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  • First thing I thought of when I read the title was "ah, I learned this from Daniel Stern's lighting page..."

    https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/bad/bad....

    by rconti
  • I was curious what Marv from Home Alone had to say about lighting... guess it must be a different guy!
    by QuercusMax
  • What’s your favourite illuminant? http://justine.lol/dox/illumination.txt It makes sense that black people might want to explore different ones than D65 if we consider the history of CIE colorimetry. Has anyone actually done a scientific inquiry into their ability to perceive radiation?
    by jart
  • Interesting, i've read in the past that blue lights are used sometimes in places where they want to dissuade people from intravenous drug use because the blue light makes it harder to find a vein. I wonder if that qualifies as fine detail.
    by Simulacra
  • We should also note that it is a gimmick meant to sell expensive specialty bulbs. Addicts don't need good light to find a vein. And even if it was a problem they still have a lighter and/or phone.
    by AngryData
  • The hospital toilets in Melbourne definitely have that setup. It was weird seeing basically every surface as just a shade of blue and nothing else.

    I do wonder - now that most people have a phone with a flashlight - would not the druggies illuminate their own arms with white light and not be too bothered?

    by mister_mort
  • That's not at all about fine detail, but is about relative amounts of absorption/reflection of the light between skin vs. vein.

    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism_(color)

    by jacobolus
  • In my neighborhood there is an optometry place with a dark blue lighted sign. At night, it looks fuzzy, and I have to assume they knew this would be the case. People walking by squint at it and inevitably think "maybe I _should_ get my eyes checked!"
    by abeppu
  • I've been noticing the affect of gold light during gold hour, specifically during sunset. I find I have more creative ideas for problems I've been chewing on come up, and also feel an indescribable calm. I've been trying to notice the affects of all the specific color phases of the sun and feel they each play a special role in our physiology.

    I also wear glasses and I feel calmer and more "affected" during these periods when I take them off.

    by mannanj
  • Blue light also probably has more dispersion (aka chromatic aberration) .. I wonder how the eye deals with chromatic aberration, if we just filter it out by processing or if the system doesn't really suffer from it? Edit: or perhaps that's the reason why we don't have high resolution in blue.
    by HPsquared
  • Looks like we French had the right idea with yellow headlights? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow
    by BoingBoomTschak
  • Ive seen a truck with super yellow light addons and I have to say they were surprisingly horrible and hard to look at. Red and orange still seem okay but the yellow ones were just painful. But perhaps they were also broadcasting a bunch of white light too with it because ive only seen those style twice.
    by AngryData
  • This is plain obvious, I don't know why this isn't mainstream everywhere. The new cars with white lights are often blinding.
    by fakedang
  • From notes for an open source bowling alley: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971134 :

    > Most flying insects cannot see red, orange or yellow light;

    > Red preserves night vision. Blue keeps operators awake. Blue and white cause the worst glare. Jet instrument gauges are reddish/orange-ish.

    by westurner
  • 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
    by mkl
  • I get that the guy needed to write a paper on something to get his PhD (in psychology, which might explain some of this as well, I thought standards were a little higher in the hard sciences), but don't know why it deserves a high profile. At least, based on merit.
    by mrngld
  • Blue Blocker glasses were a thing since the 80s
    by snarfy
  • Yeah. I worked in the optical industry to pay for college. That was decades ago and one of the Drs I worked with and I had discussions on this. It was interesting at the time as I knew very little about optics when I started.
    by HumblyTossed
  • Well, the title here at HN implies something else than the study shows.

    If blue light actually impaired vision, that would be very notable. It would mean that removing the blue 'channel' for an RGB image would improve acuity. This is not what the study showed, however.

    It is mainly just the basic fewer cones bit you mentioned. Which, btw, is easily experienced if you ever look from a distance at neon or led signs that only emit blue light. They'll persistently look out of focus when compared to their surroundings.

    by dinfinity
  • I certainly thought so. I have astigmatism and I cannot for the life of me read blue LED/neon signs at any reasonable distance at night. Any other colour, no problem. Blue is just a blurry mess.
    by madaxe_again
  • Here's a neat demonstration of this https://www.schulz-hildebrandt.com/9-purple-dots-illusion/ (I find the effect works much better on my phone screen than desktop)
    by Jarmsy
  • From the paper's abstract (emphasis mine): "Wavelength influences multiple aspects of visual performance, yet its role in spatial resolution remains incompletely understood due to confounding factors such as luminance differences, chromatic aberration, and intraocular scatter."

    They then did some modeling to estimate how well the results could be explained by scattering, chromatic aberration and, neural sampling (the cone cell density factor that you mentioned). They concluded that none of them could completely explain the observed results, but their results seemed to suggest the bulk of the effect is due to optical effects, with neurological factors as a secondary cause.

    Refining existing knowledge by examining phenomena in more detail is how science should be done. The pressure to focus on discovering entirely new things is a major cause of the replication crisis.

    by bunderbunder
  • 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.
    by steve_taylor
  • you could try LEDs made with phosphor. a few companies including waveformlighting (unaffiliated: https://www.waveformlighting.com) offer them.
    by mannanj
  • I found some in my local dollar store (dollar general, dollar general, etc). You may want to try down market stores.
    by yardie
  • I really like the GE Sun Filled soft white bulbs (not the daylight version). They’re pricey and only 60w equivalent but they’re the closest to incandescent I’ve found.
    by cameldrv
  • Philips Warm Glow A19 Medium Dimmable LED Light Bulb 479428, is something I've found. Phillips has been making more lights in the amber range. I really can't stand lights with higher kelvin ratings.
    by Projectiboga
  • I have some LED bulbs at home but I use G9 halogens in either an E14 or an E27 adapter for the places where light quality is important to me. I tried a number of so-called "full spectrum" LED bulbs but I don't find the light they produce quite as satisfying as my halogens.
    by bushwart
  • It hugely depends on the quality of the light. Look at CRI (and the newer, better TM-30). Low quality LED lighting is just terrible, the room appears light but colors and details are poor.
    by brookst
  • 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.

    by amluto