Gonzalo Cervantes
Product Manager
Most programs, applications, and graphical user interfaces are designed to be bright, look friendly, and appear upbeat. For most entertainment, networking and other common purposes this is fine, but for law enforcement officers traveling in their cruisers at night- darker themes are much more practical.
For police on patrol after sunset, or during other difficult lighting conditions, looking at a computer screen can make a person unable to see what is outside of the vehicle. It could pose a hazard for police who will be temporarily blinded to what is going on outside of the cruiser while their eyes adjust to natural light. Conversely, brighter backlighting and brighter application themes are preferable in the day time for similar reasons.
Google Chrome High Contrast Extension
This simple browser extension allows users to invert the color scheme to make web pages easier to read at night. The high contrast setting lets you browse the Internet using your choice of a selection of high-contrast skin modes designed to be easier on the eyes in different lighting conditions.
Clicking on the icon in the upper right menu bar inverts the colors of web pages, making otherwise blindingly bright black-on-white pages white-on-black or vice-verse depending on what you need for the given lighting conditions. Users also have the option to use an inverted monochrome filter if the colors begin to look strange.
When you install this extension, all pages are “inverted”, so black becomes white and white becomes black. Press the “browser action” icon in the toolbar to toggle it on and off, or customize your settings on a per-site basis. Users may also make use of the convenient keyboard shortcut to quickly change the browser’s settings while running Chrome.
Blank Your Monitor
Firefox offers a similar extension called Blank Your Monitor which inverts the colors for easier night reading. It also comes with a wider range of options than Google’s version.
Other extensions attempt to change the website colors, but they frequently disable many popular websites. Only High Contrast and Blank Your monitor apply filters to your page that can invert most things- except photos without stopping the script and ending your session.
These extensions also come with time-sensitive settings which enable them to automatically change the filter configurations based on the time of day. This frees up officers patrolling at dawn, dusk, after dark, and during starkly bright daytime conditions to look at their computer screens without having to wait for their eyes adjust before seeing what’s going on outside of the car. The automatic settings free them up from having to worry about how to switch filters when the light changes – which could certainly become an issue during long shifts.
When Peace officers are responding to dangerous situations, they cannot afford to waste the critical seconds it can take for their eyes to adjust. These apps are not just a great convenience, they may also save lives.
Adventos SmartForce™
We at Adventos considered the needs of law enforcement and have upgraded our solution SmartForce™ with a night mode theme that uses a palette with dark tones. Doing this, the display shines less and decreases the light emitted by the screen.
Between 6am and 6pm the theme is changed automatically to day mode and between 6pm and 6am is changed to night mode. Users can switch manually clicking a button to switch the theme.
Parties interested in the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it improves intelligence, click here. After watching the demo video, you are invited to request a free trial of the agency management system to try for yourselves.
