Fascinating. By default, though, this seems like it would just result in low contrast and difficulty reading, unless turned to opaque mode.
The thing I'd love to see, which to the best of my knowledge isn't possible with normal HDMI/DP/etc, is an opaque monitor that allows rendering an alpha channel as actual transparency. That would allow things like setting your desktop background to transparent, so that when you have one non-fullscreen window, the rest of the screen is transparent.
Are there any display technologies or protocols for sending RGBA to a monitor, and letting the monitor handle the alpha?
That could be made to work by stacking a transparent OLED panel in front of a transparent LCD panel. The LCD would absorb light, and the OLED would emit light.
I just tried to search for some examples, but I can't find any. Maybe the displays can't be made thin enough to eliminate parallax between the two images?
I mean you could always tag transparency as extra bits. Presumably both sides of the link would need to understand this. So you'd send an 8bpc signal as idk 10, which gets you 6bpc of transparency. Or you run a faster framerate where 1 in every N frames is a transparency. It could work.
"Unlike traditional monitors that force your eyes to focus at a near distance, Phantom allows you to look through the display and focus on objects at varying distances. This helps reduce eye fatigue during long work sessions by giving your eyes natural opportunities to relax and refocus."
Is there any science behind this or is it just a "sounds about right" claim?
There seems to be real evidence[0] for the idea that focusing on nearby objects like computer screens for hours on end can contribute to the development of myopia. Breaks might help.
I don't see any reason to believe that making the screen transparent rather than looking to the side of it is a better way to look out a window for a break.
There is an eye exercise for short-sighted people that involves painting a dot on a window glass and then repeatedly changing focus between the dot and the scenery behind the window.
Basically, focus on the dot for 10 seconds, then on the back. Rinse and repeat several times, 2-3 times a day.
I was given this exercise over 30 years ago and its goal was to stop the worsening of the eyesight. Fwiw, in my case, it seemed to have worked.
I intentionally arrange my desk so that I can look past my monitor. On days where I can't refocus my eyes on something long-distance, I have difficulty focusing my vision after spending 1/3 of the day looking at computer screens. On days where I can refocus my eyes, I can go up to 2/3 of the day without issue.
Unfortunately that isn't how optics work (former freelance camera person and VFX professional).
When you look at a thing you will have two mechanisms at work: (1) the imagined view line of both your eyes will cross over at that focal point, (2) your eye muscles and irises will shift the focus of each individual eye to the distance of that convergence point. Meaning the stuff you concentrate on will be in focus and on a screen that is the screen, even if it is transparent.
The target being 99% transparent doesn't magically shift your focus point backwards just because you can see the background. You would still have to look at it.
You can easily try this at home. Take a sharpie, write on the window and try reading the text while focusing on some object on the outside. You will find the closer you are to the writing, the harder it will be to still read without shifting the focus back to the front.
If anything you will find that reading on a non-uniform and potentially moving background will make it harder for your brain to focus on the text, not easier. The fact that they make a claim like this doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in their ethics.
It is healthy to not stare at the same focal plane for hours, but that just means heavy screen workers should make it a habit to occasionally let their gaze wander offscreen and potentially out of the window. The eyes are muscles, give them some movement.
Calling it a transparent computer monitor makes it sound like it's new technology, when in reality it just a run of the mill teleprompter half-mirror above a run of the mill computer monitor.
I am not sure if this really does more than maybe helps you take more breaks. You still need to focus your vision on the screen and that is the issue. Just take some transparent object with text or something else on it and try to read. You focus on it. And then try to look through, reading is much harder if even possible at all.
I wonder if this would actually make vision worse, increasing nearsightedness or causing the condition. It seems that dark words on light backgrounds can cause your eyes to elongate over time[0] or other conditions to form, and it seems it is no coincidence that many readers require glasses.
Would the same occur with dark mode on a transparent background? While I am not saying that it would negatively effect the eyes, I am skeptical of this claim of letting the eyes relax, it seems like marketing.
[0] Wagner, S., Strasser, T. Impact of text contrast polarity on the retinal activity in myopes and emmetropes using modified pattern ERG. Sci Rep 13, 11101 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38192-9
Not sure how it protects your vision. So, they say take an eye break to relieve the strain, presumably with focussing on a fixed point. These guys are saying that hey you can instantly focus on something far away and carry on working without even looking away from the screen! That doesn't sound like an eye break to me, and it doesn't sound like it protects your vision at all.
I mean, it looks pretty cool but I think their marketing department is not aiming it at my cynical self
I feel like it's likely misleading, too. Eye breaks are about changing your focal plane, and if you're looking beyond the monitor to rest your eyes, you won't be seeing the screen.
You can experience this with a window with dry erase markers. Focus at a far off point and the dry erase is illegible and may not even disturb your far vision. Focus at the glass and you can read whatever you wrote (subject to penmanship).
Heads up displays often have optics to project onto a medium distance focal plane, otherwise your eyes have to work harder and you're not really able to see the scene and the display at the same time.
In the pilot episode of Banshee (2013), a character has transparent monitors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PiIhMs4k88) which never showed up again. They seemed higher tech than anything else in the series and I was never able to find information on them.
I always bitch about how stupid of an idea transparent and holographic displays are in most applications and their overuse in sci-fi, so of course some jackass needs to try to make it a reality. HUDs/AR have their limited uses, but trying to read and concentrate on one of these would be a god damned nightmare.
While I am not particularly interested in the design, I am intrigued by the idea of making your own monitor. I have had some ideas about features I would like in a monitor before. Are there some boards out there that are easy to hack on to add firmware features etc?
> Each Founders Edition Phantom is individually configured to your preferences. Pricing varies based on your custom configuration but is generally comparable to an Apple Studio Display.
Feels like a problem you could solve more completely by switching to a projector. Or some other really large screen—but you need something big enough to fill your field of view from many feet away.
I’d prefer a light field display that can project light so your eyes must focus at a distance to see it. I imagine there is a lot of interest in this with VR displays
(Monitor-sized HUD, the image is at some not-that-close-distance [I assume]. There is probably a relatively restrictive eyebox to be able to see the image.)
And, the focal plane is the same as a regular monitor because it appears to lack optics to create a larger virtual image several meters away.
The same thing could be done with a portable helmet-mounted display with proper optics, take up zero dedicated desk space, and not require external lighting to operate. A smaller/lighter AR HMD might be more useful, practical, and robust than solutions emphasizing all-in-one VR or are static displays. I think the Quest and Vision VR all-in-ones are doomed because VR is a cursed category that's not practical enough by itself without also being in a very lightweight AR form-factor for everyday other uses.
I don't see who wants to buy this except someone who has a Balans chair and a DataHand Pro II in Dvorak layout. No offense, but that's a tiny, tiny market. I think underground and geodesic homes are cool too, but these are hard to square with zoning and permitting requirements.
[+] [-] JoshTriplett|4 months ago|reply
The thing I'd love to see, which to the best of my knowledge isn't possible with normal HDMI/DP/etc, is an opaque monitor that allows rendering an alpha channel as actual transparency. That would allow things like setting your desktop background to transparent, so that when you have one non-fullscreen window, the rest of the screen is transparent.
Are there any display technologies or protocols for sending RGBA to a monitor, and letting the monitor handle the alpha?
[+] [-] fleabitdev|4 months ago|reply
I just tried to search for some examples, but I can't find any. Maybe the displays can't be made thin enough to eliminate parallax between the two images?
[+] [-] unknown|4 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] noman-land|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Neywiny|4 months ago|reply
For displayport you could use MST
[+] [-] binarymax|4 months ago|reply
Is there any science behind this or is it just a "sounds about right" claim?
[+] [-] Zak|4 months ago|reply
I don't see any reason to believe that making the screen transparent rather than looking to the side of it is a better way to look out a window for a break.
[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34622560/
[+] [-] abcd_f|4 months ago|reply
Basically, focus on the dot for 10 seconds, then on the back. Rinse and repeat several times, 2-3 times a day.
I was given this exercise over 30 years ago and its goal was to stop the worsening of the eyesight. Fwiw, in my case, it seemed to have worked.
[+] [-] evanjrowley|4 months ago|reply
I intentionally arrange my desk so that I can look past my monitor. On days where I can't refocus my eyes on something long-distance, I have difficulty focusing my vision after spending 1/3 of the day looking at computer screens. On days where I can refocus my eyes, I can go up to 2/3 of the day without issue.
[+] [-] atoav|4 months ago|reply
When you look at a thing you will have two mechanisms at work: (1) the imagined view line of both your eyes will cross over at that focal point, (2) your eye muscles and irises will shift the focus of each individual eye to the distance of that convergence point. Meaning the stuff you concentrate on will be in focus and on a screen that is the screen, even if it is transparent.
The target being 99% transparent doesn't magically shift your focus point backwards just because you can see the background. You would still have to look at it.
You can easily try this at home. Take a sharpie, write on the window and try reading the text while focusing on some object on the outside. You will find the closer you are to the writing, the harder it will be to still read without shifting the focus back to the front.
If anything you will find that reading on a non-uniform and potentially moving background will make it harder for your brain to focus on the text, not easier. The fact that they make a claim like this doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in their ethics.
It is healthy to not stare at the same focal plane for hours, but that just means heavy screen workers should make it a habit to occasionally let their gaze wander offscreen and potentially out of the window. The eyes are muscles, give them some movement.
[+] [-] geor9e|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] seemaze|4 months ago|reply
Want to protect your eyesight when viewing a computer monitor? Increase your ambient lighting levels, sit farther back, and take frequent breaks.
[+] [-] pferdone|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] plun9|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Ekaros|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] molticrystal|4 months ago|reply
Would the same occur with dark mode on a transparent background? While I am not saying that it would negatively effect the eyes, I am skeptical of this claim of letting the eyes relax, it seems like marketing.
[0] Wagner, S., Strasser, T. Impact of text contrast polarity on the retinal activity in myopes and emmetropes using modified pattern ERG. Sci Rep 13, 11101 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38192-9
[+] [-] clort|4 months ago|reply
I mean, it looks pretty cool but I think their marketing department is not aiming it at my cynical self
[+] [-] toast0|4 months ago|reply
You can experience this with a window with dry erase markers. Focus at a far off point and the dry erase is illegible and may not even disturb your far vision. Focus at the glass and you can read whatever you wrote (subject to penmanship).
Heads up displays often have optics to project onto a medium distance focal plane, otherwise your eyes have to work harder and you're not really able to see the scene and the display at the same time.
[+] [-] plun9|4 months ago|reply
But we haven’t seen the actual product yet.
[+] [-] knollimar|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] user982|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] moribvndvs|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] seiferteric|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] disqard|4 months ago|reply
> Each Founders Edition Phantom is individually configured to your preferences. Pricing varies based on your custom configuration but is generally comparable to an Apple Studio Display.
[+] [-] Wowfunhappy|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] plun9|4 months ago|reply
http://nixon-development.com/fp/nearsightedness.htm
[+] [-] kristo|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] formerly_proven|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] pashariger|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] tcdent|4 months ago|reply
The product packaging itself doesn't look that great IMO.
[+] [-] PaulHoule|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] fooqux|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] burnt-resistor|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] burnt-resistor|4 months ago|reply
And, the focal plane is the same as a regular monitor because it appears to lack optics to create a larger virtual image several meters away.
The same thing could be done with a portable helmet-mounted display with proper optics, take up zero dedicated desk space, and not require external lighting to operate. A smaller/lighter AR HMD might be more useful, practical, and robust than solutions emphasizing all-in-one VR or are static displays. I think the Quest and Vision VR all-in-ones are doomed because VR is a cursed category that's not practical enough by itself without also being in a very lightweight AR form-factor for everyday other uses.
I don't see who wants to buy this except someone who has a Balans chair and a DataHand Pro II in Dvorak layout. No offense, but that's a tiny, tiny market. I think underground and geodesic homes are cool too, but these are hard to square with zoning and permitting requirements.
[+] [-] ranger_danger|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] boothby|4 months ago|reply