• unix_joe
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    211 months ago

    It’s not the blue emitting light that causes eyestrain on OLEDs, it’s the low frequency pwm used to control brightness. Basically all the pixels turn on and off a few hundred times a second, not slow enough for your brain to consciously notice it, but fast enough for your eyes to react to what is in effect a strobelight right in front of your face. That is how dimming works on an OLED.

    You end up with devices that still cause headaches and dizziness because they flicker in this manner, but are “eyesafe certified” because they filter out the blue light right before bed.

    • Hypx
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      211 months ago

      Eventually, there will something like a 1000 Hz monitor. At some point, it will refresh too fast for the brain to register any difference.

    • @Elabajaba@lemmy.ca
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      111 months ago

      OLED TVs and desktop monitors don’t use pwm, though they do have very slight brightness dips every refresh.

      Afaik laptop and phone OLEDs do use (low frequency) pwm.

    • @pfannkuchen_gesicht@lemmy.one
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      011 months ago

      That got me thinking: couldn’t that be solved by adding a layer in fron akin to a phosphor screen which “buffers” the light a bit thus bridging the switching which should reduce flickering?

      • @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        111 months ago

        Not without losing brightness. White LEDs work that way and are less bright than an uncovered LED of the same power. Some of the light from the LED becomes waste heat instead of light when the phosphor absorbs it.

        Also, not without losing response time. Part of the point of using LEDs for displays is that they can change brightness very quickly.