Drift TV aims to give you a better night's sleep by removing the blue light from your TV screen

[midian182]

It’s often been said that people who spend a lot of time on electronic devices such as smartphones or monitors/TVs before they go to bed will often find it difficult to fall asleep. Researchers say that this is due to the blue light emitted by screens affecting people’s melatonin production – the hormone that anticipates the daily onset of darkness and plays a role in regulating circadian rhythms.

But now, a company called Saffron – which specializes in sleep-oriented smart lights – wants to help late-night TV viewers fall asleep easier, thanks to the Drift TV, an HDMI box that slowly removes the blue spectrum light from a screen.

Drift TV - which connects between a TV and an HDMI switch or AV receiver – lets users select how much blue spectrum light they want to slowly remove from their screen over the one hour period before they go to bed. They can also specify a wake-up time, at which point all the color will return to the TV.

The maximum amount of blue spectrum light removed by the Drift TV can be set by the user, and is adjustable in ten percent increments. While it is possible to set this to 100 percent and remove all trace of blue light from a display, this can make the colors on a screen look pretty bad.

There are some apps already available which perform a similar function as Drift TV; f.lux - available for PC, Mac, Linux and jailbroken iPhones/iPads - makes the color of a device’s display adapt to the time of day.

If you find it difficult to get to sleep and don’t want to curtail your late-night viewing habits, you can get your hands on a Drift TV for $99 next month. If you’re thinking of buying one to give as a Christmas present then you better move fast – the initial run for the device will be limited to 150 units.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/62829-drift-tv-aims-give-you-better-night-sleep.html

 

[G0DofPaiN]

I'd rather use duct tape on blue led and it's 99% less expensive.

 

[G0DofPaiN]

I'd rather use duct tape on blue led and it's 99% less expensive.

My bad, I read wrong. Anyway I used f.lux on PC and I don't like that warm color, doesn't feel natural.

 

[VitalyT]

Should be called Dezombifier

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I've never had a problem falling asleep after a hectic gaming stint, in fact I'm asleep after I've flicked the light switch and before the room goes dark. I don't think I'll be throwing money at one of these.

 

[Mandark]

First World Problems. Turn off the damned TV when you want to sleep.

 

[captaincranky]

Ah, this is so cute, they're trying to emulate the color shift of sundown.

Do any of you know how annoying over saturated red, orange, yellow spectrum, blue deficient light can be? You know, the bright red-orange faces of nubile young models presented by inept photographers..

Besides, a hundred bucks can buy a poop-load of Benedryl.

 

[SirGCal]

Then how come I always fall asleep watching TV or playing a game?!? And I'm not talking wee hours of the morning... I call BS! At least for me.

 

[captaincranky]

Then how come I always fall asleep watching TV or playing a game?!? And I'm not talking wee hours of the morning... I call BS! At least for me.

Um, could you read us the list of the meds you're currently taking? I think that would help to get to the bottom of the issue..

 

[RustyTech]

I'd rather use duct tape on blue led and it's 99% less expensive.

My bad, I read wrong. Anyway I used f.lux on PC and I don't like that warm color, doesn't feel natural.

Actually that's what I do. I hate all those st4pid LED lights! I cover them all up with black electrical tape!

 

[treetops]

My nvidia card already has this option. As for the LED lights iv poked em all out within my case.

 

[wiyosaya]

Ah, this is so cute, they're trying to emulate the color shift of sundown.

Do any of you know how annoying over saturated red, orange, yellow spectrum, blue deficient light can be? You know, the bright red-orange faces of nubile young models presented by inept photographers..

Besides, a hundred bucks can buy a poop-load of Benedryl.

Yes, after going through so much effort to calibrate an HTPC display, why would anyone want to crapify the colors by using one of these???

Um, could you read us the list of the meds you're currently taking? I think that would help to get to the bottom of the issue..

The only med one needs is called AbsenceOfDisplayDevicesInBedroom.

I sit in front of a computer all day, view at least an hour of TV most every night, then on some nights, spend perhaps another hour or two in front of a computer. When I hit the bed, I am asleep in minutes with AbsenceOfDisplayDevicesInBedroom.

I would not be surprised if in the future, someone does another study and says that the easiest way to solve this is to not have any display devices in the bedroom and that lack of sleep was not due to lack of melatonin production, but due to too much stimulation from watching stuff in bed.

But then again, this could be a conspiracy by OLED manufacturers since they have trouble with blue OLEDs.

 

[Julio Franco]

Don't know about sleep, but I just recently started using Flux and it helps a ton with eye strain:
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5606-f-lux.html

 

[captaincranky]

Don't know about sleep, but I just recently started using Flux and it helps a ton with eye strain:

Well, the "Flux" product / idea / concept, (IMHO), seems like typical harebrained "Kickstarter" scam. Most of those are people with an idea who can't bring themselves to reconcile the fact it's a lousy idea, an unnecessary idea, a superfluous idea, or an idea consisting of all the foregoing. Said people, then spend all of their waking hours trying to bamboozle others to fund it, erstwhile honing their skills at being pathological liars, so as to convince themselves they aren't trying to defraud others.

When humans were "in the wild" so to speak, the sun controlled their daily activities, (and served as a "god"). It "multi tasked" in today's jargon.

The concept that the evening sun's light shifting toward red should induce sleep to humans in the 21st century, is a vast over simplified, naive approach to the situation.

Human's need sunlight , and during the winter when they're deprived of it, they can suffer from depression. Obviously, it's better not to have the sun shining at midnight, but that's a tad off topic.

Being someone who does his share of imaging work, the last thing in the world I want, is a program or device, constantly and summarily screwing around with the calibration of my monitors. All color balance, saturation, and contrast adjustments, are done with the expectation of noon daylight being the source and viewing conditions. Monitors and televisions are, more often than not, supplied with the color temperature set too cold, (read too BLUE), right from the factory. So, this first thing anybody need do is to ramp that down to the approximate daylight setting. (about 5500 Degrees Kelvin)

Now, while Neanderthal man roamed the planet, other than perhaps prehistoric wolves howling in the distance, he was faced with far fewer distraction than modern man. Not to mention he actually did enough during the day to tire him out, and so sleep likely came quite easily. If you don't believe hunting down a woolly mammoth for tonight's dinner is hard work, try it sometime. In any event, I'm 101% certain it was a lot more tiring than pushing those stupid tiles around on your smartphone all day.

Fast forwarding to now, if you don't want nightmares, don't watch a "Friday the 13th" movie marathon, directly before turning in for the night.

So, that's perhaps an extreme example. But, there are a multitude of stressors present in modern life, that simply turning the blue out of a TV or monitor, won't combat.

And since there are allegedly healthful anti-oxidants present in even the cheapest of red wine, turning off the TV, computer, and the cell phone an hour before bedtime, along with enjoying a small glass of wine, should effectively grease your skids directly into dreamland.

As far as eyestrain goes, I don't know as I suffer from that. I am however, constantly annoyed by the dimness of today's "energy saving", pitifully dull pieces of crap being passed off as monitors. They're not bright enough to render a decent white background. The backgrounds are bluish, grayish, greenish, anything but the bright white they're supposed. And the "Flux" people want me to buy something which dulls them further, and while tampering with the color balance too? I worked damned hard to get those flesh tones correct, so no thanks.

 

[cliffordcooley]

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