - as usually it is perfectly suitable for night scenes (light sources far away that can't be focused, combined with loosing the color information because it is not important in these conditions). This "night mode" brings more nervous strain, but not muscle/lens damage!! So if you are looking on a dark background with light objects, you will feel tired.

Usually black background is preferred by many people wearing glasses, because for them it seems that they see more. No need to go in deep in explanations, but this is the only case somebody could feel better with black background - it is the feeling that his eyes defects are not so visible as on white background.

From 20 years there is no doubt about the need to use dark signs on light background - just like on the normal paper. (ALL contemporary software products are using white background, and the black/green was left in the ages of DOS and the poor display hardware)

And usually the defenders of the black background are the people with focusing problems, that feel better in "night vision" where their problem seems to disappear for them.

I would recommend you to use black background only if you feel good with it and you wear glasses. Also if somebody is using light colors in his drawing - you are almost forced to use his background, or change the object colors to something visible on white background.

[kostis]

But it will not be possible for us to take off our eyes from the computer every 10 minutes,

no,no after every hour of work, a ten minute rest.

[chigozie]

kostis wrote:-
...no,no after every hour of work, a ten minute rest. ....
Comment:-
Yes! I understand. But is that feasible? Work for 1 hour and take 10 minutes rest even when you are at the heat and height of analysis? I do not think that you would even remember that such a thing exists when you have something very important to accomplish and you are cornered. Please tell him to suggest a more practical approach.
Regards
Teddy

[dm_dizon]

blink your eyes at least 5 times every 5 minutes...

[chigozie]

dm_dizon wrote:-
blink your eyes at least 5 times every 5 minutes...
Comment:-
Incredible! How can you do that? Remember that you are not rehearsing. You are behind the computer doing something important that needed all your concentration!!
Regards
Teddy