Bizarre... Is there more to the statement "polarizing?"

[RedwoodPaul]

I own an iPhone 5 running ios7 beta 5. I also have an iPod touch 4th gen (5.x.x) and an iPad mini (6.1.3).

I recently lost my sunglasses, in a pinch I bought a set that were the style I liked. These ended up being polarized glasses, and this was my first time ever wearing polarized sunglasses. After having them on for a few minutes, I checked my phone, to my surprise, my screen had a very unusual effect! The contrast became insanely drastic while viewing through the glasses, and changes as I move the screen back and forth. I instantly thought that it was strictly from the glasses and that all of my devices would appear similarly. Not the case. All my other devices look the same with or without the glasses on. Even another iphone 5 running ios 6 did not have this effect.

I can't figure out why this happens, and I can't fully describe in words how unusual it looks. If you have ever worn polarized glasses, certain things have an unusual look, like car windows, etc. I just find it interesting that ios 7 seems to be the difference in how the display appears through polarized glasses. It is extremely different.

Any thoughts? Anybody else experience this?

 

[marecej]

i tried it with my polarised rayban wayfarers and couldn't see any difference in behaviour between ios7 beta 5 on iphone5 and my macbook air

 

[Markyyy]

I own an iPhone 5 running ios7 beta 5. I also have an iPod touch 4th gen (5.x.x) and an iPad mini (6.1.3).

I recently lost my sunglasses, in a pinch I bought a set that were the style I liked. These ended up being polarized glasses, and this was my first time ever wearing polarized sunglasses. After having them on for a few minutes, I checked my phone, to my surprise, my screen had a very unusual effect! The contrast became insanely drastic while viewing through the glasses, and changes as I move the screen back and forth. I instantly thought that it was strictly from the glasses and that all of my devices would appear similarly. Not the case. All my other devices look the same with or without the glasses on. Even another iphone 5 running ios 6 did not have this effect.

I can't figure out why this happens, and I can't fully describe in words how unusual it looks. If you have ever worn polarized glasses, certain things have an unusual look, like car windows, etc. I just find it interesting that ios 7 seems to be the difference in how the display appears through polarized glasses. It is extremely different.

Any thoughts? Anybody else experience this?

Are you saying that iOS7 is causing the effect, or the iPhone 5?

 

[maxosx]

It's Apples secret sauce

 

[fullauto]

Out of interest were you using a screen protector?

 

[GreyOS]

iPhones since at least iPhone 4 have looked weird with 3D cinema glasses (which I believe are polarized, though presumably not in the same way as sunglasses). I never looked into why, but I always assumed it was because of the high pixel density.

However, you stated an iPhone 5 with iOS 6 didn't have this effect, so this is probably not the same thing, but sort of related...

 

[jeremiah239]

Dude do a google search, it happens with almost all LCD screens when wearing polarized glasses.

Why is this in the iOS 7 forums?

 

[Doublea6]

When I wear my sunglasses it makes my iphone screen have a rainbow effect. I can handle that. Though on when I look at a kindle fire I can't see the screen at all, same with some samsung phone someone had.

 

[RedwoodPaul]

Are you saying that iOS7 is causing the effect, or the iPhone 5?

It seems to be ios7b5.. My sisters boyfriend had iphone 5 with ios 6, not strange effect. My ipad and my iPod touch have no unusual effect.

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Out of interest were you using a screen protector?

No screen protector.

 

[jeremiah239]

Different iPhones have different screen manufactures and as a result you may notice the same phone looks different but its just the different LCD inside.

If i remember correctly LCDs use a polarizing layer inside the LCD that is unseen to the naked eye and they can be different depending on the polarized glasses and the LCD your looking at.

 

[jeremiah239]

This is why I personally don't buy polarized glasses. They are a visual distraction while driving by making windows look like rainbows and polka dots. and In my car I can't seen any of the lcd screens in my dash, Like my radio and the screen in my gauge cluster. Even my AC controls on my car I can't read because they are LCD.

 

[RedwoodPaul]

Different iPhones have different screen manufactures and as a result you may notice the same phone looks different but its just the different LCD inside.

If i remember correctly LCDs use a polarizing layer inside the LCD that is unseen to the naked eye and they can be different depending on the polarized glasses and the LCD your looking at.

That's what I assumed, until I get different results on another iphone 5 on ios6.

 

[RedwoodPaul]

This is why I personally don't buy polarized glasses. They are a visual distraction while driving by making windows look like rainbows and polka dots. and In my car I can't seen any of the lcd screens in my dash, Like my radio and the screen in my gauge cluster. Even my AC controls on my car I can't read because they are LCD.

I agree, still on the fence with these glasses, there are some pros ~ while tinted, things appear brighter than other glasses I've had before, almost like range glasses.. My LCD displays in car, office security system all have a rainbow effect, very much like any "polarize" camera filter, the results with ios7 are very different than that. I tried to video it with my glasses over the camera lens, but no special effect. The greens and reds (badges) especially are exceptionally bright. It gives a very interesting effect. The best way to describe it would be: the difference between glasses and no glasses is equal to the difference of ios 6 and ios 7, in regards to brightness and contrast.. It's like ios 7 brightness x10..

 

[jeremiah239]

That's what I assumed, until I get different results on another iphone 5 on ios6.

Well even two identical iPhone 5's can have different screens.

A while ago my friend and I both had iPhone 4s's and his screen looked much worse then my screen with polarized glasses.

At work my samsung computer monitor is completely visible but my coworkers same exact monitor is completely black unless I tilt my head to the side. Then I can clearly see his but then I can't see mine with my head tilted. I actually swapped monitors with him because he often has his shades on while on the computer just to look something up quick.

So what I'm getting at is polarized glasses are unpredictable.

 

[AngerDanger]

If we really wanted to be scientific about this, we'd need a control to test normal reactions. OP, you've tried another i5 on iOS6 and seen a different result. What you need to do now is see what your i5's screen looks like through the glasses after downgrading to iOS 6.

Guys, this could be the beginning of a horrible sci-fi flick!

 

[Krevnik]

What you are seeing is that the angle of the polarization is different for each display. When the angle of polarization is perpendicular to the angle of polarization in the glasses, you get a very dark/black screen. That's because the glasses only lets in light of the same angle.

If the angles align, the screen looks fine. Somewhere in-between you get dimming and rainbow colors.

This video does a pretty good job showing the effect: http://youtu.be/Sdv0J57_U5g

Well even two identical iPhone 5's can have different screens.

A while ago my friend and I both had iPhone 4s's and his screen looked much worse then my screen with polarized glasses.

At work my samsung computer monitor is completely visible but my coworkers same exact monitor is completely black unless I tilt my head to the side. Then I can clearly see his but then I can't see mine with my head tilted. I actually swapped monitors with him because he often has his shades on while on the computer just to look something up quick.

So what I'm getting at is polarized glasses are unpredictable.

 

[jeremiah239]

What you are seeing is that the angle of the polarization is different for each display. When the angle of polarization is perpendicular to the angle of polarization in the glasses, you get a very dark/black screen. That's because the glasses only lets in light of the same angle.

If the angles align, the screen looks fine. Somewhere in-between you get dimming and rainbow colors.

This video does a pretty good job showing the effect: http://youtu.be/Sdv0J57_U5g

Yeah I understand that I just didn't want to go that far it. Maybe this will help the OP better understand!

 

[Armen]

I own an iPhone 5 running ios7 beta 5. I also have an iPod touch 4th gen (5.x.x) and an iPad mini (6.1.3).

I recently lost my sunglasses, in a pinch I bought a set that were the style I liked. These ended up being polarized glasses, and this was my first time ever wearing polarized sunglasses. After having them on for a few minutes, I checked my phone, to my surprise, my screen had a very unusual effect! The contrast became insanely drastic while viewing through the glasses, and changes as I move the screen back and forth. I instantly thought that it was strictly from the glasses and that all of my devices would appear similarly. Not the case. All my other devices look the same with or without the glasses on. Even another iphone 5 running ios 6 did not have this effect.

I can't figure out why this happens, and I can't fully describe in words how unusual it looks. If you have ever worn polarized glasses, certain things have an unusual look, like car windows, etc. I just find it interesting that ios 7 seems to be the difference in how the display appears through polarized glasses. It is extremely different.

Any thoughts? Anybody else experience this?

Does the same for me with my sunglasses. You think iOS looks weird? Try looking at windows on commericial buildings or car windows. Welcome to polarized sunglasses

 

[RedwoodPaul]

What you are seeing is that the angle of the polarization is different for each display. When the angle of polarization is perpendicular to the angle of polarization in the glasses, you get a very dark/black screen. That's because the glasses only lets in light of the same angle.

If the angles align, the screen looks fine. Somewhere in-between you get dimming and rainbow colors.

This video does a pretty good job showing the effect: http://youtu.be/Sdv0J57_U5g

I completely understand the typical function of polarized lenses, and that video depicts how most things LCD (or with any type of horizontal light element) appear through them. That blackout function as you rotate is nonexistent on my iphone5 with ios7. However it does do that on my iPod touch. I think I'm not describing it well, it's as if the contrast is cranked up 100x.. Almost a old school holographic effect..

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Well even two identical iPhone 5's can have different screens.

A while ago my friend and I both had iPhone 4s's and his screen looked much worse then my screen with polarized glasses.

So what I'm getting at is polarized glasses are unpredictable.

I agree, I know there are different manufacturers for the same phones.. I don't know anyone else with ios7, so it's hard to try additional ios7 devices. I'm considering downgrading to rule out screen or os... But what PITA for nothing but an experiment. I do know I get mixed results with other things, BUT nothing even remotely close to this.

 

[Krevnik]

I completely understand the typical function of polarized lenses, and that video depicts how most things LCD (or with any type of horizontal light element) appear through them. That blackout function as you rotate is nonexistent on my iphone5 with ios7. However it does do that on my iPod touch. I think I'm not describing it well, it's as if the contrast is cranked up 100x.. Almost a old school holographic effect..

The color distortion was there with iOS 6 as well, but with the very white UI in 7, it is a lot easier to notice. The other polarization effects are all due to hardware as well, so an OS update won't change the behavior of the screen.

But every screen is slightly different, so it won't look exactly the same between them. The angle of the wafer when they start making the displays, for example.

But also keep in mind they use a different tech with the iPhone 5 display than the touch and earlier models. The details of the polarizer could certainly be different. But the OS isn't a factor.