

Night Vision: a very real UX problem - niels_olson
http://wherein.posterous.com/a-very-real-ux-problem

======
aw3c2
I am really happy with "render effects" on Android in combination with screen
filter. Setting it to a monochrome red and dim brightness like the author
wants is a piece of cake.

~~~
fredley
It sounds like this is exactly what the author wants. Given this is the kind
of thing that is much harder to implement on Android than iDevices (due to the
large number of different screen technologies) it wouldn't be a difficult
thing to add the the OS. That having been said, I don't expect to see it (on a
non-jailbroken device) any time soon.

------
fmoralesc
I guess that with modern composited desktops you could filter everything that
gets outputted to the screen and change the colors (turn everything into
monochrome and then apply a red filter on the whites).
<http://stereopsis.com/flux/> and <http://jonls.dk/redshift/> do something
like that.

~~~
zdw
OS X can "enhance contrast" (posterize) or invert the entire display in the
Universal Access system pref.

Most likely this could be achieved in a hacky manner via the monitor
calibration settings in most operating systems.

------
zacharyvoase
How feasible is it to just implement this in hardware? That is, a sheet you
can place on your iPad screen which attenuates bright whites and tints
everything red. Might be the 80/20 solution in this case.

~~~
niels_olson
Hi, I'm the author of the post. We use this hack on the bridge of Navy ships.
The red density required is pretty significant (the plastic we used was a
little thinner than a #2 pencil). We would velcro it over the screen. The
velcro leaves a gap which creates a fairly significant light leak around the
edges. First iteration, so better, but a long ways to go. Comparing that to
Blacktree's nocturne, software is at least a significant part of the solution.

------
zalew
Maybe people for whom night vision is life and death matter shouldn't browse
random pages on the internet while at work?

~~~
niels_olson
Hi, author of the post here. There are plenty of occasions where someone out
on point in whatever field of endeavor needs some random nugget of information
and a browser is a good way to get it.

------
debacle
This is very true. What we need is a readability-type program that will alter
a stylesheet to red/green/grayscale at night.

The problem is that it wont always work - if someone uses a gaudy background
image, it's still going to look like crap if you use a plugin to change the
CSS.

------
nchuhoai
I don't know but I don't think the iPad was ever designed for such "critical"
use cases

~~~
Kallikrates
Maybe not designed, but people really want it to:
[https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&ta...](https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=97df37902025d14fcad6ea1d2f5d4973&_cview=0)

~~~
cube13
I had to look it up,. This is what the contract was for:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_flight_bag>

It's basically meant to be a tablet-style display that contains all the
manuals, maps, charts, checklists, and other information that a pilot would
normally use while flying the plane. Interestingly enough, the night vision
issue that TFA is talking about is one of the requirements for military
versions of the device.

------
peregrine
This is a huge reason why I love <http://stereopsis.com/flux/> they have a
iPad app but only available for jail broken iPads.

When going from my laptop to ipad at night its a huge and painful difference,
its largely the reason I am considering jail breaking.

~~~
niels_olson
I haven't tried flux on the ipad, but I didn't see anything in flux that even
approaches what Nocturne will do.

~~~
ryanpetrich
My "Color Profiles" package does this: <http://rpetri.ch/cydia/colorprofiles/>

------
overshard
I agree with most of this, I often times grab my phone at night to look
something up and it would be nice if I didn't have a glaring white Google page
in my browser destroying my vision. If it would just automatically revert to a
night-vision mode after 10pm for me that would be great!

------
sbierwagen

      Activating a single set of color pigments (red OR green OR
      blue) is not enogh for yor brail to to really constrict 
      your iris or wash out your pigments (the gohst images you 
      see after seeing something bright).
    

Spellcheck.

~~~
niels_olson
yes, that's what I get for typing on an iPad in bed at midnight! Done, thanks!

------
radley
We looked into this feature recently for our apps. Android has a Night Mode
feature, however it is only accessible in Dock Mode & Car Mode.

From the article's comments, it appears that Cyanogen Mod can work-around this
limitation.

------
za
The Compiz 'color filter' can do this.

