Projectors were developed to offer a great view to the audience on a big screen. Moreover, it has become a staple in board rooms across the globe. However, did you wonder about are projectors better for your eyes?
Well, you’ll be glad to know that “projector light can be harmful to your eyes only if you look directly into the lens”; as it reflects the image off a screen. This function found almost in every projector minimizes the — IR, damaging UV and blue light that may be emitted by a projector.
Therefore you won’t have to worry most of the time while using a projector for different tasks; whether it’s for image tracing or any other task!
Also Check out: Best projector under 600
However, using a projector for the long term would be a different case. Although watching a few PowerPoint presentations or a casual movie night shouldn’t be that harmful.
Now if you’re excited to learn more about projectors and how to take safety measures to reduce eye strain and damage then keep reading.
How Projectors Light can Damage Your Eyes
In this digital era, everyone needs to understand what technologies or screens could damage their eyes; as we come across a plethora of screens in our daily lives. Therefore knowing all of this is important to maintain proper vision health. Now, what are the things that you need to worry about while using a projector?
Most people believe that the screen is the same thing whether it’s the screen of a TV or projector. But unfortunately… it isn’t the right approach!
As you can see the way a projector work is completely different than a TV. However, there are still plenty of things that you need to take care of – while operating or using a projector. Either way, you need to be aware of the dangers to minimize the existing risk to your eyes.
Again as we discussed earlier the only way a projector light could harm your eyes is if you stare directly into the lens. Because it bounces off the radiation and UV from the wall to project an image.
Therefore all of the potentially damaging effects would have been minimized already either way let’s start exploring the risk that does exist and see how projectors can damage your eyes.
1. How do your eyes work
Before understanding the risks that exist while using a projector. You must understand the way your eyes work. Just for the sake of reference, you could consider the eyes more like a camera.
Based on this analogy your eyes reply to the light that is being reflected off an object. So It generates all the colors of the visible light spectrum in response to corresponding wavelengths of light or color that reflect from the wall.
After that, the reflected light finally enters through the pupil which will be the aperture in our camera analogy. Through the aperture, the light is then focused on the optical components of the eye. The front part of the eye is made up of the cornea, lens, and iris.
2. Ultraviolet and Infrared Radiation
In the terms of science, radiation is a big word with a lot of baggage. But the reality is that we come across radiation in our daily life. For instance, the sun on our heads also emits some form of radiation such as UV and IR.
Similarly, the projectors also emit radiation too. If you remember correctly, we also explored all those sensitive photoreceptors find in the back of your eye in the previous section. Well, UV and IR radiation can damage them.
The damage you’ll have on those sensitive photoreceptors would be much similar to the sunburns caused by too much exposure to the UV and IR light. It could happen in your eyes too and the light from the projector can be the culprit.
However, before you start using the sunglasses while using a projector. You must know that projectors work by reflecting the light emitted by the lens against the screen or wall. Plus it also throws the image from a long distance. Therefore the light you’ll get wouldn’t be similar to the sunlight.
Based on these two factors it becomes very much safe to use a projector without worrying about harmful UV and IR lights. Although a direct look to the lens of the projectors could be dangerous; as you don’t have the diffusion and filtration caused by the screen and distance.
Now, are projector lights dangerous? Yeah, it is but only if you take a direct look into the lens of the projectors.
3. Blue Light
In case if you’re using a computer screen for a long time then you must have felt some eye strain and fatigue. This happens because blue light is based on the units of wavelength part of almost every type of visible light – especially natural light.
As you can see most of the wavelengths of blue light aren’t much harmful to your eyes. But unfortunately, this doesn’t fit with the blue light having high energy. You could find this type of blue light in the 415-455 nm band of visible light.
Therefore you need to be careful while using devices that emit this particular wavelength; as these high-energy blue lights can cause damage to your eyes.
Here this could have happened because this wavelength falls into the UV intense category of light. So your eyes could be damaged by the UV radiation of the screen. Though most projectors emit the blue light but thanks to the filter light through the throw and screen; it’s very much minimal.
However, for long use of the projector, you might consider wearing blue light glasses and taking breaks whenever possible.
Is Watching a Projector Bad For the Eyes
After going through the previous sections. I hope now you must have a pretty good idea about this one. As you can see no normal projector viewing isn’t dangerous until you take a direct look into the projector light. This is because the light that powers the projector emits light @ 6kW which is plenty of power to damage anyone’s eyes.
Now the question is how does this happen? For what reason the light coming from the projector is dangerous but the light reflecting off the screen isn’t? Well if you remember then we’ve had a slight discussion about this in the previous sections. However, now it’s time to get to more depth and details.
As we discussed earlier the projector forms an image by hitting the light on the screen and then reflecting it into the viewer’s eyes. During this process, the screen itself absorbs a good amount of light that hits it. This could be both a good thing and a bad thing as well.
Well good in the sense that it won’t damage your eyes anymore. At the same time, it’s bad in the sense that the image quality is compromised due to the absorption of the image. However even with no detriment to your eye health. It could be frustrating to deal with a less than stellar projector image.
Moreover, the ability of any projector screen to reflect light depends highly on a balance of both the material and color. On the other hand, too much light absorption could ruin the image due to this a grey screen color is recommended; as grey absorbs more light than white but less than black.
While reflecting the light into the eyes the bad wavelengths of light such as UV and IR will also be filtered throughout the process. Plus it’ll be further filtered by having to travel the distance from the lens to the screen and then back to the eyes.
1. Do You Need to Worry About the Long Exposure to Blue Light
Now we’re sure enough that screens do wonders to mitigate the risks of UV and IR wavelengths. But do we need to worry about the blue light? Since we’ve seen that how much dangerous it could be for you. So should long-term exposure to projector screens worry you?
Although the blue light isn’t much troubling for you. Still, there are some safety tips against blue light that will be disclosed in later sections. There are a few factors included in this section on which you could decide whether the blue light is harmful or not. However, till now you could say that “projectors do tend to reduce blue light emission”.
- How long you’re looking at the screen
- What is the type of projector you’re using
- How much blue light you’re taking in
2. Can Projectors Reduce the Eye Strains
The eye strains are generally caused by overtime and blue light exposure which is becoming a significant problem; as our habits towards the screens are growing day by day. Luckily among projectors, there is a significant decrease in the blue light through the reflection of the direct light.
Although it very much minimizes the concern of the blue light. Still, it doesn’t eliminate all the blue light risks. So if you’re using the projector screen for more than four hours a day then you might wanna employ some eye protection techniques.
How to Protect Your Eyes While Using a Projector
To make the most out of your projector there are some simple and easy steps you could use to minimize the possible damage to your eyes. Here common sense plays a very important role for you. Things like taking a direct look into the projector light must be avoided.
Below in this section, you’ll find some more stunning tips to get the most out of your projector. Without even getting your eyes damage. These are the tips to protect your eyes:
1. Watch children and pets
Although the animals and children are very smart today. But curiosity could often take over them. Therefore you must make sure that the projector is high enough so that your kids and pets won’t be able to take a direct look into it either on accident or on purpose.
2. Use your projector as intended
By taking an overview of the article we’ve seen how a projector reduces the number of damaging wavelengths. However, any misuse of the projector could lead to damage to your eyes. Therefore it’s very much important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions that come with the projector.
3. A glance isn’t a problem
While giving a presentation it might be possible that you accidentally look right down the barrel of the projector. Because of it, you might start seeing some bright spots in your vision resulting in the eyes strain that could last no longer than a second.
Therefore a glance won’t be much troubling for you; as our bodies are resilient. However, long-term exposure could cause real damage to your eyes.
4. Direct vs. indirect light
You must be aware of this term. As you can see the projector uses indirect light and reflects light off the screen. On the contrary, the direct light would be the TV or a lightbulb.
Here the direct light can do the most damage to the eyes. Since there is no filtering with direct light.
5. Protect the eyes while you’re working on the projector
While repairing the projector make sure that everything is turned off. Because the will be very bright and could cause a lot of damage if not used carefully.
6. Use a laser projector
Unlike regular projectors, laser projectors are very much weak. Due to its name, you might be imagining some damaging hyper-red beams. But that doesn’t fit here; as it operates with lower power output. I bet this must be good news for your eyes.
7. Blue light glasses
Since this is the age of digital technology and the use of screens is growing very quickly. Therefore it’ll be very useful for you to invest in some of the blue light glasses to block out the harmful blue light right at your eyes.
8. Take breaks
Overexposure to the screens could result in some serious eye strain issues and damage. Therefore you must ensure to take breaks consistently – especially if the eye strain is an issue. Its recommended for both the screens and projectors.
Conclusion
By going through the overall article about are projectors better for your eyes? We could say that the projectors unlike other devices minimize a lot of risk factors that could damage your eyes.
However, it doesn’t eliminate all of those risks. Therefore if you’re using a projector for more than four hours a day then make sure to follow the blue light safety tips mentioned in the article.