Eye-strain & headaches

I’ve built a short animation in flash and converted it
to a screensaver using 3rd party software. We have deployed it
across our company as a method of carrying a corporate message, but
have had a complaint from an employee that it is causing him
eye-strain and headaches when he sees it “from the corner of
his eye”.
I know there are eye-strain issues with monitor refresh rates
lower than 65zz (?), and photosensitive epilepsy can be caused by a
flicker rate in the 16-25hz range, but are there possible clashes
between movie frame-rate and monitor refresh rates, or does anyone
have any information on this topic in general?
Any help much appreciated.

I'm not a neurologist, and no shrink either, so I'll stick to
the technical facts:
Iamgine the screen refresh-rate that way:
Your movie is running at the frame rate you have set, or as
near as the speed of your computer will allow. It is running on a
virtual screen inside your computer, the refresh-rate is acting
like a shutter in front of a window throuh which you look inside
the computer. The inner screen doesn't care about the outer
shutter. So I wouldn't see any clashes.
The corner of the eye is in fact the most sensive part of our
field of vison concerning movement; should have ben usefull for
detecting lions asap for our ancestors ;-)
I don't know what your animation looks like, but I don't
supose it is a problem of your animation. It might just be that the
employee in question never had anything moving before on his screen
that captuerd his/her attention when having the screen at the
corner of his/her field of vision.
So if on the monitor we are talking about is at a low screen
rate (I personally can't stand refreshrates under 85 per sec in the
corner of the I) and is senstitve to that in a way - that might be
an explanation. If so I would try to increase the refreh-rate if
possible with the hardware.
Propably the person in question just wants a new and shiny
flats-creen display - nothing wrong in that ;-)

Similar Messages

LCD display causes eye strain/headache/nausea

I have posted about this before a couple of years ago. And the thread went wild.....SO many people having trouble with various types of displays. I wanted to get back on the track for my particular display which is a 24" LCD -- ATI RADEON HD 2600 PRO 256MB GRAPHICS. A couple of years ago, I was only noticing eye strain after using it for a prolonged period of time. And if I didn't stop, then that eye strain could develop into a headache.
I have tried taking the brightness all the way down which helps somewhat. I try changing my chair position to make sure I am looking down towards the display and not up. I look away as often as possible to stop the focus on the display. It all helps.
BUT a couple of years have passed and I still am experiencing the same things....only it happens after 5 minutes of usage. And now I almost always get a headache, my eyes feel dry and almost hurt. My neck gets stiff -- perhaps from the expected strain I know will occur. And since a few months, I also notice a feeling of nausea as well -- like motion sickness. GOOD GRIEF is all I can say.
I love my iMac...... but have backed away from using it as I would like. And use my iPad most of the time now. It does not seem to cause me such problems. I know one of these days it will be time for a new mac as this one is nearly 5 years old. And I cannot say that I am keen at all to buy another iMac. Curious about all of you out there and what you are experiencing and could recommend to help alleviate the problems.
THANKS TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!

Yours is a genuine problem, and it will not be solved by changing the screen resolution which does not affect brightness or glare.
May I suggest you investigate getting an anti-glare screen filter? These are listed here on Amazon in the UK but I am sure that Amazon in the US (or whereever it is you live) would have them as well:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=anti+glare+filter&tag=googhydr-21&in dex=aps&hvadid=9510029705&hvpos=1s1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2050368072294766922& hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_3zcpi95y9s_b

Eye Strain, Headaches, Nausea!

Using my new aluminum macbook results in painful eyes and a splitting headache within an hour of use, followed by vomiting and symptoms of motion sickness.
obviously, I'm not too pleased.
especially because switching to reading off my 5 year old laptop screen =, for lack of a better term, eye ******.
what gives!?

Doubtful that it could be fixed with software. It is a hardware setup that allows the lighting of the LEDs to be what they are. You are already using a shared main memory, just happens to be more than the old Intel chipset:
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory3
is the new one.
The old one is:
Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory3
Shared main memory means that part of it is being swapped to the hard disk. With MacBook Pros and iMacs (except the original Intel Core Duo education model) you have a full chip GPU main memory.

Eye Strain from Macbook Pro (2012) Anti-Glare?

Hi everyone,
I am thinking about buying my mother a macbook pro. She has been using macbook (2007) until today, so it will be a great gift.
Her eyes are not that good and can get motion sick easily (if that matters...), so I would like to know if any one had noticed eye strains, headach, etc from anti-glare version of macbook pro. I heard regular and glossy displays have possibility of causing such symptoms so those are out of options. So anti-glare or retina? Retina version is more than what she needs but I heard retina display could be better than anti-glare for someone. I am willing to pay retina version if anti-glare display causes eye strains while retina display does not. I would like to hear some experiences, thoughts, and advices. Taking her to store and test those displays would be best, but I would like to avoid it, since I want this to be a surprise gift. However, If I had to take her to store, how should I test which display is good for her?
Thank you very much!

I can only tell you my experience after having used the anti-glare screen for over 5 years. I can sit in front of my laptop for hours without any adverse effects. I passed on the retina Macbook Pro because it seems like an abomination not to offer such a beautiful screen in anti-glare format. The retina is less glossy than the regular screen, but nowhere close to the anti-glare in comfort (for me, at least).
I would check with her doctor, too. It may actually be that a screen with a smaller native resolution is better for her.

MBPr flickering on bright backgrounds? (causing eye strain)

Hey guys,
I got my MBr two days ago and so far I am quite satisfied but since yesterday I have to struggle with a display issue that causes bad eye strain (didn't pay enough attention before I guess). It seems to flicker pretty hard, but not that kind of flickering you would be able to record with a cam. It's more of a subtle effect that appears worst when the background is white or grey. It starts when booting into Mac OS (apple logo appears) and is 100% on the hardware end (everything was reset). I used to work on a macbook pro 13 (early 2011) and could use it for hours without any eye fatigue or anything else. Same for the ipad. But with the MBPr it doesnt work for me. It has nothing to do with resolution! Tried that already.
I see the flickering and with the time my eyes start to burn, it gets hard to (eye-) focus and headache starts. After trying (too) hard I feel quite down now and when I check on my ipad or old notebook I still see the flickering...
I have seen another thread in here with users having their displays replaced. I am not sure though whether they experienced the same issue.
Thanks in advance.
Best regards from Germany,
Martin

I just bought a 15" retina today and noticed the eye strain as well. That's how I came across this topic. I went in to display in settings and color and did a calibrate. I change the gamma from 2.2 to 1.8 and will see if this will help. Why don't you try that out and let me know if it works for you. Makes the contrast a little brighter so it may help.
Let me know.

New macbook air eye strain

I used the 2010 model macbook pro 13 inch for the last two year...sometimes up to 12 hours a day with NO issues at all.
thursday I switched to a new macbook air 13 inch. Now I get horrible eye strain and a headache after 20-30 minutes.
Any ideas on what I can do to fix this? are the displays different?
If it doesn't get better i'll have to return the device. Its that bad!
Any help is MUCH appreciated

Hey jss. Well, same results at 1920x1200 as when the MBPr is in the retina display setting (1440x900). My vision gets blurry after working for a few hours when I look around at anything other then the laptop. It takes about 30 mins away from the computer to get my eyes to sort of refocus. And then left with a mild headache the rest of the day. So, I've decided to return it.
What is confusing to me is that if my eyes have a problem with the LED backlite and this screen tech has been in place since the overhaul in 2009 (???), why don't I have problems when working on my early 2011 17" MBP? Maybe its simply due to the 17" of space. After carrying around the MBPr, I don't want to return to lugging around this beast again. I'm going to check into the anti-glare 15.4 since I believe it uses different tech for the screen.
There are more threads on this subject in the forum, so it seems its something Apple should spend some time researching. It may not be a huge problem, but the number of people complaining about this problem seems to be on the rise.

Slightly misled & eye strain - Macbook Retina Display

Anyone else feel slightly misled over the new macbook "retina" display? Highest resolution ever in a laptop etc.
Well it isn't it's still basically the same 1440x900 desktop as my old macbook even if it is underpinned by 4 x the pixels.
If I deviate from the 1440 by upping the resolution to 1920 then the picture is not that sharp and I get eye strain.
I also run a Sony Vaio Z11 with a 1080p display (1920x1080) and that is on a 13" display and use that all day every day without problems.
Is it the off pitch resolution that is causing the problem, ie 1.5 pixels per desktop pixel thats causing the eye strain?

Unfortunately, the problem wasn't due to the glossy quality of the screen as I had purchased a hi-res anti-glare. I will probably put an anti-glare film on the retina display if I make the purchase, as I also find glossiness to be annoying. I do find it very interesting that you can use your matte LED screen for so long without trouble. I wish I could have said the same, but 15 minutes on my returned 2011 LED matte Pro left me with headaches and strained eyes. From reading the other large thread, it seems that some people are just more sensitive to the LED. Thanks for the response though!

Thinkpad 8 tablet - eye strain

I just got the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 8, and everytime I use it, in less then a few minutes I would get eye strains. I would get this "crawling" headache inside my head, I don't know how to describe it, feel a bit like burning feeling inside my eyes/head. Even when I stopped looking at the screen, it would take a few minutes for the eye strain to disappear. Its not painful, just that it is definitely eye strain and causing me a lot of discomfort. And this really frustrates me because I love this tablet. Here are some background about me and eye strains. Ever since the display technology shifted from CCFL's LCD to LED backlight, I started to get eye strains whenever I looked at certain (LED backlit) laptops, tablets and even smartphones. I first discovered the problem when I replaced my old CCFL LCD display laptop with a new LED-backlit display (Lenovo T420s). Using the Lenovo in just a few minutes I get eye strains and headache. After researching online and experimenting with mobile phone camera, I discovered that the cause of the eye strain is PWM, and putting the brightness to 100% eliminates the flickering, thus no more eye strain. But I had to reduce the contrast to artificially reduce the brightness so that I can use the laptop without blinding me. So I know that I am affected by PWM, and any display that uses PWM causes eye strain for me. But at least I know how to detect it (by using cell phone camera), and I can do something about it (set brightness to 100% to eliminate the PWM flicker). I did the camera test to detect PWM flickering on the Thinkpad 8 as described in this website: http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id=1362457985 and the Thinkpad 8 does not seem to have PWM (i tested it at 50% brightness). So if the Thinkpad 8 tablet do not have PWM, yet when I use them, why do I still get eye strain? This is what puzzles me. Are there other causes of eye strain apart from PWM? I dont know if this would help, but here are some background on the type of devices that cause and don't cause eye strains to me: I have no problems with these displays and can use them for hours and hours:CRT monitorsAny CCFL LCDs monitorsBlackberry 9700, 9900, iPad 2iPad miniAny Super LCD2/LCD3 display (e.g. HTC One, HTC Desire etc)But if I look at the following LED-backlit displays even for a few minutes, I get eye strains, and have this "crawling" headache inside my head:Lenovo T420s laptop (if brightness less than 100%)Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 8 (any brightness)Any Samsung's Super Amoled smartphones (e.g. S3, S4 etc, at any brightness, even 100%)So now I am trying to find if the Lenovo Thinkpad 8 dispay has some other "features" that causes eye strain, and see if there is something that can be done to solve / work around it (like the 100% brightness thing). I've been reading online about causes of eye strains, and this is what I have gathered as potential causes of eye strains: Brightness - glare from screen too bright (natural cause and effect)Looking at the screen too long (eye fatigue (natural cause and effect)PWM flickering - setting brightness to 100% can solve this problemBlue light - can use software like f.lux to make the colour temperature to be warmerThose are the main ones. But I have also read the following also can cause eye strain: Aggressive / excessive IPS AG coating FRC ditheringFor IPS AG coating, how to detect if the AG coating is "good" or "bad"? I looked at my Lenovo Thinkpad 8, and I have no idea what to look for, let alone what to do about it. Same goes for FRC dithering. Could someone explain to me what it is, how it is used, how to detect it and what can I do if my display has this? Or does anyone knows other potential causes of eye strains? And by the way, anybody else suffering from eye strains when using the Thinkpad 8?

Puppy wrote:
It is likely the low PWM that you are suffering from or it might be the subpixel structure of particular panel. AMOLED displays use PenTile matrix that has issue with text readability .Unfortunately current mass production focused on cutting costs in favour of weak technical quality does not give you many options There might be also various revisions of the same LCD panel that have worse brigthness control regarding PWM control that others. Personally I understand you because I am very picky on choosing LCD monitor. It is a nightmare for me just to imagine I would have to spent at least one month again by trying to find shops where I can see the monitor under normal light conditions. There are too many aspects of LCD monitors that annoys me (flickering, screen door effect, too high lowest brightness, uneven backlight, blurry coating etc.) Another thing the might cause the eye strain is anti-aliasing blurry font rendering. I am unable to use it at all in any form (unless there are 1000 DPI or more desktop displays available) but turning it completely off in current software and OS is not easy. It is summarized in this article http://annystudio.com/misc/anti-aliased-fonts-hurt/ You may be right. It could still be PWM. Even though I tested with camera and cannot detect PWM (maybe I did the test wrong), the PWM might still be there but on higher frequency, which might be why it did not appear on camera, yet this PWM still causing me eye strain. It seems like there might more potential source of eye strains...anti-aliasing font. A screen could have a number of these elements that can cause eye strain causes. It is getting harder and harder for me to buy any electronics that uses LED backlit display. Recently I tried to look at some laptops, most of them, the screen gives me headache. Buying a laptop and even a tablet now is getting harder, for people who are sensitive to PWM like me. Sigh. You are also sensitive to PWM, right? And you get eye strain from LED backlit monitors too? Can you share what devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops etc) that you can use without a problem, and which ones are giving you eye strains. At least we can see if there is some patterns that can help us shed more light on this issue.

Glossy screens causes eye strain

Does any one knows if there are any studies published on reflective screens effect our vision when working long hours.
I'm using iMac 27" for about 1 year and I'm noticing my vision is going bad. I keep finding my self even today that I can't concentrate and I can't look at reflections that are allways there and chaning. Ambient light and in the evening light sources from the room constantly reflecting on my screen.
Can you share your expierence, working on a large glossy display and if you notice any side effects ?
Thank you

The iMac has a protective glass panel the covers the actual glass TFT screen.
It's the double panes of glass that cause some of the excessive glare on an iMac.
You maybe able to reduce the amount of glare by removing the glass and using one of these.
http://www.macframes.com/
The actual glass TFT screen of the iMac is still glossy,mbut with the extra panel of glass gone, it should reduce the glare to a much more tolerable level.
I use this, myself, and can work at my iMac longer and the headaches have, more or less, gone away, and I have noticed less eye strain.

IOS 7 eye strain

The new iOS 7 is causing me eye strain. The font hurts my eyes. I can live with the "juvenille" icons but the sharp lines,and contrast or lack of is killing my eyes! Besides "brightness" and font size is there anything I can do to to help with this terrible download? Apple, big mistake here! Please help.....

I get really bad eye strain and headaches with iOS 7. None of the accessibility settings have helped.
Search twitter for 'ios 7 eyes hurt' and you'll see that a lot of people are suffering as well.
Please let Apple know this is an issue by calling 1-800-MY-IPHONE (1-800-694-7466) or sending a message at http://www.apple.com/feedback.

Need some advice. 1440x900 MBA 13" native causing bad eye strain.

I just bought a new 2012 Macbook Air 13" and I have been using a 13" macbook pro (1280x800) for years (just sold it). Ever since I got the Air my eyes are severly strained headaches, blurry vision.. etc. When I switch to the 1280x800 resolution on the Air it goes away within a day. But the 1280x800 on my new Macbook Air looks fuzzy and is not as detailed as the native resolution which is a total dissapointment. So my guestion is should I return the Air and go back to what I had before a Macbook Pro 13 at 1280x800 or is there a way to get a detailed crisp 1280x800 setting on the Air?

1280x800 will never look as clear on a MacBook Air as it does on a native 1280x800 screen because the 1280x800 doesn't divide evenly into the 1440x900 of the MacBook Air so physically the pixels don't fit exactly where they need to go. This is what the blurring is for, the computer is trying to compensate for this.
If you were trying to fit 1280x800 on a screen which is natively 2560x1600, then this would look just as clear as a native 1280x800 display.
Seeing as you would like 1280x800 but are not happy with the quality of this resolution on a MacBook Air then yes I would go back to the Pro. However bearing in mind what I said in the sentence above, there are rumors about something just around the corner that would suit your needs perfectly but we cannot discuss this here........

My eyes strain badly with the new iMac display - 2014

I recently bought a 2013 iMac 14.2 to replace my 2007 iMac 7.1.
I immediately noticed that my eyes were straining very badly in front of the new screen. No matter how I tweak the adjustments, I can't bear to look at the screen long enough to do any significant work.
Since I still have the old iMac in the same room, I can easily compare by just switching desks. With the old one, no problem. The moment I sit in front of the new screen, my eyes start aching and watering. It's not a question of contrast, brightness, or any adjustable parameters that I'm aware of.
I checked on the Net, and a significant number of other people report the same type of issues. I have not found any solution, nor any explanation.
I remember that in the days of the CRT monitors on PCs, I had to adjust the refresh rate as high as possible in order to avoid headache and eye strain. Anything 60Hz or below was unbearable.
Is there a similar issue with the LED backlighting?
Does anyone have an in-depth knowledge of the specificities of LED-backlit screens, such as wavelength, variation in light intensity/flickering/refresh rate, etc.?
There is a technical explanation and - hopefully - solution, and it's not "all in your head", "get glasses", "blink twice and stare at the opposite wall for one minute"...

Calibration affects the color, not the refresh rate, and I'm pretty sure that this is an issue of refresh rate.
Even though LED/LCD screens do not have the very noticeable flickering of a CRT when refreshing the image horizontally, there are still refresh frequencies used.
There is no direct access to these settings, and I wonder if there is a software out there that gives you access to the full display/GPU parameters.
My GPU is a NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M.
As I said earlier, there IS an issue here (other people are affected), and there IS a solution somewhere. Besides the fact that Apple should definitely look into it and come up with a permanent fix (like changing the default settings, or having a user-configurable display) I'm sure that users with the necessary knowledge will be able to work out a solution.

Eye strain and monitor types

Hi folks,
first of all, i am a big fan of IBM/Lenovo T series thinkpads
Last week I bought a used T500 (22434EG) 15,4", 1280x800, and after using it for a few hours, i get eye strain and headache. My previoius machine was a T60 (1951FEG) with 15,1" 1024x768 and i could use it for days without any issues. I works in IT business, so i spend a lot of time with my computer.
Are there any further infos about these two monitors? I would like to compare them to identify what type of monitor/notebook sholud i buy, that fits my eyes. (I read a lot of PWM, LCD displays, LED/CCFL backlits)
The T500 monitor type is LEN4050, connector type: LVDS, device type: LFP, gamma : 2,2
I dont have any info about the T60, because i dont have it anymore. (I am working on it to get it back.)
Thanks,
Gellert
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Just suggesting if you have not already done so.
Increase color dept to 32bit? or reduce to 16 bit?
Increase refresh rate to 60Hz? or reduce to 50Hz?
*Non Lenovo employee*
I have a Y2P (i5) ... Feel free to ping me if you want me to test some applications with your Y2P if you have the same model. I don't mind keep doing recovery on it if needed .... =)

Anyone with eye strain problem after upgrading to Yosemite please report feedback to Apple

As this eye strain problem is getting worse and basically I love some new Yosemite features, so please let Apple knows if this new upgrade have some display problems. I am using iMac 27" late 2013. this eye strain problem doesn't occur when using Mavericks (my mac is dual boot Maverick <-> Yosemite)
https://www.apple.com/feedback/
Thanks in advance.

Perform the following, stopping with the first one which works:
1. Open the Mac App Store's Purchases tab. If you're prompted to accept it and the other iLife/iWork applications into your Apple ID, do so.
2. Move them out of the Applications folder(they may need to be put into the Trash temporarily), and then see if you can download them for free from their individual product pages. If you're asked to buy them, see #3.
3. Click here, contact Apple, and wait for a response.
4. Buy them.
(116660)

Is there a way to have hardware acceleration without the text font change? + Eye straining firefox!

Is there a way to have hardware acceleration without the text font change? I remember there was a way to go into settings before and getting hardware acceleration to work without the font change. Unfortunately I lost ALL my previous setting when uninstalling the beta ver Nightly and clicking delete settings :(.
Also, I fixed a problem before where firefox was visually eye straining to me, I think it was some settings in anti-alias tuner, but I cant seem to find the right settings that puts less strain on my eyes, anyone know? Thanks ahead. Currently using FF7.

Try to toggle some Boolean gfx.font_rendering prefs on the about:config page to disable some features.<br />
Filter: gfx
Others to try:
* set gfx.direct2d.disabled to true to disable Direct2D
*Anti-Aliasing Tuner: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/anti-aliasing-tuner/

Eye-strain & headaches

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