Ambiguous “On” Indicators on Television Sets and Monitors

I’m currently taking a course on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The instructor advised us to keep logs of things we notice in the world that relate to the course material. This is one of my log entries.

One item I noticed today was the On indicator on a Samsung television at work. It’s a large flat-panel screen that we have connected to a PC for presentation purposes in a small conference room. I was preparing for a presentation and sat down at the keyboard and mouse. The power light glowed amber, so I wiggled the mouse. Nothing. I pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL. Nothing. I checked to make sure that the PC was on, and then I checked to make sure the cables were connected. Everything looked correct–why wasn’t the screen getting a signal?

Bottom panel of a television set displaying an amber light. Note that although the indicator light is near the power symbol, it could be much closer.

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