Effects of Display and Ambient Illuminance on Visual Comfort for Reading on a Mobile Device

Abstract

A psychophysical experiment was carried out to investigate visual comfort when reading on three OPPO Find X3s displays at three luminance levels (100, 250 and 500 cd/m2) at five illuminance levels (0, 10, 100, 500 and 1000 lx). Twenty young observers evaluated visual comfort using a 6-category points method. The results showed that observers felt most comfortable at the illuminance of 500 lx or display luminance of 500 cd/m2. There was an interaction between ambient illuminance and display luminance. High ambient light and display brightness levels provide a more pleasant visual experience. In low ambient light, however, the lower the brightness level, the more comfortable it is to see. Regarding the influence of background colour on visual comfort, the observers felt more comfortable having a grey background than white or black colour. When at dim illuminance, the background colour would have a great influence on visual comfort for negative contrast conditions, but when at higher illuminance, different background lightness levels had a great impact on visual comfort for positive contrast conditions. The above findings are very similar to the display luminance levels of 100 and 250 cd/m2.