Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!murphyn
From: murphyn@cell.mot.COM (Neal P. Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Safety of mono monitors
Summary: Ergonomics industry is misguided.
Keywords: monitors, eyestrain, discomfort, solutions
Message-ID: <332@cherry5.UUCP>
Date: 31 Oct 89 15:25:06 GMT
References: <16068@netnews.upenn.edu>
Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Lines: 61


In article <16068@netnews.upenn.edu> you write:
>Recently I have noticed I have been getting eyestrain and my
>eyes have been getting worse.  I use an amber monitor (PGS Max-12)
> ...

In the past 10 years, I've noted a couple interesting things about CRT's:
    - paper white phosphor is still the easiest on the eyes (Why is most
      writing paper white?) Anything else is hard on the eyes.
    - monitors are usually set on as sharp a focus as possible.
    - in an attempt to compensate for the poor quailty image, people
        a) turn the brightness up in an attempt to merge/blend the
           scan lines. The increased brightness causes eye strain, or they
        b) leave the brightness down, and squint to make out the
           characters; and because the brain work so much harder to
           decipher the non-contiguous characters, they get eye strain.

Color resolution is generally not as good as mono (at least for text).

The solution?  Get a good mono monitor with paper-white phosphor (good
meaning it draws the corners nearly as well at it draws the center),
de-focus the electron beam so that the scan lines just begin to blend,
and keep the brightness at a tolerably low level.  Also keep the monitor
at least an arm's length away from your face. This will ensure
that the monitor is not to blame for your eyestrain.

Also, you could be at that age (for me it was 28-30) when your eyes
simply will not perform such feats of focus any longer: I'd bet that
you are unable to instantly change your focus from a book on your lap
to a TV across the room. You may want to consult with your optometrist
and perhaps get a prescription for glasses that will assist you at
specifically two feet. If this is not a viable solution, greatly increase
the ambient lighting in the room containing the monitor, and increase
its brightness as well. Theory here is the same as a camera: with more
light entering your eyes, your pupils close down, giving you a much
wider depth of field, thereby reducing the amount of focusing work
your eyes must perform.

Finally, ensure that your posture while sitting at the screen is not
causing problems. You should sit so that your elbows and wrists are
supported: elbows such that your arms are not pulling down on your
shoulders, wrists such that your arms are not pulling forward on
your shoulders. You should also sit such that your head is balanced
on your shoulders (no joke - your should neither be holding your head
back or holding it forward to keep it vertical. Ah, ha! you say.
What about the old typists' posture? That was great, back when they
used manual keyboards and were constantly pushing down on their arms
while applying pressure to the keys. Today, your fingers do all the
work. The rest of your body is (or should be) quiescent. If it isn't,
discomfort builds up. (These relaxed-posture ideas are also applicable
to long-distance driving. Applying them, I had no trouble driving
18-22 hours a day, back when I was driving cross-country a lot.)
For one example of what I mean, watch en episode of Star Trek, The
Next Generation. Observe the helm/navigation stations (between the
command chair and the main viewer. Their fingers do most of the work,
so their workstation is designed to allow the rest of the muscles
in their bodies to be as relaxed as possible.

If I'm out in right field, don't hesitate to tell me.

NPN