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Author Topic: IDEA: change desktop background color by time of day  (Read 6545 times)

donwiss

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IDEA: change desktop background color by time of day
« on: December 23, 2011, 06:13 PM »
I was reading this article:

In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/health/05light.html?pagewanted=all

It points out that blue light is what suppresses melatonin production and keeps one alert. And to suppress melatonin less, the light color should be like yellow before going to sleep.

After reading the article I realize that my default Windows background is blue. I have a huge screen that I am close to. I can, of course, change to some Windows yellow-orange a couple hours before going to bed. But changing background color could be automatic. It would need a bed time and and earliest awake time. And maybe how long before bed. The color change could be gradual.

It would be nice to know the optimal colors. I found these pages that discuss color some more:

https://www.lowbluelights.com/sleep_tutorial.asp
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-white-suppresses-body-production-melatonin.html

skwire

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Re: IDEA: change desktop background color by time of day
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2011, 07:09 PM »
Welcome to the site, donwiss.  You could actually use mouser's own "Temporality Screens" application to do what you want.  You'd have to create your own coloured backgrounds, though, but his program would allow you set whichever background/colour you wanted at whatever time you want.  Make sense?

Go here for the app: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=210.0

4wd

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Re: IDEA: change desktop background color by time of day
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2011, 07:16 PM »
I was reading this article:

In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light
http://www.nytimes.c....html?pagewanted=all

It points out that blue light is what suppresses melatonin production and keeps one alert. And to suppress melatonin less, the light color should be like yellow before going to sleep.

It also pointed out that the current LED backlit screens produce twice as much blue spectrum light as the older CCFL backlit screens.  The best colour for your Desktop background would be pure black, thereby blocking as much light emitted by the LED backlighting as possible, (assuming you have an LED backlit screen).

I have most program windows as dark as possible and still be comfortable with the visuals, (purely because I hate glare), and the Desktop background picture changes every 15 minutes between a large number of photo and rendered images, in theory evening out any exposure to a single wavelength for any prolonged amount of time.