US Patent 6,506,148
"Nervous System Manipulation by Electromagnetic Fields from Monitors"
Granted 2003.
It describes pulsing a screen's brightness by less than 2%, small enough that you can't consciously see it happening.
At around 0.5Hz that pulse makes you drowsy.
At around 2.4Hz your eyelids start to droop.
The patent even says it can be sent to your monitor remotely, over the internet, without you knowing.
Your screen is already pulsing right now. Invisibly. For a dumber reason than any patent.
Drop the brightness below 100%
and most backlights don't dim smoothly.
They strobe the LEDs on and off, hundreds to thousands of times a second, because a strobing driver circuit is cheaper to build than a smooth one.
Nobody printed that on the box.
Same blind spot as the patent. Except this one isn't buried in a filing from 2003.
It's running on your desk right now and the company that sold it to you never said a word.
TAP ZAP fixes this
