A continuing design error on Apple Watches

[BotchQue]

During yesterday's keynote I noted the "night mode" on the fahncy AW, where all info is displayed in red (don't know if this is the case for the less-expensive watch).
Using red for dial displays was first done by the US Air Force, don't know if during WWII or later. They'd learned that the red wavelength did the least reduction to a pilot's night vision, allowing them to see better. They soon found, however, that wasn't working too well, and discovered that the pilots were cranking the intensity/brightness to the max, negating any benefit. Turns out the red wavelength is also the hardest wavelength to see! Modern USAF aircraft now use white, green and blue lettering against a black background.
The auto industry, for awhile, took that cue from the AF and used red displays on their dashboards for awhile. Saab (who also tinkered with military jets) did not, and used white lettering on black backgrounds, very easy on the eyes (I'd been a Saaboholic since 1985). My current Audi also uses white lettering on black backgrounds. My '08 Tacoma, however, uses this garish red-orange in the dash, and I really hate driving my truck at night for that reason; its hard on the eyes.
Hopefully someone at The Mothership will see this, and look into an alternate color(s) for their "night" display.

 

[ukms]

With the AW Ultra night mode its not so much about seeing the dial its more about simply preserving night vision, what you are talking about is a slightly different topic whereby you are factoring in the clarity of instrument dials when driving / flying as well as night vision. Ive never flown a plane but with a car, instrument clarity at night is very important but your true night vision not so much as generally you have other aids to help you see, the main one being headlights (Which in themselves degrade your true night vision).

If you are on a pitch dark mountain side with an AW Ultra you need to preserve your night vision to see your surroundings (as best you can) …… you are generally not driving a car or flying a plane.

 

[4sallypat]

I was taught in combat defensive schools that red light is the best for night time use to avoid night blindness.

All my tactical flashlights have a red lens cover...

 

[nnc]

Are you concerned with what it looks like if you wake up during the night and want to know the time? You will probably want to go to sleep with your Watch in Sleep mode so the screen is completely dark. If you tap it while it is in Sleep mode, the time displays with very large digital time. The numerals are white or pale gray, and very dim. It's perfect. Kudos to the Watch OS team.

For the situations where you are awake but want a night face, it's easy enough to design your own.

 

[bruinsrme]

The subs I was on switched from red to blue ambient lighting when we went to PD.
I am friggain blind so I would need a 150x max to be able to see the watch in the first place.

 

[Night Spring]

With the AW Ultra night mode its not so much about seeing the dial its more about simply preserving night vision, what you are talking about is a slightly different topic whereby you are factoring in the clarity of instrument dials when driving / flying as well as night vision. Ive never flown a plane but with a car, instrument clarity at night is very important but your true night vision not so much as generally you have other aids to help you see, the main one being headlights (Which in themselves degrade your true night vision).

If you are on a pitch dark mountain side with an AW Ultra you need to preserve your night vision to see your surroundings (as best you can) …… you are generally not driving a car or flying a plane.

So wouldn't it be best if people could pick between white and red, depending on what activity they are doing?

 

[ukms]

So wouldn't it be best if people could pick between white and red, depending on what activity they are doing?

My understanding of the night mode on AW is to preserve your night vision if you want a white face because of seeing dials clearer there are a ton of options. White does not preserve night vision but it makes dials clearer for drivers or pilots. Which is the point I was making to the OP.

 

[Mikeske]

It does not matter to some. For someone that is colorblind red is one of the worse colors for me. I once had a rental car years ago with red backlighting. The first day I returned it as I could not read the dash at night. The rental company found me a car that had a black background and green lighting that I could see. All I saw on the dash of that car was an unreadable light in several shades of blue. That is the reason that the colors can be changed by the owners of the Watch. Some folks flat out can not see the color correctly

 

[ukms]

It does not matter to some. For someone that is colorblind red is one of the worse colors for me. I once had a rental car years ago with red backlighting. The first day I returned it as I could not read the dash at night. The rental company found me a car that had a black background and green lighting that I could see. All I saw on the dash of that car was an unreadable light in several shades of blue. That is the reason that the colors can be changed by the owners of the Watch. Some folks flat out can not see the color correctly

There are plenty of options to customise a watch face and colours and there are also accessibility features, so nobody can really say that Apple don’t consider users with various challenges.

Of course they could have additional colours for night mode but they don’t. How many actually use night mode is questionable anyway 😁

 

[BenGieCruz]

I actually like the red on black in darkness. My only gripe right now is that it doesn't activate when rotating the crown anymore on the latest beta OS

 

[hwojtek]

I am not sure it is an error. There is solid science behind it.

Using red for dial displays was first done by the US Air Force, don't know if during WWII or later.

Much earlier, first works on red dials come from early 20th century and were not implemented on planes but on industrial machines working in the dark.

They'd learned that the red wavelength did the least reduction to a pilot's night vision, allowing them to see better. They soon found, however, that wasn't working too well, and discovered that the pilots were cranking the intensity/brightness to the max, negating any benefit. Turns out the red wavelength is also the hardest wavelength to see!

No, it's not like that.
Reds are indeed harder to see in daylight because of the combination of light-sensitive cells in a human eye. The cells actually providing the most visual information to the brain - the rod cells - are most sensitive to green-to-blue. Which means a strong light from a bright green or blue gauge at night would make them temporarily overdrive their sensitivity and blind the pilot. The rod cells are however of almost no sensitivity to reds. Reds are seen with the cone cells, so the risk of light glaze is greatly reduced while the rod cells allow for night vision outside the aircraft.
So the actual reason the red does the least reduction to a pilot's night vision is exactly because red is harder to see.

Modern USAF aircraft now use white, green and blue lettering against a black background.

There is a completely different reasoning for this and night cabin floodlights are still red. However red has been recognized as an alert color and therefore the gauges are slowly moving away from red backlighting for the alerts to be more pronounced.
The green/blue (back)lighting in planes comes from the compatibility with green phosphor-based night vision equipment. While it is rare to fly with NVG today, most aircraft is not that new and when the military orders something like a gauge, they order it for next 50 years to be the same as it was when new.

The auto industry, for awhile, took that cue from the AF and used red displays on their dashboards for awhile. Saab (who also tinkered with military jets) did not, and used white lettering on black backgrounds, very easy on the eyes (I'd been a Saaboholic since 1985).

Well, as a Saaboholic you should know that they have always used green backlight in their cars...

(1985 SAAB 90)

...contrary to their planes

(1995 SAAB 340A)

My current Audi also uses white lettering on black backgrounds.

Mega annoying IMHO, extreme contrast between white and environment, needs to be turned all the way down. There is a reason why all the buttons in your Audi have red backlighting.

My '08 Tacoma, however, uses this garish red-orange in the dash, and I really hate driving my truck at night for that reason; its hard on the eyes.

No, red (BMW believes in 605 nm, Toyota goes into 620 nm I think) is actually the easiest on the eyes (look up Purkinje effect), however if cranked all the way up it will be always annoying, as the other parts of the spectrum are also amplified). This is the reason to turn down all the interior lights (the Saab "night cockpit" with just the speedo partially backlighted) to almost zero when driving at night.

Hopefully someone at The Mothership will see this, and look into an alternate color(s) for their "night" display.

VW had once a theoretically good idea for the violet gauge color that is not hard on the eyes, allows clear recognition of red for any alert icon and Ferdinand Piech liked this shade which was a reason it went to to the full range of VW cars. Too bad it is just a plain fugly color. But it would make some sense in the Apple Watch I think. Green would not.

 

[BotchQue]

This is the reason to turn down all the interior lights (the Saab "night cockpit" with just the speedo partially backlighted) to almost zero when driving at night.

I really miss that feature; that, and the ventilation setting where hot air blew out all the vents except the center, which blew cold air from outside. Aim that at your face, and was really nice while driving an all-nighter.

 

[noteple]

With the AW Ultra night mode its not so much about seeing the dial its more about simply preserving night vision, what you are talking about is a slightly different topic whereby you are factoring in the clarity of instrument dials when driving / flying as well as night vision. Ive never flown a plane but with a car, instrument clarity at night is very important but your true night vision not so much as generally you have other aids to help you see, the main one being headlights (Which in themselves degrade your true night vision).

If you are on a pitch dark mountain side with an AW Ultra you need to preserve your night vision to see your surroundings (as best you can) …… you are generally not driving a car or flying a plane.

Exactly

Dark adaptor goggles - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Red was the way to go when yesterday’s war fighters were limited to optical sight and mechanical calculators. The sound was bad enough without intensity in an open bomb bay or low angle cockpit giving you away.
Today’s crew is very much an all color Instrument endeavor. The only zero light I’ve been in is night vision in certain helicopter scenarios.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

With the AW Ultra night mode its not so much about seeing the dial its more about simply preserving night vision, what you are talking about is a slightly different topic whereby you are factoring in the clarity of instrument dials when driving / flying as well as night vision. Ive never flown a plane but with a car, instrument clarity at night is very important but your true night vision not so much as generally you have other aids to help you see, the main one being headlights (Which in themselves degrade your true night vision).

If you are on a pitch dark mountain side with an AW Ultra you need to preserve your night vision to see your surroundings (as best you can) …… you are generally not driving a car or flying a plane.

Bingo — the post above is spot-on.

 

[BotchQue]

Mega annoying IMHO, extreme contrast between white and environment, needs to be turned all the way down. There is a reason why all the buttons in your Audi have red backlighting.

I had to wait until dark to double-check this one. The only red backlighting on my Audi is the "warm" side of the temp controls, the levels on the seat warmers (if used), and 1/4 to 1/3 of the Idiot Lights when I start the car (they disappear too quickly to count them). All other markings/controls are white against a black background, as I stated (it's an '18).

And I probably didn't make this clear in my original post; Yes, white-against-black does need to be turned all the way down; that's why I like it. Red, as used in my Tacoma, has to be bumped up a bit for me to be able to read it at night, which I don't like. Sorry if I was confusing.

 

[hwojtek]

I had to wait until dark to double-check this one. The only red backlighting on my Audi is the "warm" side of the temp controls, the levels on the seat warmers (if used), and 1/4 to 1/3 of the Idiot Lights when I start the car (they disappear too quickly to count them). All other markings/controls are white against a black background, as I stated (it's an '18)

That's interesting, all Audis I've been to had red backlight on things like window switches, aircon buttons etc. Granted, I quite rarely sit in an Audi but it'll change in three weeks as we take delivery of a Q5. Will check it out!

Yes, white-against-black does need to be turned all the way down; that's why I like it. Red, as used in my Tacoma, has to be bumped up a bit for me to be able to read it at night, which I don't like. Sorry if I was confusing.

Got it!