4 ms·

If burn-in is a serious threat to the usable lifetime of the display, I wonder whether the laptop could be configured to display a continuously varying image in

by jpfed 8y ago

If burn-in is a serious threat to the usable lifetime of the display, I wonder whether the laptop could be configured to display a continuously varying image in an attempt to save the screen.

pault 8y ago
Great idea! Why hasn't someone already invented this screen-saver type of software?
- StavrosK 8y ago
  (That was the joke)
zozbot123 8y ago
Screen savers won't help, because burn in is a cumulative effect - it's not just reversible image persistence like on LCD's. IOW, it's better to just turn the screen off when not in use. But you can slash the burn-in effect dramatically, at least for non-graphically-intensive use (no picture or video display) by just switching to a theme based on a total-black background, with dark green as the main color and yellowish or reddish highlights. Bonus points for the 1980s "Hollywood hacker" effect, of course!
- tjoff 8y ago
  You can however invert the image. Keep track of how bright each color of each pixel is. Doesn't have to be exact, just average. Then you can adapt to the fatigue by brightening the pixels with most wear. You can also display an inverse image to even out the wear. I have vague memories of an application that did this. Guess it was in the plasma days. Though this is something that could be done in hardware, judging from this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcLasaRCzY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcLasaRCzY it must already be done on TVs since letterboxing didn't create any artifacts. But it doesn't seem to be done on a per pixel basis. Not sure why that would be that much more difficult.
  - zozbot123 8y ago
    > Keep track of how bright each color of each pixel is. The monitor does not have that capability - if it did, it would be able to compensate for burn-in exactly. You would need to do weird things like point a camera at the monitor and have it diagnose and re-calibrate itself, but this would not be anywhere near exact so you'd still have quite a bit of noise. And everything you do to try and "solve" burn-in, other than turning the screen off, just adds even more burn-in!
    - tjoff 8y ago
      Not talking external sensors. You already know the brightness of each pixel from the color information and panel brightness.
    - microcolonel 8y ago
      You can sorta meet the burn-in half way with a smaller number of thermocouples (temperature is the primary component of burn-in AFAIK) and a wear model related to cumulative energy input. I've been looking to prototype this, but I've not done the work to acquire a panel which I could prototype it on. It'd take quite a bit of fast memory, but not an outlandish amount. I hope I get a chance to take a poke at it before too many patents are filed.

by jpfed 8y ago

If burn-in is a serious threat to the usable lifetime of the display, I wonder whether the laptop could be configured to display a continuously varying image in an attempt to save the screen.

pault 8y ago

Great idea! Why hasn't someone already invented this screen-saver type of software?

StavrosK 8y ago
(That was the joke)

zozbot123 8y ago

Screen savers won't help, because burn in is a cumulative effect - it's not just reversible image persistence like on LCD's. IOW, it's better to just turn the screen off when not in use. But you can slash the burn-in effect dramatically, at least for non-graphically-intensive use (no picture or video display) by just switching to a theme based on a total-black background, with dark green as the main color and yellowish or reddish highlights. Bonus points for the 1980s "Hollywood hacker" effect, of course!

tjoff 8y ago
You can however invert the image. Keep track of how bright each color of each pixel is. Doesn't have to be exact, just average. Then you can adapt to the fatigue by brightening the pixels with most wear. You can also display an inverse image to even out the wear. I have vague memories of an application that did this. Guess it was in the plasma days. Though this is something that could be done in hardware, judging from this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcLasaRCzY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcLasaRCzY it must already be done on TVs since letterboxing didn't create any artifacts. But it doesn't seem to be done on a per pixel basis. Not sure why that would be that much more difficult.
- zozbot123 8y ago
  > Keep track of how bright each color of each pixel is. The monitor does not have that capability - if it did, it would be able to compensate for burn-in exactly. You would need to do weird things like point a camera at the monitor and have it diagnose and re-calibrate itself, but this would not be anywhere near exact so you'd still have quite a bit of noise. And everything you do to try and "solve" burn-in, other than turning the screen off, just adds even more burn-in!
  - tjoff 8y ago
    Not talking external sensors. You already know the brightness of each pixel from the color information and panel brightness.
  - microcolonel 8y ago
    You can sorta meet the burn-in half way with a smaller number of thermocouples (temperature is the primary component of burn-in AFAIK) and a wear model related to cumulative energy input. I've been looking to prototype this, but I've not done the work to acquire a panel which I could prototype it on. It'd take quite a bit of fast memory, but not an outlandish amount. I hope I get a chance to take a poke at it before too many patents are filed.