Opera Launches Updated Lucid Mode and Sunrise-Emulating Wallpapers

Winter has descended upon the Northern Hemisphere, including the headquarters of Opera in Oslo. Further north, polar night kicks off this evening in Narvik, Norway, blanketing the area in a deep blue until January. Days spent in cold and darkness lead many people to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, which lowers their mood and causes sluggishness.

Studies have shown that poor video quality is linked to negative emotional responses in viewers – not the sort of feelings with which we want to saddle ourselves during an already trying time. That's why, just in time for the short days of December, Opera has improved its Lucid Mode – a feature that provides videos with better-than-ever brightness, sharpness, and clarity. Not only has the underlying technology been upgraded – resulting in better browser performance and battery life – but users can now control the extent of video enhancement within Settings. Once they configure the video quality to their specifications, users can – by hovering on the Lucid Mode button on any video – click a slider that allows them to see the crispness boosted in real time.

First identified by Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal in 1984, SAD is a condition that afflicts tens of millions of people around the world. Often called winter depression, SAD affects as many as twenty percent of adults to some greater or lesser degree, with symptoms including less energy, difficulty concentrating, and feeling generally down.

On top of introducing an improved Lucid Mode, Opera has also created a special, luminous Sunrise wallpaper, designed to combat the winter blues by showering users with light. It may not be a substitute for a SAD lamp, but it's the best we could do from a software perspective – for now!