Technical Q&A Interviews

The interviews are conveniently indexed in this first post.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to be interviewed about your display expertise.

Technical Q&A Contributors

AGDisplays Q&A

Baanto Q&A

C2P Q&A

Dimenco Q&A

Elsin Electronic Solutions Q&A

Haptics Group at the University of Pennsylvania Q&A

Jaguar Land Rover Q&A

TouchMagix Q&A

Unified Brand Q&A

Value-Added Display Services Q&A

How does a company like AGDisplays distinguish its services in the display industry?

What is the demand for display enhancement services?

Have display enhancement needs changed over the years? Do enhancements differ across vertical markets (military, industrial, etc.)?

What is one problem in the display industry that engineers and manufacturers must address?

What is passive film enhancement?

What challenges does touch technology present to engineers, particularly in its application to real-world products?

Why would someone need LCD repair services?

What are the larger factors in the display industry that affect LCD repair services?

Are there differences in repairing LED displays vs. older CCFL displays?

What kind of repairs is Elsin Electronic Solutions equipped for?

Is there an advantage in being a European company in the display industry?

Touch Displays Q&A

Baanto touch technology

Where is the touch display industry right now and where is it going?

Are there any industries where touch technology has potential to be applied but hasn't yet?

What goes into being a touch solutions provider as opposed to just supplying the technology?

What is the biggest engineering challenge facing touch technology?

What is the present and future of gesture sensing technology?

Display Research and Development Q&A

What is the Haptics Group at the University of Pennsylvania?

What is haptics and what relevance does it have to our lives?

What is the Haptics Group researching at the moment? Is there a particular unsolved problem that you would love to solve?

What kind of problems do touchscreens pose for real-world applications?

Automotive Displays Q&A

Where is HMI display technology right now and where is it heading?

What does an engineer take into consideration when developing an HMI display?

What impact has touch technology had on HMI displays?

In the automotive industry, how have companies learned from bad user experiences and used those failures to improve HMI displays?

What does Jaguar Land Rover have in the works for HMI development?

3D Displays Q&A

What is the biggest technical obstacle to glasses-free 3D?

Can you put 3D display technology into historical perspective?

What goes into marketing 3D displays and what does the industry need to do to make 3D succeed in the market?

What is Dimenco working on right now?

Digital Signage Q&A

What does Unified Brand bring to digital signage?

What is Unified Brand working on at the moment? Is there anything particular you are excited about?

What are the most important considerations when choosing the actual displays for digital signage? Does it depend on content?

How does digital signage change the customer experience?

Where is the digital signage industry right now and where is it going?

Jaguar Land Rover HMI Display Development

Technical Q&A with Lee Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover

www.jaguarlandrover.com

DA: What does Jaguar Land Rover have in the works for HMI development?

Lee Skrypchuk: Jaguar Land Rover has a history of developing impressive display systems for the vehicle. Full TFT instrument cluster, Dual View and rotary shifter are a few examples of technologies that we have deployed within our vehicles over the last 5 years.

We are continuing to develop future innovations in this area and whilst I can't be specific on what they are, what I can say is that they will move on significantly and I expect a number of the innovations to hit the market in the next 5 years possibly another 5-10 key technologies in this space.

For more technical Q&A visit the interviews section.

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Impact of touch technology on HMI displays

Technical Q&A with Lee Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover

www.jaguarlandrover.com

DA: What impact has touch technology had on HMI displays?

Lee Skrypchuk: Touch technology is a very important part of interface development, touch screen elements are becoming an integral part of the display system to the point where I can see them merging into 1 seamless component (currently they are 2).

People expect touch screen even when it is not there and this causes disappointment to the consumer. A number of different technologies will be used in the future but one significant challenge that automotive has to resolve is that of haptic feedback - to give the user knowledge that they have triggered a positive action, this is really in its infancy in automotive and thus I expect this will develop in the near future.

For more technical Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be recognized as a Display Alliance contributor.

Automotive industry HMI displays

Technical Q&A with Lee Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover

www.jaguarlandrover.com

DA: In the automotive industry, how have companies learned from bad user experiences and used those failures to improve HMI displays?

Lee Skrypchuk: It is difficult to cite one particular example. However, I think it is important that displays are thought of as part of a system and not as an individual component.

Automotive has differed from computing systems in that the display's intelligence and the intelligence of the system tends to be distributed around the car. This can cause issues in latency across the system which can cause issues with perceived lag in the display. It is important that visual data / behaviour is updated as quickly as possible in order to maintain a good feedback system.

One advantage of modern mobiles and tablets are that they give instant response to user input - this is not always the case in automotive because of the hardware involved - however I expect that this will move a significant amount in the near future.

For more technical Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be recognized as a Display Alliance contributor.

What does an engineer take into consideration when developing an HMI display?

Technical Q&A with Lee Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover

www.jaguarlandrover.com

DA: What does an engineer take into consideration when developing an HMI display?

Lee Skrypchuk: For automotive it is important to consider the application, there are a number of features and functions that require displayed information and the viewing conditions are different for each, therefore it is important to get the requirements right for each.

It is also critical that this information is not distracting to the driver. Visual information is well known to cause significant distraction if not managed correctly and that is why mobile phones are a bad comparison to make when comparing interfaces purely because of the safety aspect.

Other areas of consideration include, crash safety, lifetime (10 years +) and environmental requirements (thermal performance in particular) and robustness (vibration) but also we have to make them look good - it is expected, especially in the premium market that we develop vehicles that will stand out - this runs through from exterior and interior styling through to the HMI devices within the vehicle.

For more technical Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be recognized as a Display Alliance contributor.

Where is HMI display technology right now and where is it heading?

Technical Q&A with Lee Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover

www.jaguarlandrover.com

DA: Where is HMI display technology right now and where is it heading?

Lee Skrypchuk: In my field - Automotive HMI, display technology is lagging behind the explosion seen in the consumer markets. The level of performance being seen in mobile phones and tablets is a step change difference to where they were 5 years ago and this level is significantly ahead of where we are in automotive.

Despite saying this there is less of a need for these high resolution displays purely from a "customer need" perspective but there is definitely a "customer want" for higher resolution, impressive displays. The key differentiator that is holding back displays in the automobile is that of the environment. The harshness and variety of environmental extremes means that standard consumer display's can't be used, therefore specific development projects need to take place.

I expect that the increased resolution trend will eventually migrate across to cars, but this must not be done at the expense of performance and in particular brightness - which in a fixed position system is critical to ensure performance in all ambient lighting conditions, this is something that consumer devices are not particularly good at.

The fixed viewing conditions and position of the displays means that from an acuity perspective there is simply not a huge amount of need for higher resolution as we are, for screens of greater than 130 DPI, already past the threshold for pixel fusion. Flat panels are becoming more prevalent in all vehicles but especially the premium car market, I expect to see more innovative display solutions being involved and especially more integration with the features within the interior.

For more technical Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be recognized as a Display Alliance contributor.

Display industry in Europe

Technical Q&A with Elsin Electronic Solutions

www.lcdrepair.eu

DA: Is there an advantage in being a European company in the display industry?

Elsin Electronic Solutions: The location of Elsin right in the middle of Europe is an important advantage for the provision of repair and logistic services for the whole region. Though the repair price alone may be higher than repair prices in Asia (because of the higher employment costs), the overall costs considering transport are significantly lower.

Besides repairs of LCD panels and related services (RMA, on-site support, logistics, buffer service, etc.) Elsin also handles types of soft business. We sell new and refurbished LCD panels, especially hard to get panels. We also sell machines, equipment, and material needed for LCD repairs such as CCFL lamps, polarizers, IC Tabs, and testing jigs. Besides that, we are fully equipped for data recovery, and repairs of Motorola data terminals. We also cooperate on development of display of various applications, or assemble special visual display units for military use.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Elsin Electronic Solutions LCD Repair Services

Technical Q&A with Elsin Electronic Solutions

www.lcdrepair.eu

What kind of repairs is Elsin equipped for?

Elsin is equipped for all kinds of repairs except dead pixel repairs. We repair vertical or horizontal lines or blocks – COF/COG replacement – up to size of 80", we replace polarizer foil up to size of 65", we repair electronics on the level of single components, and we repair backlights. There is 5000 pallet space available on our premises and a cleanroom of 100 class.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Repairing LED vs. CCFL displays

Technical Q&A with Elsin Electronic Solutions

www.lcdrepair.eu

DA: Are there differences in repairing LED displays vs. older CCFL displays?

Elsin Electronic Solutions: The only difference between LED and CCFL panels is the backlight, everything else is the same. Both LED and CCFL panels are equally difficult to repair. The disadvantage of CCFL panels with more lamps is when only one lamp goes off it is necessary to replace all of the lamps so the backlight is even. A CCFL panel can have only one lamp or tens of them. Sometimes, thanks to the prices of CCFL lamps, the backlight repair may be too expensive. The LED backlight has the advantage that it doesn't lose its luminosity, and thus it is possible to use a backlight unit from another panel (for example, an unrepairable panel).

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

LCD repair services and the larger display industry

Technical Q&A with Elsin Electronic Solutions

www.lcdrepair.eu

DA: What are the larger factors in the display industry that affect LCD repair services?

Elsin Electronic Solutions: Thanks to the progressive changes in the technology of LCD production where there is a huge pressure on the price, it's harder day by day to repair panels, and some types of defects are marked as a unrepairable. Panel repairs are not considered during production, everything is integrated into one piece The production cost of LCD panels is still lower and lower, but the equipment needed for LCD repairs is still very expensive. It's very hard to keep the repair price in touch with the market. We have been repairing LCD panels since 2005 and we expected it would be worth repairing only panels of bigger and bigger sizes. But we found out with the big TV panels that the transport costs are so high that most of our repairs now are notebook panels.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

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Why would someone need LCD repair services?

Technical Q&A with Elsin Electronic Solutions

www.lcdrepair.eu

DA: Why would someone repair an LCD rather than buy a new panel?

Elsin Electronic Solutions: In the European Union the warranty provided to the end customer is very often two or more years. Therefore, it's not worth repairing a monitor after the warranty has ended as the product is often obsolete. However, the end customer may make use of our services when it comes to a new product with other than warranty covered defect (scratched surface for example).

On the other hand repairing the LCD panels is very useful for the manufacturers, because they usually get a shorter warranty period for the LCD panel than they provide to the end customer. Thus, they carry the expenses resulting from this discrepancy. The price of the repair of an LCD panel in Elsin is about 20-50% of the price of a new panel. Therefore, the total saving at mass production level is significant.

Another situation where the repair pays off is when certain types of older panels are not available on the market anymore, and not even an equivalent replacement is available. Such a repair of expensive industrial or other special panels is certainly worth it.

Elsin also provides the warranty RMA service and an on-site support for LCD manufacturers. The panels sold on the EU market thus does not have to go all the way back to Asia to the manufacturer, but can be repaired straight in EU, at Elsin. Furthermore, we give the manufacturers feedback and help them analyze the production defects of the panels.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Gesture sensing technology

Technical Q&A with Anup Tapadia from TouchMagix

www.touchmagix.com

DA: What is the present and future of gesture sensing technology?

Gesture sensing has made some great progress in the last few years. Lower cost devices which can track depth axis being made available in the market has changed lot of things. In the coming years, we will be seeing lot of consumer devices using this technology. I feel the present and future of this technology will be in finding more applications which can use gestures other than just gaming and fun.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Biggest challenge facing touch technology

Technical Q&A with Anup Tapadia from TouchMagix

www.touchmagix.com

DA: What is the biggest engineering challenge facing touch technology?

I feel the biggest challenge for large format multi-touch technology is the cost vs. scale vs. technology problem. Large format devices cost higher as the volumes from consumers are lower. Also, the cost and technology used in manufacturing various large size displays is high along with the materials and techniques used. There is some serious scope for innovation in this space.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

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Dimenco 3D displays

Technical Q&A with Maarten Tobias from Dimenco

www.dimenco.eu

DA: What is Dimenco working on right now?

Dimenco is actually setting up different components and manufacturing processes for the market.

This means for example that we can provide lenses in high volume manufacturing. This is a cooperation between us and a third party. In this case we jointly developed the process and quality of the optical stack which results in the purest optical stack, but also to provide this in really high volumes.

Next to this, we offer manufacturing processes and equipment to optically bond lenticulars (glass) to LCD-panels. Our facility is able to process about 10K per year, depending on size.

We are mainly working on very high resolution panels. As explained one of the challenges is the lack of resolution. With more and more QFHD displays and Retina displays being introduced in the market, the quality and accessibility of glasses-free 3D will be also much better. At CES we will demonstrate some of these new incredible demonstrators.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

3D display industry

Technical Q&A with Maarten Tobias from Dimenco

www.dimenco.eu

DA: What goes into marketing 3D displays and what does the industry need to do to make 3D succeed in the market?

Marketing of 3D displays depends heavily on the market segment.The TV industry is a totally different segment than the professional PRO-AV market.

For example the TV market is dominated by the industry and often technologies are pushed to the consumer. Glasses-based 3D is a perfect example of this.

However that is also the reason that 3D in the consumer market has not been a success by now. The PRO-AV market is dominated by applications and the added value of 3D in such applications. If 3D adds to the experience, provides better or more clearer information (such as in Medical or in Visualization applications), or enhances the consumer behavior (3D Digital Signage), then it can be accepted by these markets.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

3D displays past and future

Technical Q&A with Maarten Tobias from Dimenco

www.dimenco.eu

DA: Can you put 3D display technology into historical perspective?

3D technology already existed in the 19th century. However it really took off in 2009.

The reason for this was on the one hand the technological possibilities of digital processing / media, availability of content (Avatar), and display technology. It started in digital cinema where the difficulty to create a high-quality 3D image was presented. It then got to the TV market with high refresh rates making it possible to introduce active glasses, especially on Plasma.

Glasses-free 3D will depend heavily on higher resolution panels which will be widely available in 2013 and prices will go down rapidly in 2014. Expecting glasses-free 3D TV’s being available in 2013 as high-end TV’s and getting more widely spread from 2014 onwards.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Glasses-free 3D displays

Technical Q&A with Maarten Tobias from Dimenco

www.dimenco.eu

DA: What is the biggest technical obstacle to glasses-free 3D?

Glasses-free 3D displays have had 3 main obstacles to overcome.

1) Resolution: By applying a lenticular layer to generate multiple views on top of a LCD panel you lose a significant amount of resolution. The result was that with "traditional" FHD panels (1920 by 1080) you experienced, depending on the lens design and image processing, a SD image quality in 3D. With the introduction of QFHD panels (3840 by 2560) it is possible to overcome this problem as you can realize with the right lens design and image processing a FHD 3D picture. This FHD 3D image is impressive to watch and provide the "right" consumer experience.

2) Cone transitions: Traditional auto-stereoscopic displays always had annoying cone transitions. This means you have to be in the right zone for a comfortable 3D experience. With the recent introduction of smooth cone transitions by Dimenco it solves almost completely the cone transition which makes it much more comfortable and enjoyable to watch glasses-free 3D for a long period of time.

3) Content: Glasses-free 3D displays depend on multiple perspectives that are "sent" out to the viewer. Meaning stereo 3D (with glasses) is based on a left and right picture (2-view) which provides the necessary parallax. Glasses-free 3D displays require multiple perspectives, in Dimenco’s case 28, which has to be generated. Dolby3D, an initiative by Philips and Dolby, is integrating algorithms that will make it possible to convert in real-time stereo (2-view) to auto-stereo (n-view), resulting in overcoming the barrier of existing 3D content becoming available for glasses-free 3D.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Haptics group at the University of Pennsylvania

Technical Q&A with Heather Culbertson from the Haptics Group at the University of Pennsylvania

haptics.seas.upenn.edu

DA: What is the Haptics Group at the University of Pennsylvania?

The Haptics group at UPenn is directed by Dr. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker. Our group is very diverse with graduate and undergraduate students from mechanical engineering, robotics, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and cognitive science.

Current work in the lab includes haptic feedback for stroke rehabilitation, medical training, robot-assisted surgery, and teleoperation along with several other projects. Since haptic technology is by its definition hand-on experience, I like to say that we have some of the best toys in our lab.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Haptography Haptic Photography

Technical Q&A with Heather Culbertson from the Haptics Group at the University of Pennsylvania

haptics.seas.upenn.edu

DA: What are you researching at the moment? Is there a particular unsolved problem that you would love to solve?

Haptic texture feedback for stylus-based tablets

Currently I am working on providing realistic haptic texture feedback for stylus-based tablets.

If you pick up a tool such as a pen and gently drag its tip across the table, a rock, or the fabric of your shirt you are able to feel variations in the textures even though you are not directly touching them with your finger. This is because the contact between the tooltip and surface causes the tool to vibrate, which is in turn felt by your hand. These vibrations vary based on the texture, how hard you press with the tool, and how fast you move the tool.

My research focuses on ways to model and recreate these vibrations as a person drags a stylus across a virtual surface.

Haptography (haptic photography)

The modeling approach relies on data recorded from dragging a specially sensorized tool across real textured surfaces. The tool measures the induced vibrations as well as the speed and force the person used. From this data I am able to make mathematical models to represent the feel of the surface for reproduction on the tablet.

We've coined this method of data recording and modeling as haptography (haptic photography) because it allows a person to record the feel of an interesting interaction in much the same way that traditional photography allows a person to visually record an interesting scene or object.

Once the data is recorded and the model is made, I am able to recreate the feel of the surface on a tablet computer. The only additional hardware needed on the tablet side is a voice-coil actuator, which is attached to the stylus. The voice-coil works in much the same way as a speaker, but instead of outputting sound it outputs vibrations. These vibrations are much more controllable than the vibrations made by eccentric mass motors commonly found in cell phones and allow us to accurately reproduce the modeled vibrations to a user as he drags the stylus across a virtual texture. Thus we are able to create realistic textures on a completely smooth screen.

One unsolved problem I would love to solve is to apply my research to bare-finger touchscreens. I think everyone would agree that it would be really cool to be able to touch a screen with your finger and feel the buttons or different textured surfaces. But we are not yet to the point where we can display this tactile information without the additional voice-coil actuator hardware. This is something I would love to work on in the future though.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.

Real world touchscreens

Technical Q&A with Heather Culbertson from the Haptics Group at the University of Pennsylvania

haptics.seas.upenn.edu

DA: What kind of problems do touchscreens pose for real-world applications?

One of the major problems with touch screens is that they require you to look at the screen in order to press any of the buttons.

Most likely you are able to dial the phone or change the radio in your car without looking if the device has traditional buttons, but this is very difficult to do with touch screens. There is no way to feel the position of buttons and the buttons are missing the distinct clicks that signify pressing and releasing. This causes touchscreens to require a lot more of the user's attention which can lead to distracted driving among other undesirable consequences. It also commonly leads to the incorrect pressing of buttons that has increased the necessity of autocorrect when texting or writing emails.

Furthermore, using touchscreens is often an unsatisfying experience because everything feels uncharacteristically smooth and slippery. For example, turning the page on an e-reader feels nothing like turning the page in a real book. If there was a way to make the objects on the screen feel more realistic, it would create a much more immersive experience for users.

For more Q&A visit the interviews section.

Email jason@displayalliance.com to promote your expertise and be interviewed.