Quantifying Display-Induced Visual Stress: The Phantom Display Visibility Measure (PDVM) Framework and Spatial-Saccadic Conversion

A persistent disconnect exists between display technology engineering, which optimizes for visual fidelity and power efficiency, and neuropsychology, which evaluates the human physiological response to optical stimuli. Modern Light-Emitting Diode (LED) and Organic LED (OLED) displays utilize complex, high-frequency temporal light modulation (TLM) that frequently induces visually induced asthenopia, photophobia, and autonomic stress in susceptible populations. However, legacy lighting metrics—which rely on distance-decaying illuminance models and arbitrarily cap hazard analysis at 30 kHz—systematically fail to quantify the luminance-driven, spatial-saccadic stressors emitted by active digital displays. This research proposes a fundamentally new, biologically grounded methodology for direct-luminance display metrology. Utilizing a custom-modified 300 kS/s sensor, this paper introduces a novel Phantom-array Display Visibility Measure (PDVM), scaling peripheral sensitivity via Piper’s Law and mathematically extending the physiological hazard ceiling to the 60 kHz foveal resolution limit. To quantify complex signal interference, a Rolling-Window Root-Sum-Square (RSS) Weighted TLM Percentage (WTLM%) is deployed, alongside Sub-Harmonic Envelope Demodulation and Time-Domain Convolution filtering to isolate Frame Rate Control (FRC) and DAC structural step-distortions. Empirical case studies across varied OLED and LCD architectures confirm that this dual-channel framework successfully detects neurologically provocative sub-harmonics masked by >19 kHz carriers and dynamically tracks hardware electrical stability across Voltage-Transmittance curves. Ultimately, this methodology provides the rigorous diagnostic precision required to translate subjective visual fatigue into objective, quantifiable optical biomarkers.