Would multi colour text not be better to help distinguish between train info and important messages?
Why are screens yellow/ orange these days? Would multi colour text not be better to help distinguish between train info and important messages? How much more expensive could that be
Colour displays will cost 3 times for the LEDs as much due to 3 times as many LEDs.
The trend for on-train displays at least seems to be to replace LED matrix panels with LCD displays (and set them up with low-contrast while-on-blue text for some reason), I expect this trend will eventually find its way to stations.
Provided that it hits that 'sweet spot' before there's so much contrast it becomes unreadable. I personally am not a fan of burnt retinas! There must exist a level that is not too much for people with more sensitive eyes, but is not too little for those with poor sight but few set-ups seem to find it. In the same way that simply making an announcement louder does not necessarily help those with impaired hearing (where slowly and clearly may be of more use).Contrast is important, so bright text on a dark background is very easy to read (especially if you have poor vision).
Exactly the maximum contrast sensitivity for humans eye is at the yellow end of orange.Contrast is important, so bright text on a dark background is very easy to read (especially if you have poor vision). The new screens on trains are sometimes awful, white text on pale blue may look pretty but is harder to read than white text on a dark blue background. The current yellow / orange may look boring, but is often quite easy to read (as white on black is).
Exactly the maximum contrast sensitivity for humans eye is at the yellow end of orange.
Avoiding green is also sensible in railway applications so as not to cause confusion with a green signal.
OLED panels aren't cheaper than LED backlit LCDs yet. They also have burn-in issues so still images displayed for long periods cancreate problems. That problem is being solved on TVs by shuffling pixel illumination around in a way that is normally unnoticeable to viewers. Station displays however display the same large areas of pixels at high levle of illumination for hours on end. That likely to create patches of wear that make the displays unusable in time. LED backlit panels have been commodity products for a decade now and are quite reliable. CFL backed LCD panels do have life issues though.LCD was a fad a while ago and died out due to being unreliable (though European operators quite like station displays made of rows of monochrome small-TV-sized panels). I think the new ones on stations might be more likely to be off the shelf OLED TV panels which not only gives more flexibility of display but are cheaper due to the mass manufacture.
Plasma of course rapidly died out due to burn-in issues.
Amber LEDs are bright and clear and long-life, at the time these started being deployed white LEDs were expensive and unreliable. This is changing, so most new displays seem to be white.
Colour displays will cost 3 times for the LEDs as much due to 3 times as many LEDs.
Not forgetting those pesky yellow ones too.
LCD was a fad a while ago and died out due to being unreliable (though European operators quite like station displays made of rows of monochrome small-TV-sized panels). I think the new ones on stations might be more likely to be off the shelf OLED TV panels which not only gives more flexibility of display but are cheaper due to the mass manufacture.
Plasma of course rapidly died out due to burn-in issues.
I'll dig some stuff out.Could you post a reference for that (purely for personal interest!)?
Maximum sensitivity is in the green rather than amber, I thought (https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/microscope-resource/primer/lightandcolor/humanvisionintro/ agrees with that), and it's interesting if the maximum contrast sensitivity is away from that. There's also the question of focus, and one definitely wants to avoid the bluer end of the spectrum for that reason (some discussion here: https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/30600/why-cant-the-human-eye-focus-blue-light — we've evolved to “auto-focus” so that orange-green is more in focus, since that turned out to be more useful!
Either way, it seems that monochromatic green/yellow/orange displays are likely to be easier to read/focus than bluer/whiter/multicoloured ones. GWR seemed to be switching to white too in some places (e.g. new platform displays towards east end at Didcot) though perhaps has now decided to stick with amber (e.g. new displays toward north end at Oxford). I hope the latter since to my eye it;s definitely clearer. Three-colour LED displays (red/green/yellow) must be noticeably cheaper than full colour, and would give some of the advantages of multi-colour to highlight information, without the focus/legibility problems of including blue in the mixture. I vaguely recollect that I might have seen such displays in use in the London Underground somewhere.
Didn't we already go through this with Railtrack? I distinctly remember them going nuts for LCD panels on all stations showing information (or often a helpful windows error dialog), which became completely unreadable as soon as the sun came out. The ones at Waterloo were particularly useless. The yellow LED panels were an absolute blessing when they replaced them.
Yellow/Orange boards are surprisingly legible under a wide variety of lighting conditions.
I was thinking that at Brighton the other day. Somehow via the buildings and canopies winter sun was full on the departure board, a standard orange screen set up, and yet I could still read it very easily.Yellow/Orange boards are surprisingly legible under a wide variety of lighting conditions.
I was thinking that at Brighton the other day. Somehow via the buildings and canopies winter sun was full on the departure board, a standard orange screen set up, and yet I could still read it very easily.
Congleton finally got a CIS on each platform just before Christmas (we were the 8th busiest station in the UK without one!).
The text is white.
God knows, but I could read it!It's obviously because each LED is brighter than the sun!
View attachment 58319 I do love the Thameslink CIS they probably cost a bomb, and probably aren't the most waterproof but they are something like the future IMO