Sunglasses That Block All the Screens Around You (wired.com) 205
Scott Blew, an entrepreneur and engineer, recalled an article he'd recently read in WIRED about a new kind of film that blocked the light emitted from screens. He wondered if the same technology might work on a pair of glasses, to block the screens that seemed to be everywhere. From a report: He contacted Steelcase, the company that made the Casper screen-blocking film, and ordered a sample. Then he popped out the lenses in a pair of cheap sunglasses and replaced them with the film. Amazingly, it worked: Blew could look through the lenses and see everything -- except for screens, which turned black. Now, Blew and a small team are turning that concept into a real product. Their IRL Glasses, which launched on Kickstarter this week, block the wavelengths of light that comes from LED and LCD screens. Put them on and the TV in the sports bar seems to switch off; billboards blinking ahead seem to go blank. Within three days of launch, the project had surpassed its funding goal of $25,000.
Wavelength (Score:5, Insightful)
block the wavelengths of light that comes from LED and LCD
Has nothing to do with wavelength, but with polarization of the light. Anybody who has looked at screens with polarizing sunglasses is familiar with the effect.
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Color is how we distinguish light frequency. That's what color is!
I think they're ready for a kickstarter! Who could you trust more!?! Maybe they could add something about solar roadway glasses so we know they're 100% legit and know what they're talking about.
Re:Wavelength (Score:5, Insightful)
They've discovered polarized sunglasses! Genius!
Nah. They've discovered a way to sucker hundreds of people out of $40 or more for a pair of cheap sunglasses and get free advertising that will probably get even more idiots to jump on the bandwagon before the kickstarter campaign is over.
Re:Wavelength (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the Team page ends with:
"In Memory of Levi Felix, Co-Founder of Digital Detox and Camp Grounded, whose passion and prankster spirit continually inspires us"
and that the people leading the project are "Scott Blew" and "Ivan Cash" (so they're even telling you that you "Blew Cash" on the product) I would lean more towards this being a mild scam or an Andy Kaufman style hoax.
Re:Wavelength (Score:5, Informative)
The details are really hard to come by. I guess I should have clicked on the Kickstarter link first, where they do say things like "The polarization is TAC 1.1, Cat 3, UV 400" and "IRL Glasses block LCD/LED screens through horizontal polarized optics".
Instead, like the last time Slashdot ran this story, I thought to myself "surely they didn't just discover polarization." So, instead of Kickstarter, I clicked on the link to "Casper screen-blocking film." Which, by the way, they literally refer to as "cloaking technology." The intro video describes the "inventor" as suddenly remembering something from childhood and "testing his theory about light." The text "polar" is nowhere to be found. The few seconds in the video devoted to how it actually works claims "physics, science, and a little of this *space shuttle launches*". This isn't for sunglasses, by the way, it's "architectural film" for putting on open glass conference rooms so that people walking by can't see the screens inside.
The 7-page Designtex Casper Cloaking Technology Process Overview PDF does not contain the text "polar." But under the section about "validating monitors", it talks about mounting your monitor either "regular," or rotated 90 degrees, but not rotated 45 degrees! They also show a layout diagram and point out that people viewing through glass that is angled 45 degrees to the screen, or people near the wall and viewing almost from the side, will still be able to partially see it.
So, yeah, it's polarization, and for some unknown reason, as if polarization is not some widely-known thing, the design company goes to pretty far lengths to not use the word "polarization."
Here's the list they specifically say it won't "cloak":
Microsoft Surface Hubs
Cisco Spark Board
Direct LED displays
Passive 3D displays
OLED displays
Plasma displays
CRT monitors and displays
Prysm Laser Phosphorous
Displays (LPDs)
Smart Kapp white boards
Traditional white boards
Projection devices
It will "cloak":
Most LED displays 40” and
larger
Telepresence and media:scape
units
Google Jamboard
And it may "cloak":
Small computer monitors
Laptop computers
Notebook computers
Touchscreen computers and
kiosk displays
Displays mounted behind glass
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+25
Re:Wavelength (Score:5, Funny)
Color is how we distinguish light frequency. That's what color is!
Who said anything about frequency? These glasses filter by wavelength, not frequency. Totally different thing.
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I can see the argument for people in humanities.
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"Humanoids", I'll grant. But before they can claim personhood they'll need to pass some basic "captcha"-like tests to prove that they're not robots, arts students etc.
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Your comment is a good filter of who should be on /., and who should not.
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Color is how we distinguish light frequency. That's what color is!
Who said anything about frequency? These glasses filter by wavelength, not frequency. Totally different thing.
LOL.
For those who are missing the joke: frequency * wavelength = speed of light = constant
The speed of light is not constant. You don't need to take my word for it, it's in the bible:
“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember that the refractive index showeth the varying speed of light in different materials and the covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
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Book of Armaments. Which translation are you using?
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Is the speed of light in space a constant? Does it get affected by gravity? If i try jumping upwards my velocity decreases to zero and then instsrt falling. Does a black hole affect light velocity?
Outer space is part of the Firmanent, and God was pretty clear that humans shouldn't be messing with that, so that question is best left unanswered.
Psalm 115:6 - "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men."
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Is the speed of light in space a constant? Does it get affected by gravity? If i try jumping upwards my velocity decreases to zero and then instsrt falling. Does a black hole affect light velocity?
Yes and no...Light goes the same speed everywhere, it's time that changes.... OR maybe it's the other way around?
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Yes and no...Light goes the same speed everywhere, it's time that changes....
So when you put on your eyeglasses, your brain runs slower?
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Do you know who's the most hated person in any company?
He who explains the jokes.
Re:Wavelength (Score:4, Funny)
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While I doubt the glasses work this way, most modern screens emit light only at 3 specific frequencies. I don't think every screen sticks that close to the same 3 frequencies, though (in particular, I think wide color gamut monitors are different).
OTOH, not all LCD screens are mounted with the same polarization, but I guess "most screens" is good enough.
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most modern screens emit light only at 3 specific frequencies
Only OLEDs do that (and they don't work with these glasses).
Normal TFT LCD screens use white backlight and 3 different colored filters. The filters are fairly wide band (easier to make and also better for increased brightness). The white backlight spectrum differs based on the light source. Older screens used fluorescent CCFL bulbs with fairly narrow spectral lines, but they had quite many, and the position depends on the phosphor mixture. Newer screens use white LEDs (typically blue/UV LED + yellow phosph
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OLED screens tend to have a wider color gamut, though. Maybe that's just because OLED is still mostly high-end, but I hope it sticks.
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OLEDs have a wider gamut precisely because of what the GP was saying, the primary colours are more pure.
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There is no reason for using wavelengths outside the maximum sensitivity of each color receptor i the eye. Specialty screens may be different, but they're rare, especially in public.
No reason other than accurate color presentation. Sure, most LCD screens optimize for efficiency, which is why LCD has a bad rep among TV snobs. There are wide color gamut LCD monitors available, though, and they're pretty standard for anyone who works with color professionally.
No screen will show you the extremes of red or violet of human vision, but you can get pretty close without the extreme inefficiency of trying to show the entire spectrum, and that's enough to make colors appear lifelike. As OLED
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As OLED screens become the norm, however, the term "wide color gamut" may vanish, and just leave people wondering why those old screens looked so bad.
Yeah and with OLED screens, people will be left wondering why their few-years-old OLED screen looks so bad...
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I was literally scratching my head as I read this, wondering if they never heard about polarizing sunglasses. It's true that they fell out of vogue in middle to late 2000s, specifically because LCD screens finally made their breakthrough then. But if you go do anything related to sea, you still want them to reduce glare from the surface.
It tells you just how gullible people are that this thing is already funded on kickstarter. The "inventor" is going to cash in well, considering polarizing glasses can be ha
Re:Wavelength (Score:5, Insightful)
I have prescription polarized sunglasses (damned good ones, too). No, it doesn't work this way. Yeah, half the screens will go dark, being polarized one way. The other half will be largely unaffected. Which half depends on which way the glasses are polarized. The effect also varies with the angle at which you're viewing the screen. I regularly see screens dim, then brighten back up, as I walk by.
The only way to do this with polarization would be have two layers, at 90 degree angles. Which would render you completely blind, as no light of any kind would get through.
Re:Wavelength (Score:4, Insightful)
+1. Most screens are polarized the same way to mostly get along with polarized sunglasses, but there is still a good 10-15% of screens that are in portrait orientation. Higher end smartphones clearly have had effort into making them work with polarized glasses. most iphones have funny tints to the colors as you rotate them, but are always readable. My mid-range Moto X4 however disappears when in portrait mode, which sucks for taking pictures on a sunny day (when will manufacturers just put in a square sensor and let me choose the format before or after taking a picture?!?!).
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So their glasses only work with 85-90% of the displays.
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"So their glasses only work with 85-90% of the displays."
Indeed. So if you want to use them to block out the screens of those damn kids in the movies, don't go where the rich kids hang out with their 1000$ OLED phones.
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Theoretically, there could also be circular polarization like in some 3D movie systems, but my guess is that this is cost prohibitive compared to parallel linear polarization. If using circular/chiral polarization, the blocking glasses would work regardless of how you tilt your head, but would not work at all on reflections of a screen. It would make a house of mirrors interesting...
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Most screens are polarized at 45 degrees, so they work with polarizing sunglasses (which transmit vertically polarized light) both in landscape and portrait orientation. Not sure though whether it's standardized to 45 deg to the left or to the right.
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I thought they blocked it, which is how they cut glare from snow, wet roads etc?
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They use different angle of polarization, that's all. There is no way they can block out the wavelengths, because TFT displays work with fairly wide filters.
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Yeah, half the screens will go dark, being polarized one way. The other half will be largely unaffected.
Obvious solution: Just tilt your head 90 degrees.
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...no light of any kind would get through.
So almost like Peril Sensitive Sunglasses:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
!!!
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Quite correct. These polarized glasses will do nothing for OLED screens like my TV nor for giant LED screens like Jumbotrons common in sports arenas and more and more common elsewhere as they don't use polarized light to turn pixels on/off.
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block the wavelengths of light that comes from LED and LCD
Has nothing to do with wavelength, but with polarization of the light. Anybody who has looked at screens with polarizing sunglasses is familiar with the effect.
Exactly, which to be fair they are honest about on the Kickstarter page:
RL Glasses block LCD/LED screens through horizontal polarized optics (we found out about this after coming across a 2017 WIRED article). By flattening and rotating the polarized lens 90 degrees, light emitted by LCD/LED screens is blocked, making it look like the TV or computer in front of you is off.
IRL Glasses are in beta. This means they are compatible with most TVs (LCD/LED) and some computers (LCD/LED). IRL glasses do not yet block smartphones or digital billboards (OLED).
Of course that doesn't prevent the OMG SCREEN BLOCKING GLASSES headlines that clickbait rags like Wired are throwing around.
It reminds me of a "privacy monitor" I saw some time ago, where you remove the polarizing film from a monitor and put it on a pair of glasses [instructables.com]. You see the normal display and everyone else sees a blinding white screen.
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I thought it was a bit fishy. If it was about wavelength people with certain coloured pants would appear as floating torsos.
Also, it would appear that I've never worn polarized sunglasses since LCD screens became common. I couldn't even find any of my camera bags so I went ferreting around for a piece of polarising film I knew was inside a book and it's true. 45 degrees left on the two screens I have to hand.
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If it was about wavelength people with certain coloured pants would appear as floating torsos.
Pretty sure it would make it look like they were wearing black pants. If it made the lower half of their torso transparent, this tech would be MUCH more exciting.
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I only hang out in places with black walls, you insensitive clod!
OK, I'm lying. Was a metal kid, not a goth.
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Has nothing to do with wavelength, but with polarization of the light. Anybody who has looked at screens with polarizing sunglasses is familiar with the effect.
Anybody who has looked at screens with polarizing sunglasses is also familiar with the effect being completely hit and miss as there's no standard direction as to how to apply a polariser on a screen.
There is however a relatively standard set of primaries that make up normal sRGB monitors, and the manufacturer claims they are using notch filters, but you seem to be more intimately familiar with the product right?
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In my very limited experience, I've seen many different polarization orientations. There's no way a polarization based filter will universally work.
And what about LED traffic lights? (Score:3, Interesting)
Should be amusing the first time they get sued because of a car accident.
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The right to ignore blaring crap is manifest. I thank their inventors and truly and sincerely hope they make millions for their creativity.
This invention is the bane of marketers everywhere, and I wish the inventors tremendous success. I will buy a pair as soon as they're on the market. Maybe two.
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Keep an eye out for the ad saying they're available.
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It's a long time since I've seen a cornea joke than that.
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The right to ignore blaring crap is manifest. I thank their inventors and truly and sincerely hope they make millions for their creativity.
Thanks for the laugh. Here's something even funnier, from the Kickstarter page:
I'm already in the driver's seat to control when and how I engage. If I don't want to engage, I don't look at it, or I turn it off. Problem solved, for free. No creativity necessary.
The only place I can see these being even remotely necessary is on aircraft where the operators have put in-seat-back displays that you cannot shut off, or kee
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LOL. I do exactly that, as in rip the magazine and fold it over the display. If I knew of a connection jack, I would unplug it.
Going down the halls of any shopping mall, you'll be bombarded. Sitting in that airport with half of the laptops out, and 90% of the cell phones, it's easy to get distracted, if not by the over-driven headphones (should people remember to use them). For this, the cure is noise-blanking headphones. This is the cure for the visual problem. I look forward to it.
Re:And what about LED traffic lights? (Score:5, Insightful)
LED lights aren't polarized, so the glasses have no effect on them.
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Sunglasses are polarized because glare is.
These glasses are polarized for _maximum_glare_ transmission. Their accident causing potential has nothing to do with traffic lights.
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Your pupils dilate.
(Considering only the polarization) Nearly all the spectrally reflected light reaches your eyes (polarization depends on the reflecting surface orientation), only half the ambient light. Tint won't change the ratios.
Worse.
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LED lights aren't polarized, so the glasses have no effect on them.
If this technology was based on polarised light it wouldn't block out all screens. There's no standard to applying polarisers. Plus the manufacturer specifically talks about wavelength blocking.
LEDs (Score:2)
The maker's specifications [decorativefilm.com] do claim LED screens are blocked as well, but I suspect they mean ordinary LCD monitors with LED backlights:
Cloaking Technology Film renders wall-mounted and other large LED displays in conference rooms, huddle rooms, and other glass fronted rooms opaque when viewed from outside the room. Most large, wall-mounted displays can be cloaked, with the exception of 3D displays, Microsoft Surface Hubs, Barco video walls, OLED displays, plasma screens, direct-view LED video walls, and projection video.
Note that direct-view LEDs are not blocked. The same document also stresses the importance of film angle during installation, confirming that it's based on polarisation.
I had actually hoped it would be a more interesting notch filter blocking specific 640/570/480nm wavelengths, akin to the black projector screens you can get that reflect only those wavelengths (and absorb al
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LED screens are polarized (that's how these glasses work; they're applying a simple polarized filter). LED lights, which is what the GP was talking about and are what are used at traffic intersections, are not.
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There are different types of LED screens:
LED-backlit LCD
OLED
Giant LED signs
Marketing likes to say "LED screen" when they mean "LED-backlit LCD". That doesn't mean it's true in a technical sense. I think that started because actual LED screens were supposed to be the hip new thing after LCDs, but so far I've only seen OLED displays in small devices like feature phones. I wonder what the marketing term will be when OLED or some other LED tech starts to replace larger LCDs.
Now excuse me while I go back to work with my CCFL screen.
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but so far I've only seen OLED displays in small devices like feature phones
Errr you clearly haven't been to an consumer electronics store in the past 2 years.
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You're making a distinction without difference, pointing out details that have no relevance to the conversation. In a discussion about whether or not traffic lights would be impacted by these glasses—to which the answer is "no" since those lights do not employ a polarizing filter—the fact that there are also some screens that don't use a polarizing filter (e.g. OLED) has no relevance. Sure, I could have phrased things more precisely, but it shouldn't have been necessary to do so.
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Should be amusing the first time they get sued because of a car accident.
I was thinking the dashboard display on a modern car. There's a lot of critical information on some screens.
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There's nothing magic about LEDs that enables you to block light that comes from them. I suspect these glasses block the exact wavelengths of red, green, and blue used to produce a white backlight for transmissive panels. If the red in an red traffic light happened to be the same wavelength, it would disappear, but it won't necessarily disappear.
Just looking at a few datasheets, red power LEDs run from 615nm to about 670nm. They're all red, but they have distinctive wavelengths that could be filtered ou
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Er... the sun is a black body.
Polarizing lenses (Score:2)
There are only so many way they can do this with a physical filter, and the article suggests that whatever Casper was doing, the replacement with simple polarising filters (which may be the same thing) functioned largely the same way. So, this is really not that exciting except as a cool application.
Polarising filters are pretty cool regardless.
ridiculous (Score:3)
Mark this down as 'Most Uneducated Self-Promoter of the Month" .
Commmercial display manufacturers (e.g. LCD for gasoliine pumps, POS systems, etc.) are very careful to align the output polarization so that it will pass thru polarizing sunglasses, which in turn are carefully aligned to block the glare/scatter from solar irradiance. Try rotating a pair of sunglasses 90 degrees and you'll see how much brighter the thruput is.
Let me put this on my car windshield. (Score:2)
It blocks those awful billiards? Where can I buy a roll?
My new Kickstarter: (Score:2)
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Time to register Twitshock.com and Shockbook.com!
Peril sensitive sunglasses at last! (Score:3)
Granted the peril may be different than originally anticipated, but still a worthy development.
I already tried this... (Score:5, Funny)
I already tried doing this, and the results were frightening. Aliens everywhere, and all the billboards said stuff like obey, consume, etc. I ended up chucking the sunglasses in the bin.
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i didn't even want to try to put them on. but after a 20 minute fistfight with roddy piper i changed my mind and hoo-boy, was he right.
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You two, rock!
Stay asleep.
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Probably because you were all out of bubblegum.
Doesn't work on portrait screens (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't work on portrait screens (Score:5, Interesting)
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Presumably, the polarization direction in most LCDs is chosen so that they remain visible with polarizing sunglasses
Presumably the polarisation direction in most LCDs is not chosen but rather LG and Samsung apply them in the same direction so it would appear like 70% of the panels on the market magically follow some "standard".
The reality is if you look at most screens, they aren't even polarised to perfectly align with sunglasses, but about 20degrees off for whatever reason.
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Unexpected effects (Score:2)
I am wondering what sort of unintended consequences wearing these glasses will have. I've noticed that some vehicle rear windows black out slightly when I am wearing my polarized sunglasses.
Absolutely trivial to defeat (Score:2)
I already have a TV-B-Gone! (Score:2)
Looks like a car key; just don't let people see you point it at the TVs; they tend to get mad. But it's really useful in those places where obviously no on is watching the TV.
You can buy it pre-made or as a kit, or even make your own from some simple electronics.
https://www.tvbgone.com/
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$39 for polarized sunglasses? (Score:2)
The kickstarter is asking $39 for a pair of these. I bought a pair of these 5 years ago for $2.99 by accident - I forgot my sunglasses and bought a cheap pair of polarized sunglasses from a Chinatown merchant - the polarization was in the wrong direction, so instead of blocking glare from roads and water, they made it worse... and they blacked out LCD's.
I threw them away after that day, and never realized what a goldmine I was sitting on.
TV-B-Gone! (Score:2)
Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive (Score:2)
I came here expecting an early comment to reference Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses.
I left disappointed....
Something similar for headlights? (Score:2)
I'd love to have something like this for dealing with oncoming cars with the super-bright headlights. I find myself putting on my sunglasses just so I'm not blinded by them. I figure it's better to see less light overall instead of nothing due to the glare. Something that could let me see everything else in normal light but would dim headlights in view would be superb.
-rant-
Why is that so many drivers not only drive with their lights but also with their fog lamps on? They are not going to make you see a
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You can impose, by law, polarizer filters in front of all headlights, and then you'll filter most of the light of oncoming cars with simple polarizer glasses while the light reflected by ordinary objects will be unpolarized thus visible.
You could even start this development without changing laws through another key feature, which indeed is fog : if you illuminate fog with polarized light then look at it with counter-polarized glasses, you almost damp all the fog droplets reflections, and see through it the
Obligatory "The Outer Limits (Score:2)
There is nothing wrong with your eyes. Do not attempt to close them up. We are controlling what you see. If we wish to make it more annoying, we will put ads everywhere. If we wish to make it more subtle, we'll use product placement. We will control your spending habits. We will control your entertainment. We can reduce your bank account, make it smaller. We can change the focus of your interests to random things or sharpen it to precise products. For the next hour, browse quietly and we will control all th
Why would anyone want that? (Score:2)
Cherry on the cake (Score:5, Insightful)
Creator's name is "Ivan Cash". Yes, he wants cash. For a pair of polarized sunglasses.
I'm just speechless.
LED is not LCD (Score:2)
block the wavelengths of light that comes from LED and LCD
No, it cannot block LED light and will not block LED screens. It might be able to block LCD screens by just being specially polarized lenses. But LED light is no different than most other light, and is of no particular frequency, unless it was polarized for some reason (like because it was used in an LCD screen).
The summary and/or article fell for the marketing crap. Until recently, all marketed "LED" screens are not LED, they are LCD screens with
Douglas Adams (Score:2)
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So you view interaction with more people as being more important than interaction in real life with fewer people?
See, I just interacted with you. But I don't know you and you don't know me. Either of us could die tomorrow and we'd never notice it since we're just one of the dozens of people we reply to, every day.
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So you view interaction with more people as being more important than interaction in real life with fewer people?
Nope. I view the idea that we'd all just chat with strangers on the subway/bus/whatever if we didn't have devices is false. Because I was around when we didn't have those devices yet.
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That is also true. In fact, people who talk to strangers on the subway/bus/whatever are usually weirdos.
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That is also true. In fact, people who talk to strangers on the subway/bus/whatever are usually weirdos.
In the United States that varies radically by geography. In Michigan, no one ever talks to strangers. In Illinois, everyone does. Most of the Midwest is willing to talk to strangers. The northeast, not so much.
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The right to ignore blaring crap is manifest. I thank their inventors and truly and sincerely hope they make millions for their creativity.
This invention is the bane of marketers everywhere, and I wish the inventors tremendous success. I will buy a pair as soon as they're on the market. Maybe two.
Seems like the kind of thing that would be a fad for a few months and then everyone laughs about how ridiculous and pointless it all was for years later. This has "as shown on TV" written all over it... the only problem is these glasses will block out that ad.
- Clap Off.
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Quit telling me how to live my life, grandpa!
Seriously though, do get off on the next stop.
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Yeah, but... knowing what we know, we won't be buying the glasses and we'll be waiting for the contact lenses instead.
I guess I better go buy a pack of gum later this afternoon, just in case.
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maybe some people are tired of seeing all the spew thought up by the pieces of shit on two legs known as marketing wanks
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That was my first thought too, but the specifications and installation document [decorativefilm.com] from the maker of the film says that plasma screens and LED walls are not blocked, and that angle is important when installing the film, so it's almost certainly ordinary polarisation.