The LG 4K monitor physically adjusts itself, so you don’t have to

Last night, LG announced plans to showcase a 4K monitor that it claims will help workers maintain an ergonomically comfortable look by automatically adjusting based on the user’s position.

LG will be showcasing its UltraFine Display Ergo AI 32UQ890 (which it first announced in minimal detail at CES 2022) at IFA 2022 in Berlin from Sept. 2 to Sept. 6, the report said.

The monitor gets its name because it uses AI through its built-in camera to interpret the user’s eye level. It uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to collect and analyze video frames, using a neural processor to do what it determines is a suitable screen height adjustment of up to 6.3 inches (160mm) or an angle of up to 20 degrees forward or backward. The monitor does not use deep learning, an LG spokesperson told Ars Technica.

Three different auto tuning modes are available. LG said it will showcase AI Motion, which adjusts the monitor whenever it notices a change in eye level.

LG’s announcement also claimed that the feature could prevent users from “staying in one pose for too long or falling into bad posture over time”, likely primarily due to the use of the other two modes, continuous motion and intermittent motion.

Many people won’t like a monitor that moves just to make you move, while others may be too busy with their work to change their position simply because their monitor has moved.

But if the 32UQ890 can successfully keep the top of the screen at user eye level and the center of the display 15 to 20 degrees below the horizontal view, that would be in line with the recommendations of ergonomics experts such as the US Department of Labor’s Department of Occupational Health and Safety. Health Administration.

At this point, we can’t help but note how easy it is for most people to reach out and set up their monitor, especially a 31.5-inch one like LG or smaller. Maintaining a horizontal view with the top of the screen is probably often forgotten in the throes of serious work, but manual settings can take other things into account, such as the current lighting and the part of the screen you’re focusing on.

However, we’ll be interested to see if LG’s monitor tweaks its settings in a way that feels smooth and not too distracting. The increase or decrease in height to 6.3 inches is quite noticeable, and it is not clear at what speed the monitor will make its movements.

There’s also the question of how loud a self-adjusting monitor will be. The feature will also require robust AI and the willingness of users to watch the camera frequently for it to be considered useful.

This feature should be optional, and when not in use, the 32UQ890 is considered a pretty decent 4K monitor. The IPS panel is said to cover 95 percent of DCI-P3 and also supports HDR10; though LG has yet to share any brightness specs or VESA DisplayHDR certifications. The contrast ratio is said to be 1000:1, which is not bad for IPS, but you can get noticeably higher contrast ratios with other technologies, even IPS Black.

In addition to AI-based automatic adjustment, the 31.5-inch screen also supports 270-degree swivel in any direction and extends/folds up to 11.8 inches (300mm). However, there is no portrait mode swivel, which seems like an oversight considering the monitor is geared towards portability.

There is, however, a claimed 60Hz refresh rate, a 5ms grey-to-gray response time, a pair of 5W speakers tuned by MaxxAudio, and, always fun, a remote control.

For I / O, there is HDMI (version not specified), DisplayPort 1.4, two downstream USB 3.1 ports, plus one upstream and a 3.5 mm jack.