I’ve noticed that occasionally, I will see a red border appear briefly while using the Android emulator (API level 15). It seems to sometimes occur when switching between applications or unlocking the device, but a surefire way to make it appear is by opening the Camera app:

I can occasionally also invoke this behavior when opening the Messaging app:

What does it mean?
This is also available on ICS hardware (Settings > Developer > Strict mode enabled). It is indicating that whatever is in the foreground is consuming excessive time on the main application thread of its process.