Transparent computer monitor designed to protect your vision
32 comments
·November 8, 2025binarymax
abcd_f
There is an eye exercise for short-sighted people that involves painting a dot on a window glass and then repeatedly changing focus between the dot and the scenery behind the window.
Basically, focus on the dot for 10 seconds, then on the back. Rinse and repeat several times, 2-3 times a day.
I was given this exercise over 30 years ago and its goal was to stop the worsening of the eyesight. Fwiw, in my case, it seemed to have worked.
Zak
There seems to be real evidence[0] for the idea that focusing on nearby objects like computer screens for hours on end can contribute to the development of myopia. Breaks might help.
I don't see any reason to believe that making the screen transparent rather than looking to the side of it is a better way to look out a window for a break.
jvanderbot
I want some VR goggles that are light, only do text, and have focus at infinity or so. Not just 3D convergence at infinity but somehow manage to blur just right so my eyes can focus on it like it's across the street. I'm not an optometrist I'm just a consumer and programmer. A guy can wish.
bee_rider
Maybe the text editor could fly around occasionally. Might be a little annoying but kind of fun.
evanjrowley
See this article on the growing prevelance of myopia: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/14/eyeballs-scr...
I intentionally arrange my desk so that I can look past my monitor. On days where I can't refocus my eyes on something long-distance, I have difficulty focusing my vision after spending 1/3 of the day looking at computer screens. On days where I can refocus my eyes, I can go up to 2/3 of the day without issue.
JoshTriplett
Fascinating. By default, though, this seems like it would just result in low contrast and difficulty reading, unless turned to opaque mode.
The thing I'd love to see, which to the best of my knowledge isn't possible with normal HDMI/DP/etc, is an opaque monitor that allows rendering an alpha channel as actual transparency. That would allow things like setting your desktop background to transparent, so that when you have one non-fullscreen window, the rest of the screen is transparent.
Are there any display technologies or protocols for sending RGBA to a monitor, and letting the monitor handle the alpha?
fleabitdev
That could be made to work by stacking a transparent OLED panel in front of a transparent LCD panel. The LCD would absorb light, and the OLED would emit light.
I just tried to search for some examples, but I can't find any. Maybe the displays can't be made thin enough to eliminate parallax between the two images?
Neywiny
I mean you could always tag transparency as extra bits. Presumably both sides of the link would need to understand this. So you'd send an 8bpc signal as idk 10, which gets you 6bpc of transparency. Or you run a faster framerate where 1 in every N frames is a transparency. It could work.
For displayport you could use MST
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Ekaros
I am not sure if this really does more than maybe helps you take more breaks. You still need to focus your vision on the screen and that is the issue. Just take some transparent object with text or something else on it and try to read. You focus on it. And then try to look through, reading is much harder if even possible at all.
seiferteric
While I am not particularly interested in the design, I am intrigued by the idea of making your own monitor. I have had some ideas about features I would like in a monitor before. Are there some boards out there that are easy to hack on to add firmware features etc?
clort
Not sure how it protects your vision. So, they say take an eye break to relieve the strain, presumably with focussing on a fixed point. These guys are saying that hey you can instantly focus on something far away and carry on working without even looking away from the screen! That doesn't sound like an eye break to me, and it doesn't sound like it protects your vision at all.
I mean, it looks pretty cool but I think their marketing department is not aiming it at my cynical self
toast0
I feel like it's likely misleading, too. Eye breaks are about changing your focal plane, and if you're looking beyond the monitor to rest your eyes, you won't be seeing the screen.
You can experience this with a window with dry erase markers. Focus at a far off point and the dry erase is illegible and may not even disturb your far vision. Focus at the glass and you can read whatever you wrote (subject to penmanship).
Heads up displays often have optics to project onto a medium distance focal plane, otherwise your eyes have to work harder and you're not really able to see the scene and the display at the same time.
knollimar
Does eye strain even damage your vision long term?
plun9
Your eyeballs elongate when you keep straining them to look at nearby objects for long periods of time.
plun9
I agree. There are other displays you can use with a greater focal distance: AR glasses, VR headsets, TVs, and projectors.
But we haven’t seen the actual product yet.
Wowfunhappy
Feels like a problem you could solve more completely by switching to a projector. Or some other really large screen—but you need something big enough to fill your field of view from many feet away.
plun9
True. It requires more space, but it’s been done: https://sofiapandelea.medium.com/monitor-replacement-using-a...
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TheCraiggers
Finally, I can be one of those "hackers" that I constantly see stock photos of!
nosrepa
What's going on in that second image?
jsheard
Looks like it functions like a teleprompter. The actual display is flat on the desk facing up, and reflected at you through a piece of glass set at 45 degrees, with a second piece of switchable "privacy glass" behind it to provide opacity when desired. Since you're looking at a reflection of the display, viewing it from the side as in that image breaks the alignment and cuts off part of it.
PaulHoule
This is the best waiting list I've seen in a long time. I've seen that monitor so much in science fiction.
wiz21c
the thing is so big I dunno where I can put my keyboard...
1970-01-01
Looks like it's just a HUD married to electro-chromatic glass. Nothing novel here.
thechao
Why does it need to be novel? It's (in theory!) a product you can buy. There's a bunch of different car companies & phone companies & writers & stuff, right?
user982
In the pilot episode of Banshee (2013), a character has transparent monitors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PiIhMs4k88) which never showed up again. They seemed higher tech than anything else in the series and I was never able to find information on them.
"Unlike traditional monitors that force your eyes to focus at a near distance, Phantom allows you to look through the display and focus on objects at varying distances. This helps reduce eye fatigue during long work sessions by giving your eyes natural opportunities to relax and refocus."
Is there any science behind this or is it just a "sounds about right" claim?