Difference physiologically between reading text on screen and watching video?

daniels

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I get symptoms reading text (websites, word processing) on most screens, but can watch videos indefinitely on any screen without any symptoms.

I'm wondering what the difference is, physiologically, between the two scenarios?

I expecting I am blinking less while reading text on a screen. But forcing myself to blink frequently while reading text does not reduce symptoms.

I also expect that I am focusing, concentrating more while reading text. This focusing might be accompanied by physical manifestations in the body, of which I am ignorant (pupil dilation or constriction?). Whereas I may be more relaxed while watching a video, with some kind of accompanying physiological changes.

Does anyone know what the body could be doing differently in each scenario? Would be grateful for your help or ideas.

jordan

daniels Are you also affected by text on paper? could be pattern glare or irlen syndrome (visual stress)

sakraycore

Temporal Dithering is a lot more annoying when reading text because the background is fixed (and the brain doesn't expect any flickering in that scenario).

daniels

sakraycore Thanks for this! Very interesting. So in that case the text is flickering and background is not?

I am able to read subtitles in videos without symptoms, by the way.

I have been thinking of the possibility of having a light, transparent video superimposed on the entire screen, so that something is constantly moving while I am reading websites and text files. I don't know how to technically do this though.

I already tried opening a video in VLC and having that constantly in one corner of the screen (always visible, on top via the DeskPins app), but this had no effect on symptoms. My next idea is to try four such videos, one in each corner of the screen, constantly running and constantly on top. I have some doubts about my low-specs laptop's resources, though.

Regarding temporal dithering, I did install Ditherig last week and did not notice an improvement in symptoms. I have since uninstalled it.

daniels

jordan Thanks for asking, I am able to read text on paper perfectly fine, without symptoms.

sakraycore

daniels No i mean like the background is likely dithering / subtly flickering which is very wrong and is super annoying because you expect a static background to be well…static.

Whereas subtle flickering in videos isn't really too annoying as you expect a video to have some moving components to it so shades subtly changing doesn't feel as wrong or even expected.

simplex

You can also try overlay which is moving a bit. Perhabs, this is kind of energysave tech

daniels

simplex Thanks, interesting. How can I produce this overlay?

daniels

sakraycore Ah, thanks for the clarification. So the explanation could be the brain's expectation.

simplex

daniels How

idk

but when some desktop area not moving, new GPUs try to copy it data ( not render again ). If whole image moving, GPU cant do that

daniels

simplex I feel like there might be something important here: can you clarify "when some desktop area is not moving, new GPUs try to copy it data"? I'm not sure I understand. Thanks!

simplex

daniels

I noticed when tested rtx3080, when you move mouse all around the screen, no eye-strain

When you stop moving mouse and start to read, eye-strain begins

I think new GPU dont draw whole screen, only part ( power efficiency ) which is change

Because same option in android called disable hw overlays works for me and reduce strain in phone, in tablet

daniels

simplex Super interesting. So when you are moving the mouse around the screen all the time, you get no symptoms? And is there some equivalent of "disable hw overlays" on windows?

And maybe there is some simple program that could propel some small figure constantly around the screen?