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Serene Scenes on HDTV No Substitute for Nature

by Darren Murph on June 17, 2008 at 02:01 PM


Ruh roh. Seems you can't use the "it's good for my health" excuse to watch just one more hour of Sunrise Earth, as a recent study has shown that watching serene scenes on HDTV just doesn't have the same calming effect as does watching a similar scene in nature.

The University of Washington-based study discovered that heart recovery rates in people exposed to minor stress were the same when viewing peaceful imagery on a plasma or starting directly at a blank wall. Yeah, a blank wall.

It was also noted that heart rates dropped more quickly when these same folks viewed a calming scene through a window, suggesting that technology may not be ready to replace reality just yet in this particular case. We just have to wonder if they were using true HD signals on the display -- nothing gets our heart racing like a bad episode of Pool Watchers in SD. [Source: Science Daily]

[Thanks, Ben]

Tags: beauty, clarity, data, hdtv, health, heart rate, HeartRate, medical, nature, research, study

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