Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Paper/Tablet reading... And e-Ink readers ? No data.

Here is a copy of the email exchange I had today with Ms Anne-Marie Chang, author of the recently disclosed publication WRT sleep and "LE-ebooks" reading


Dear Ms Chang,
I've read your recent publication, and wanted to make sure of one thing :
When the paper states "LE-ebook", is it about e-ink based ereaders with "overlightning" like on a Kindle Paperwhite ? or LCD based tablets ?
As far as I understand, many media consider them the same, but I understand the technology (and emitted light) is quite different.
I think your findings don't apply to e-ink based ebooks readers, but would like confirmation.
Cheers,
(redacted)

And the answer:

Dear (redacted),
The LE-eBook used in our study was the iPad. While we measured the light from other devices (in the Supplementary Table 1) the Kindle Paperwhite, which is relatively new was not measured. According to the description, the emitted light may be very different from the iPad and other devices we measured.
Best,
Anne-Marie
I checked in Supplementary Table 1, and Kindle (no Paperwhite) was measured to be almost paper-book like.