Visual experience of quality degradation when viewing computer and notebook displays from an oblique angle

Kjell Brunnström Lukas Nordström Börje Andrén Abstract — This study focused on evaluating the user experience of the viewing-angle-dependent quality of computer and notebook displays. The tests were performed in a test lab using a notebook with a prismatic display and a computer monitor with a conventional LCD. The notebook display was tilted and turned during an image-quality test and tilted during an acuity test. On the computer monitor, the turn and tilt was simulated in the image-quality test, for checking the TCO requirements. The results from the image-quality test show that the parameter used in the TCO requirement, luminance ratio, would be a reasonable predictor of image quality. However, the experiment with the notebook display shows that, in general, this is not the case, especially for larger viewing angles where the physical characteristics do not show a gradual variation in luminance. Therefore, the luminance ratio in TCO requirements shall be used with caution. In addition, the results for the notebook display show that the visual acuity decreased faster with increasing viewing angle than predicted from the luminance decrease alone. This means that it will be harder to resolve small details and will, therefore, have a negative influence on the visual ergonomics.