Blue light impairs fine detail vision more than any other color, UGA study finds
Study: Blue light impairs the eye's ability to distinguish fine detail most
A University of Georgia study tested 60 young adults and found that blue light—emitted by screens and LEDs—blurs fine detail more than green, yellow, red, or broadband light. The effect was stronger in lighter-colored eyes, which scatter more light. The findings could influence display design and lighting, and may explain why some people are more sensitive to glare. The lead author, an optometrist turned psychology researcher, also recommends blue light filtering for heavy screen users.
With blue light, the two points had to be separated much farther than with the other colors, showing that blue light produced the greatest amount of light scatter and optical aberrations.
- vanderZwan
> Many factors, like light scattering and imperfections in the eye’s optics, keep light from coming into sharp focus on the retina, Buabeng said.
> The study also found that iris pigmentation influenced how far apart the two light points needed to be before viewers could distinguish them as separate points. Using a standardized iris color chart, researchers classified each participant’s eye color before analyzing the results. Participants with lighter-colored irises, particularly blue eyes, experienced greater light scatter than those with darker brown irises.
Sounds like the research took a next step beyond previous studies on the same subject. You know, basically how science is supposed to work. Something anyone giving a flippant reply here could have figured out if they actually had read the article.
- amluto
On a related note, anyone wearing prescription glasses will be affected by chromatic aberration to some degree, which may notably cause the blue portion of the image to be shifted relative to the rest of the image, which makes text and other detail harder to see and can be annoying. This effect is accentuated when looking at a strongly trichromatic source like a computer or screen because the spectrum is discontinuous and the blue content has more power at shorter wavelengths than most natural sources.
You can mitigate this by using lenses made from a material with a higher Abbe value. Polycarbonate is the worst, CR-58 is the best, and Trivex is quite good. Trivex is also impact resistant, so it’s an excellent alternative to polycarbonate. The high-index plastics are quite bad, so if you don’t need them, consider asking for mid-index or Trivex instead.
- keymasta
I've had some light-sensitivity issues for as long as a remember. So I always get glasses with transitions. On computer though I've always been using flux [0] since it came out. I know that now a lot of OSes are supporting some kind of night mode, but I really like how there are some different parameters you can adjust in flux. And it's free.
- steve_taylor
I'm trying to get my hands on some decently high wattage (100W ideally) incandescent bulbs because it's really been bugging me lately that while I can still focus just fine, I have trouble making out details and some colours in artificial lighting. I've come to the conclusion that there's really no substitute for light generated from heat.
- mkl
Isn't this well known? The human retina has fewer blue-sensitive cone cells, and very few in the fovea, which sees the sharpest details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_cell#Distribution