How Screens Hurt Your Eyes And What to Do About It
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This week, our tech slideshow is all about the Mobile World Congress, the consumer electronics show that takes place in Barcelona each year.
Wearable Electronics Take Over (Photos)
This week, our tech slideshow is all about the Mobile World Congress, the consumer electronics show that takes place in Barcelona each year. Innovative smartphones, wearable computers and Internet-connected cars are among some of the technologies that were on display. Here are some of our favorites. The Mirama smart glasses, from Japan-based Brilliant Service , have a gesture recognition system combined with augmented reality technology. The wearer uses her hands to interact with virtual objects seen in the glasses. Brilliant service wants their smart glasses to one day replace for smartphones.
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For its unique aluminum unibody design, the HTC ONE was awarded this year's "Smartphone of the Year."
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Walldorf, Germany-based SAP is working with the German national football team to prepare for the World Cup in 2014, and take soccer to the next level. The ball has embedded sensors and electronics that capture and analyze a wealth of data in real time, including spatial analysis of player movements.
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Blackphone is the world's first smartphone that places security back into the hands of the user. The $629 phone, which comes unlocked, was developed in a partnership between Silent Circle and Geeksphone. Along with the PrivatOS, built on Android, the phone comes with a suite of Silent Circle apps, including Silent Phone, Silent Text and Silent Contacts; anonymous search, private browsing and VPN from Disconnect. SpiderOak provides a secure cloud file storage and the Blackphone ships with a remote-wipe and device recovery tool.
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LG was on hand to promote its new G Flex, which has a 6.0” curved OLED screen, that while not flexible, does have a shape that fits well into the palm of a hand. The big screen provides an impressive panoramic view, while minimizing glare.
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Samsung's Galaxy Fit was among many wearable fitness devices on display at the Mobile World Congress. The Fit has a thin, curved shape meant to follow the wrist; the user navigates menus by swiping horizontally. Along with a heart monitor, the Fit is designed to provide notifications for calls, e-mail and text message. A personal fitness coaching app is an option.
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One of the most surprising announcements at the Mobile World Congress came from Mozilla, who plans to launch seven new devices using Firefox OS, including a smartphone -- the ZTE Open C -- priced at $25. The devices are being aimed at people in developing countries.
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Chinese company Gionee presented its Elife 5.5, the world's thinnest smartphone. At 5.5 millimeters thick, the phone edges out the 5.75mm Vivo X3. For comparison, the iPhone 5s is 7.6mm thick.
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The new Xperia Z2 phone and tablet from Sony are waterproof, come with brighter screens and noise-canceling earbuds.
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Sony's SmartBand SWR10 is also waterproof, which makes sense if you plan to sweat while wearing them.
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Practically speaking, cars are becoming gadgets. Ford was among several automakers displaying their versions of fully connected Internet cars. These cars work in conjunction with a person's smartphone or work like a smartphone to run apps that connect to the Internet, play music and movies, display GPS navigation and control security features at home, among many other features.
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Screens are ubiquitous, and staring at one for a large chunk of the day is commonplace. So, can a heavy screen habit hurt your vision? The answer is yes, and though the dangers aren’t life threatening, they aren’t benign, either.
Here are some of the most common screen-related eye problems — and easy ways to protect against them.
The most frequent complaint is eye strain, which happens when we squint too much, blink too little and our eyes get tired, wrote Dr. Matthew Alpert in the Huffington Post.
Strain can result in dry eyes and a headache at the end of a long screen-filled day. The symptoms aren’t permanent, but the problems can recur and become chronic if ignored — easy to do when we’re absorbed in whatever is happening on the pixels in front of us.
One of the best ways to ease eye strain is simply to blink more. The 20-20-20 method is also effective: Stare at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds once every 20 minutes, Alpert recommended.
A more serious concern is exposure to blue light, which does have a cumulative effect. This type of light — which is emitted by smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs — reaches one of the deepest parts of the eye and can damage the retina. It has also been associated with the development of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, wrote Dr. Ronald Melton in the Review of Optometry.
The sun emits blue light, too, but the sun sets. Screens can run all night long. So can compact fluorescent bulbs, which also radiate this harmful blue light. If you’ve ever sat in a room illuminated by a CFL bulb after dark and worked on a computer or read on a tablet, your blue light exposure has gone up.
So, potentially, has your risk of eye problems.
In 2012, 2 million U.S. adults over the age of 50 had AMD. That number is 25 percent higher than it was in 2000, noted Melton.
Some eyeglasses can filter blue light and reduce exposure. Short of that, cutting back on screen time before bed can make a difference.
A third concern is overusing eye muscles, which — just like in the body — can lead to muscle aches, Dr. James Sheedy told Forbes. Reading on a computer screen can be uniquely exhausting because of the angle of the screen relative to the eyes. Reading on paper can be less straining for the eyes because you can easily move the paper to the most comfortable position.
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