Display Technology News Roundup 9.10.2013

Image via Qualcomm

Qualcomm Toq: The Anti-Galaxy Gear Smartwatch "Qualcomm has been working on its Mirasol technology for years. To date, it hasn't been very successful in winning adoption of the low-power screen tech. The Toq could change that. The Toq is probably the highest profile proof-of-concept Qualcomm could have created to show off its mobile screen cred. Thanks to the screen technology, Qualcomm says the Toq can go several days between charges." via InformationWeek

Research of highly rugged and lightweight liquid crystal displays "Together with national and international industry partners, scientists at the University of Stuttgart have started the development of very robust and extremely lightweight displays within the research project LiCRA. Instead of common glass substrates these displays are based on plastic foils what makes them flexible. The overall market for rugged displays is estimated to a total of seven billion (milliard) US$ until 2015." via Printed Electronics World

A Faster Liquid Crystal "The brightness of a pixel in a typical flat screen display is regulated by an electric field that controls the orientations of molecules of a liquid crystal. In Physical Review Letters, researchers report a much faster way of using the field to change the state of the molecules and alter the light transmission. Although the measured effect is small, it is thousands of times faster than the conventional technique and might be increased enough to allow new design options for displays." via APS Physics

LG Display Develops World’s First Intel® WiDi Enabled LCD Panel for Monitors "LG Display succeeded in developing a panel that provides Intel® WiDi solution by building in a key chipset directly into the LCD module. With this cutting-edge LCD panel embedded with Intel® WiDi solution, LG Display enables users to enjoy quality images with an easy and convenient access to Intel® WiDi technology without the use of additional devices, as well as facilitate OEMs and monitor makers nimbly and cost-effectively adopt this advanced technology." via LG Display Newsroom

Taiwanese take early lead in UHD LCD-TV panel market ""Most television brands are counting on UHD sets-with their astounding 3,840 by 2,160 resolution-to rejuvenate sales," said Sweta Dash, senior director, display research and strategy for IHS. "That's why the Taiwanese suppliers are focusing heavily on meeting early demand for UHD LCD panels. Meanwhile, South Korean suppliers LGD and Samsung have turned their attention to a different technology: the active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) panel, which they believe represents the next generation of television."" via CIOL

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Apple bucks the PC OEM trend and increases demand for LCD panels "In real terms, panel shipments in July totaled 14.9 million units, down from 19.3 million during the same month in 2012, claims a new report by IHS. ...Of the top panel buyers only one company increased demand, and that was Apple. According to IHS, the Cupertino company increased panel demand in order to be able to keep up with demand for the MacBook Air." via ZDNet

Gesture-based UI boosts proximity sensor market ""The Galaxy S4 from Samsung Electronics represented the first major push towards gesture interface capability in a handset when the smartphone was released this year," said Marwan Boustany, senior analyst, MEMS & Sensors, for IHS. "This is a step that others in the industry are likely to follow, thanks to the rising availability of gesture solutions from suppliers like U.S.-based Maxim Integrated Products and soon from both Japan's Sharp and Taiwan-based Capella Microsystems."" via EET India

Challenges involved in modernising an aircraft's avionics suite "For example, two H-model C-130 Hercules aircraft, originally built in the 1970s, and two stretch variants built in the 1990s, recently underwent extensive avionics modifications in Cambridge. At the heart of the programme was the installation of a Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) compliant Flight Management System (FMS) and display and surveillance systems. The display system consists of six flat panel displays which incorporate the functionality of the many original electromechanical displays and the surveillance systems, including Enhanced Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (ETCAS - which is mandatory for aircraft entering controlled airspace) and an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System. However, the aircrafts' original analogue autopilot systems had to remain, which meant employing signal converters so that old could interface with new." via New Electronics

Implications of passive stylus on large capacitive touchscreens "Passive stylus detection is a complex problem for touch engineers, with the root of the problem being the stylus paradox. The stylus paradox is that the signal profile for a passive stylus is several times smaller than that of a normal touch inut, but the fine point of the stylus makes the user believe that it will be more accurate. Accuracy and linearity are proportionally related to the signal to noise ratio of the system." via EDN

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Two new features for electrophoretic displays? "The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite will be the first product to incorporate Carta displays. Compared to Pearl, Carta promises higher reflectance and better contrast. What attracted my attention however was something that went completely unnoticed: on the specification sheet, E Ink now says an image update can be done in only 120 milliseconds." via Printed Electronics World

Researchers explore haptic technology beyond touchscreens "One of the critical challenges in developing touch systems is that the sensation is not one thing. It can involve the feeling of physical contact, force or pressure, hot and cold, texture and deformation, moisture or dryness, and pain or itching. "It makes it very difficult to fully record and reproduce the sense of touch," said Wang. As noted in the article, there has been significant progress on the development of flexible and sensitive pressure sensors, as well as tactile feedback displays for specific applications such as for remote palpation that could be used during laparoscopic surgery." Phys.org

When do interactive touchscreen displays make sense in the newsroom? "What most newsroom touch installations lack, is a clear vision of how this technology can be important for their audience. In many cases, engineers seem to have simply transitioned traditional on-air graphics onto a touch screen. Instead of some off-camera person triggering graphics on cue, the host triggers the graphics by touching points on the display. This can be pointless or profound depending on how it is implemented." via CGW

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World-first smart fabric screen-printed electroluminescent watch display "The watch display is printed directly on to fabric to achieve the world’s first printed smart-fabric watch. The watch is printed layer by layer using screen-printable pastes with electronic functionality such as conduction, insulation and electroluminescence. The electroluminescent displays were printed by Marc using the thick-film printing facilities in the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre cleanroom." via University of Southampton

The LG G Pad will use GF2 display technology "One of the first manufacturers to use a film-based touch panel was Apple, on the iPad mini. According to the WSJ, the same tech will allow the Cupertino company to make the iPad 5 lighter and thinner than previous generations. If this report from Korea Herald is accurate, LG will benefit from the same advantages by using a GF2 film-based panel on the G Pad." via Android Authority

EU Adjusts Tariff On Flat Panel Displays "At present, a duty rate is applied on imports of flat panel displays not used exclusively for automatic data-processing (ADP). The reform will mean that displays using signals from ADP machines will be able to receive duty free treatment on an autonomous basis." via Tax-News

Optical touchscreens benefit from compact, high-power infrared LEDs "Optical solutions are now on the march, particularly for large displays. Their benefit lies in the excellent image quality because they do not need any special coatings that absorb a certain percentage of the backlighting. They can detect any type of pointer or stylus and even fingers in gloves because they are not reliant on the conductivity of these objects. Optical designs are also not at all sensitive to scratches and, depending on the power of the emitters, can be used for any size of screen." via LEDs Magazine

'Fake skin' computer touchscreen may aid cancer diagnoses "Ms Jess Tsimeris, of Bruce, is working with electromagnetic forces, using magnets to raise and lower soft latex surfaces. She has created soft touch surface with lumps that can be moved around and made firmer, or less firm. ...Supervisor Tom Gedeon said research in the field could also lead to more secure key pads at ATMS, using a squishy surface where a user was identified by how hard they pushed." via Canberra Times

Elon Musk demonstrates Iron Man style fabrication interface "Armed with a Leap Motion controller and few of today's mainstay 3D display technologies, Musk really has created something that roughly resemble's the interactive displays in Iron Man — though it admittedly looks like a Mark 1 model. In the video below, Musk takes you through the evolution of his interface." via DVICE

Apple researching display tech that can independently adjust appearance of UI elements "To efficiently recognize and change each element, the system looks at color saturation, or more specifically, saturated pixels versus non-saturated pixels. In one embodiment, the non-saturated pixels are associated with areas that don't hold active content, and therefore show the most change when display adjustments are made." via Apple Insider

What did you think about today's news? Leave a comment here and share your thoughts.

Display Technology News Roundup 8.25.2013

Image via TechSpot

NFC technology can be used to wirelessly power an E-ink display "NFC uses inductive coupling to provide power to passive tags and the E-ink display uses this to its advantage with the help of a wireless power harvester microchip and a 1mAh battery. Don’t expect massive power without wires just yet but it’s enough to power the 2.7-inch display with enough stored energy to cycle through images when not paired with the phone." via TechSpot

The PC monitor is dead. Meet the new smart monitor. "Bob Wudeck, associate vice president of strategy and business development at BenQ, says that the company has been forced to rethink the concept of a monitor, whether it be gaming monitors optimized for StarCraft or adding intelligence to the traditional display. 'The traditional model is a display that a desktop or notebook can plug into,' Wudeck says. 'We don’t think that’s going to be the case. We think that in the future, you’ll have more media content on your phone, and you’ll share more of that from your phone, than from a desktop computer,' Wudeck adds. 'And that’s something that we can develop a product around.'" via PCWorld

LG makes world’s thinnest, highest pixel density smartphone LCD ever "Displays continue to improve, though, as LG has proven with the production of a 5.5-inch 2560×1440 LCD with 538 pixels-per-inch. The LCD is the first mobile display to reach that resolution, and is also the thinnest, measuring in at a mere 1.21mm." via ExtremeTech

Breaking Google Glass Into Pieces: The Costs of Production and Likely Retail Price "'The Himax FSC LCOS [Field Sequential Color, Liquid Crystal on Silicon] requires both a display device and normally a 1-chip ASIC controller.... Figure the controller costs about $2 to $3, but this would go to near zero if the functionality was integrated into other chips in the system,' Karl Guttag tells Minyanville. 'The LEDs for illumination are about $2, and then the films for homogenizing/spreading the LED light and polarizing with packaging are another $2 to $3. I would guess the optics, including the beam splitter in front of the eye, are on the order of $5. When you total up the display plus controller, illumination LEDs and films, and the optics, the total cost is probably about $25, plus or minus $5.'" via Nasdaq

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Next-Generation Displays: The Reality of Manufacturing Sets In "Amorphous silicon, with an electron mobility of about 1 cm2/Vs, served LCDs well for years but isn’t suitable for the new displays. Laser annealing of amorphous silicon to turn it into a polycrystalline form, typically in the range of 50 to 150 cm2/Vs, has been the mainstay for high-resolution mobile display manufacture. This process adds costs, however, and does not scale up well." via IEEE Spectrum

Shell 3-D Visualization Lab Offers Detailed Views on Energy-Related Research "For academics, students, engineers, oil and gas drillers, geologists and other scientists, the new Shell 3-D Visualization Lab in the University of Wyoming’s Energy Innovation Center (EIC) has the ability to image detailed 3-D models of land surfaces, the subsurface, molecules and more -- a view that allows these entities to share the same frame of reference. ...The visualization center also includes an IQ-Station, which is essentially a portable, immersive environment that contains a desk with a computer and three moveable display panels. Researchers can sit at the station and don 3-D glasses to review models on a smaller scale. The visualization center also contains a six-panel, two-dimensional video wall that can be used to view any images at high resolution, including 3-D images generated in the CAVE. Both can be used for many interdisciplinary projects, Shader says." via University of Wyoming

A Printing Process to Make Wall-Sized Displays "Adapting conventional printing technology, researchers have developed a way to rapidly and inexpensively make uniform arrays of high-performing transistors out of carbon nanotubes on flexible plastic sheets. The process could eventually lead to a tool for manufacturing large-area, low-power sensor arrays and displays." via MIT Technology Review

The Quest to Touch Virtual Objects "Brownlow says, 'Proximity interfaces are being developed where, as you bring your fingers towards the screen, the screen has a predictive ability of what you are about to do and you can then interface with the screen without actually touching it.' As 3D evolves there will come a point where the user will want to interact haptically with these images. " via Gizmodo

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Gulfstream’s Enhanced Vision System (EVS) II and Head-Up Display (HUD) II for the G280 certified by FAA "EVS II captures actual, real-time images of an aircraft’s surroundings using an infrared camera mounted in the nose. The HUD II uses a LCD to project images onto a transparent combiner in the pilot’s forward field of view, and integrates the images with flight guidance information." via Aviation Today

Kickstarter campaign for LED display "Two years in the making, LEDgoes is much like the kind of scrolling screens seen at convenience stores displaying the worth of this week's Lotto, or those seen in front of stock exchanges displaying real-time quotes. However, LEDgoes’ modular design allows the user to make the display practically any length from just one, 5x7 LED matrix panel wide, all the way up to sixty-four panels in total. An even longer length could be attained through software control. ...The Kickstarter officially ends on Sep. 9th at 11:40 PM CDT." via PRWeb

Shifting Apple product specifications to heap pressure on manufacturers "Reports indicate that Apple is set to adopt Japan-made In-Cell, and indium tin oxide (ITO) coated display panels for the company's upcoming products to be released this fall. With Apple's current products nearing the end of their life cycles, including market mainstays such as the iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, and the 9.7-inch early generation iPads, Taiwan-based panel suppliers are poised to be affected by the switch." via The China Post

The future of touchscreens revealed: bigger, cheaper, bendier "But there is a cheaper and less environmentally harmful alternative [than ITO], developed by MIT biochemist Dr Angela Belcher and inspired by the multi-layered formation of abalone shells. It uses silver nanowires scattered over a sheet of plastic. Take two layers of plastic coated with very long, very thin silver strands (or even one sheet coated on both sides) and you have a capacitive touch sensor that's thinner, lighter, more flexible and much easier to manufacture than the ITO sensors." via TechRadar

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Electronic Skin Lights Up When Touched "A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed the first user-interactive “electronic skin” that responds to pressure by instantly emitting light. ...Javey, who has been working on developing the e-skin for the past five years, has high hopes for his new material. He’d like to create user-interactive wallpaper or a dashboard that responds to cues such as the driver’s eye or body movements." via IEEE Spectrum

Can touchscreens save you from carpal tunnel? They might actually be worse "Cynthia Burt, Injury Prevention Division Manager at the UCLA Office of Environment, Health and Safety, believes that the inherent nature of laptops make them less than ergonomically sound due to the relatively fixed screen and keyboard positions. This is amplified with a touchscreen laptop because, as she explains, there is a difference between optimal visual difference and optimal reach distance. 'We recommend that people have an 18- to 20-inch envelope in front of them for optimal reaching,' Burt told us." via Digital Trends

What Makes a Good Gesture Control "Phones rely on prompts that are supposed to teach you gestures step by step. But the issue is that human beings have only a limited capacity, depending on their needs, for this sort of tutoring. If we don’t learn the gesture quickly, we’ll quickly shut off the annoying prompts and fail to learn the gesture, says Yaro Brock, co-founder of Cookie Jar UX and a longtime user-experience researcher." via Bloomberg Businessweek

How An Amputee Built The World’s First Functional Prosthetic Finger for Touchscreens "One of MacDuff’s most critical design considerations hardly existed 10 years ago and is now somewhat of a holy grail in prosthetics: making the finger touch-screen-friendly. This had become, after all, one of the most important everyday functions of our fingers. RCM has such a next-generation upgrade to the BPF in development. Bengtsson tells Co.Design they’ve "already identified and tested the material" that can successfully mimic human skin and heat conductance. " via Fast Company

The economics of LCD demand "Reading the news, I get the sense LCDs are knocking on everyone’s door, as panel makers seek to enter every conceivable market. The IHS report notes how price competition in conventional audio systems for checking who’s outside your door leads to interest in new value propositions, such as video and audio surveillance, but that implies highly elastic demand relative to price. A rising demand for door-mounted LCDs requires falling prices." via Display Central

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The Display Technology News Roundup For 12.27.2012

Image via MIT Technology Review

A Display That Makes Interactive 3-D Seem Mind-Bogglingly Real "The “Z Space” display, developed by Californian company Infinite Z, tracks a user’s eye and hand movements and adjusts the 3-D image that he or she sees in real-time. The resulting effect is stunning. Unlike the 3-D video seen in a movie theater or on a 3-D TV, you can move your head around an object—to look it from the side or from below, for instance—and the Z Space display will adapt and show you the correct perspective. " via MIT Technology Review

Iljin Display expected to become number one touch screen supplier in Korea by the end of 2012 "The expected increase will push Iljin ahead of other Korea-based touch panel makers Melfas, Electro Luminescence Korea (ELK) and Smart Mobile Application Company (SMAC) in touch screen panel revenues during 2012, all of which used to hold top spot positions in Korea from 2009-2011 in terms of revenues generated, added Digitimes Research." via DigiTimes

Big Change in 2013 LCD TV Panel Supply "So, while the end market might prefer 32” which is comparatively cheaper, panel makers may have to cut 32” panel allocation in order to produce 39”, which has a higher panel price and in better production efficiency." via DisplaySearch Blog

Gesture Recognition Technology with Potential "Plessey Semiconductors, Ltd in the UK has announced a contactless gesture recognition technology named imPart which they will demonstrate at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The imPart reference design to be shown at CES 2013 utilizes Plessey’s EPIC sensors to detect changes in electric potential and translates these changes to gesture input for their imPart tablet-style device" via Display Central

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Innolux, AU Optronics Tumble on LCD Order Report "“Inventories started rising so the industry needs to cut prices severely which will hurt profitability throughout the supply chain,” Vincent Yu, a Taipei-based analyst at Jih Sun Financial Holdings Co., wrote in a note today. “In China, the problem is with an excess of 32-inch TV panels as the market is switching to larger sizes, and we see this order cut as being a special one-off event.”" via Bloomberg

Apple Reveals Two Retina Display Technologies "The second patent relates to LCDs that include a panel having an array of metal oxide TFTs, which may be configured to reduce visual artifacts by providing reduced RC loading and parasitic capacitance, thus improving overall image quality." via Patently Apple

How the Kindle Paperwhite Works "The Kindle Paperwhite uses a unique lighting system to illuminate its electronic ink display. Rather than using a backlight as on LCD-based tablets, the Paperwhite uses a transparent light guide that directs light from four edge-mounted LEDs down toward the surface of the display." via The New York Times

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Penn team making waves with liquid crystals "Despite their name, such defects are highly desirable. If the location of the defects can be controlled, the change in pattern or orientation can be put to use. In the case of a liquid crystal display, for example, the crystals’ orientation in different regions determines which parts of the screen are illuminated." via Penn Current

Touchscreen offers new opportunity for PC brands: An interview with Acer president "Acer's internal research points out that a consumer, after controlling a touchscreen product for more than 20 minutes, would want to use his or her fingers to touch any display he or she sees. This indicates that touchscreen control is an irreversible trend. Acer believes touchscreen control will be a strong selling point, but it still needs more time to take off." via DigiTimes

Prismaflex launches self-powered outdoor displays "Prismaflex, the international outdoor media specialist, has created the first out of home advertising display that is entirely energy self-sufficient, with the launch of its solar-powered Autonomous Scroller displays. The breakthrough has been enabled using a transparent photovoltaic film that taps the sun's energy to power both the scrolling mechanism and the LED lighting used by the Autonomous Scroller display." via PrintWeek

Steve Wozniak's IT predictions for 2013 flexible displays ""Eventually, maybe not within 2013, flexible displays will become less expensive, installed everywhere and anywhere, and change the way we interact with mobile devices and share experiences," Wozniak forecasts. "I honestly believe mobile devices will increasingly become our remote controls to the world. We’ll carry our software on our mobile devices, but display it on these communal screens – including those installed in conference rooms. Device manufacturers will continue to develop mobile devices with various screen sizes, but software will also be designed to display on any size."" via Macworld

Will This Samsung Innovation Leave Apple Out in the Cold? "As Hiner noted, “it’s when we get to the next big leap forward that the divergence between Apple and Samsung could really matter.” Samsung produces 90 percent of devices equipped with OLED, or organic light-emitting diodes, a technology thinner and lighter than LCD, and it is also the company closest to bringing flexible OLEDs to market." via Wall St. Cheat Sheet

The Anti Pinch To Zoom "In a preliminary hearing last week, a US court invalidated an Apple patent related to the famous ‘pinch to zoom’ maneuver. Pinch-to-zoom is one of the most easily recognizable of touch-screen commands, and in the days of the first smartphones, immediately demonstrated how useful a multi-touch screen could be. ...A team from the Human-Computer Interaction Design labs at the University of Washinton is working on a slightly different approach that requires even less digit work." via MIT Technology Review

2013 in view: Looking ahead at the digital signage year to come "Richard Ventura, director of sales - vertical solutions for digital signage solutions provider NEC Display Solutions of America: In 2013 we are going to see further integration of mobility and NFC with digital signage systems. This will also be the year that large displays will be integrated into digital signage applications. The video wall will continue to grow in vertical markets. We will actually even see larger than normal video walls with a focus on off shapes and sizes as well." via Digital Signage Today

What did you think about today's news? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

The Information Display News Roundup For 10.4.2012

Image via Tech Hive

Is Sharp showing high-res iPad mini screens? "The Japanese manufacturer, which has been mass producing the screens since August for an unnamed customer, is showing working tablet displays in 7-inch, 10-inch, and 13-inch form factors at its booth, though they are sealed off behind glass. IGZO technology, named after the indium gallium zinc oxide semiconductor on which it is based, can be used to make screens with smaller pixels that draw far less power than current models with more accurate touch sensitivity. Sharp is pushing the technology for smartphones and tablets." via Tech Hive

What Is the Society for Information Display For? "What sort of information should be presented and how can we prevent human overload? These and many more questions seem relevant to the Society for Information Display. SID should not just be about displays, but about display-based solutions." via Display Central

Sharp tackles reflected light with 'moth eye' LCD "Sharp applied an anti-reflecting coating to its LCD panels based on technology similar to the nanostructure of a moth’s eyes. Scientists have long understood that moth eyes have a special property that eliminates reflection. The surface of a moth's eyes is covered with bumps and valleys that absorb oncoming light, enhancing night vision." via EE Times

Average Size of LCD TV Panels Increases by 2 Inches in 12 Months "Overcapacity in the TFT LCD industry remains an ongoing concern for panel makers. Capacity expansions have been slowing down, with few new investments in Korea, Taiwan and Japan. ...In addition to shrinking capacity, an important factor in bringing supply and demand into balance is area growth. One key trend to watch here is average screen size, especially for TV panels." via DisplaySearch Blog

Do you need display panels? Ask Jason. I'm the managing editor of Display Alliance but I also source panels for Mass Integrated, Inc. Just let me know what you need: jason@displayalliance.com

Reading on LCD vs e-Ink displays: effects on fatigue and visual strain "Since research has shown that, compared to reading on electronic displays, reading on paper is faster and requires fewer fixations per line, one would expect differential effects when comparing reading behaviour on e-Ink and LCD. In the present study we therefore compared experimentally how these two display types are suited for reading over an extended period of time." via NCBI

Hitachi Electronic Devices becomes KOE-Americas "“Hitachi has a long history of firsts in LCD technology” says Keith Brown, vice-president of operations and sales for KOE Americas. “From the first commercially available in-plane switching technology, to the first ultra-wide-temperature range displays, Hitachi has been an industry innovator for over three decades. KOE-Americas hopes to build on that legacy by partnering with product developers to utilize LCDs in new and innovative ways.”" via Electronic Products and Technology

CEATEC 2012: Docomo demos hands-free video-conferencing prototype with digitized avatar "Docomo came with something rather interesting in the shape of a pair of glasses that comes with 7 different 720p cameras. Not only these cameras will digitize your face, but will also capture in real time your surrounding environment and movements to your calling partner." via Akihabara News

HDTV buying guide: How to select the right set "Though the majority of LED sets you’ll find are edge-lit, meaning that the array of LED backlights behind the LCD panel are positioned around the edges of the set, more-expensive LED sets use full-array or backlit LED light sources. Backlit or full-array sets are more expensive to make (and buy), and they’re generally quite a bit thicker than edge-lit LED sets. Some of these higher-priced backlit LED sets feature a technology called local dimming." via TechHive

The future of brain-computer interfaces revealed ""A BCI is a system that enables interaction with a computer based on changing electrical signals that occur in the brain," Carmichael tells us. "The signals can be taken invasively or non-invasively either from inside the brain or from the scalp. Non-invasive BCI takes signals that are present at micro-volt levels on the scalp and then amplifies them using an EEG. These signals are then digitised so that they can be used by the computer."" via Tech Radar

Minority Report Touch Gestures A Terrible Idea, Says Top Industrial Designer "In the movie, Tom Cruise is doing a lot of object selection, sorting, and editing. Those things work best with small hand movements. We require more motor control for that kind of work. But there is an emerging field of computing that does take advantage of more ‘phatic’ interactions." via Sixteen:Nine

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New Technologies and Methods Push Imaging Capabilities "Imaging used to be simply defined as the representation of an object's external form. That definition no longer holds true as researchers now look for more than just an image. They look for more information within an image, such as fluorescent tags, mechanobiological parameters, internal structures, fabrication while imaging and the characterization of materials as yet undefined. " via Laboratory Equipment

The Information Display News Roundup For 10.1.2012

Image via Slash Gear

Kindle Paperwhite technology explained by Amazon in video "The light you’ve got here around the rim of the display is captured and reflected across the face of the area you’re looking at. This area is called the Light Guide – it’s nanoimprinted and acts like a fiber-optic cable, blasting light through itself and down towards the capacitive touch screen instead of up at your eye. " via Slash Gear

Falling Brightness of New TV Models "Displays can be characterized not only by size, but by their typical brightness. TVs have typically required brightness higher than 400 nits, because TV is generally in the living room and watched from a distance. In contrast, brightnesses of less than 300 nits are typically sufficient for IT devices (e.g. notebook PC, monitor, etc.), because these are usually viewed from shorter distances." via DisplaySearch Blog

Sony-Olympus Alliance Aims for High-Tech Surgery "Sony's new alliance with scandal-tarnished Olympus will focus on producing endoscopes and other surgical tools packed with the Japanese electronic maker's three-dimensional imaging and super-clear "4K" display technologies. ...Technology such as 3D and the futuristic displays known as 4K have not yet produced big results in consumer electronics products such as TVs." via Product Design & Development

Sharp's new screens aim to make HD-LCD pixels mobile "The new LCD panel integrates a new pixel design and revamped manufacturing process to achieve the rate of pixels normally reserved for large LCD television screens. According to Sharp, modern CG-Silicon technology allow the screens to display crisper text, super-clear maps and more realistic HD images. ...Sharp produces the 5-inch screen for Apple's recently released iPhone 5." via ZDNet

Do you need display panels? Ask Jason. I'm the managing editor of Display Alliance but I also source panels for Mass Integrated, Inc. Just let me know what you need: jason@displayalliance.com

New glasses free 3D tech could be a game-changer "The company’s CTO, Richard A. Muller, is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley and he created the ‘Soliddd equation” after years of research. ...“We soon discovered the other lenses in the world had been highly inaccurate. Nobody realised just how good autostereo displays can be and so people were not trying to manufacture as accurately as they should be doing.” he told us." via 3D Focus

Fraunhofer HHI Opens 3D Innovation Center "Under the general management of the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, a platform has been created on the salt river in Berlin’s Tiergarten district that brings together some 50 partners from industry and science to drive forward development of 3D technologies and applications. In addition to the fields of entertainment and media, industrial production and medicine will be of key importance for the future." via Display Central

Foxconn ascends, while Sharp struggles "Foxconn is having no trouble drawing new recruits to Zhengzhou, however, and Sharp appears to see little alternative to negotiating with its deep-pocketed Taiwanese rival. ...In its favor, Sharp's in-house technology is highly advanced compared to Foxconn, with the ability to produce items like super-thin touch panels for phones and tablets, highly efficient solar panels, and giant-screen LCD TVs. Still, the future of the Japanese manufacturer may be found in its past." via PC World

Want to submit news to Display Alliance or be interviewed? Get in touch with me: jason@displayalliance.com

Tech Weekly Podcast: Gesture control technologies "This week we discuss gesture control technologies and how this form of interaction with computers is set to give birth to a new user-interface experience." via The Guardian

The Information Display News Roundup For 9.28.2012

Image via Tech Radar

Best projector: 8 top HD models reviewed and rated "For monitor panels, each pixel has three primary-coloured sub-pixel. Not so for LCD projectors, instead they have three individual panels, one for each primary colour. White light from the lamp is split using dichroic mirrors, sent through the three panels and then recombined with a prism." via Tech Radar

Lexus LF-CC Concept shows the future of touchscreen interiors "This is fully touch-sensitive and replaces the clumsy, button-heavy center consoles found in many luxury cars. Think of it as a more organic evolution of the 17-inch touchscreen wedged in the center of the Tesla Model S." via engadget

LG's chairman calls for a major change, will focus on OLED displays "LG is set to release its first OLED TV, the 55" (the 55EM9600) in early 2013. The company is also planning to start mass producing plastic-based flexible OLED panels by the end of 2013." via OLED-Info

Are IPS panels replacing TN panels in monitors? "TN panels have always been cheap to produce and therefore inferior display technology has been foisted upon us by panel manufacturers. Why the change? There are a number of reasons but first and foremost you can thank the smartphone and tablet makers." via Flat Panels HD

Do you need display panels? Ask Jason. I'm the managing editor of Display Alliance but I also source panels for Mass Integrated, Inc. Just let me know what you need: jason@displayalliance.com

Hand-waving can decode invisible images on screen "The system, developed by Hirotsugu Yamamoto and colleagues from University of Tokushima in Japan, uses a newly developed LED panel that can display 480 images per second. In this video, a pair of images of the New Scientist logo (one black, one white) is embedded into the background. When displayed alternately at a high speed, they are invisible to the naked eye. "A hidden image is presented 10 times faster than the frame rate used at the cinema," says Yamamoto." via New Scientist

Continuing to deliver improved performance challenges traditional display manufacturing techniques " The type of transistors and the processes used for their manufacturing determine the performance of the display, the costs, and, to a large extent, the environmental footprint of the device. Today, two transistor types are common in mass production; amorphous silicon (a-Si) transistors are dominant (>95%), while low temperature polysilicon transistors (LTPS) have a niche position." via Solid State Technology

Digging for rare earths: The mines where iPhones are born "Inside the rocks from this mine are rare-earth minerals, crucial ingredients for iPhones, as well as wind turbines, hybrid cars, and night-vision goggles. Minerals such as neodymium are used in magnets that make speakers vibrate to create sound. Europium is a phosphor that creates a bright red on an iPhone screen. Cerium gets put into a solvent that workers use to polish devices as they move along the assembly line." via CNET

AUO to adopt printing process for producing AMOLED panels "Taiwan-based TFT-LCD panel maker AU Optronics (AUO) hopes to increase its AMOLED material usage to 70-80% by using printing processing, which is expected to be the mainstream for producing large-size AMOLED panels in the future, according to industry sources." via DigiTimes

The iPhone 5 Display: Thoroughly Analyzed "While many were hoping for a move to OLED or some other screen innovation, this really is a huge step up that is very easy to quantify. To put this in perspective, in the past few years I've reviewed probably 30-40 different displays, from PC monitors to TVs to projectors. Not a single one, out of the box, can put up the Gretag Macbeth dE numbers that the iPhone can, and perhaps one projector (which listed for $20,000) can approach the grayscale and color accuracy out of the box." via AnandTech

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Why the iPhone 5 doesn't have an AMOLED screen "As well as the iPhone 5 being too big a product launch for AMOLED to grace, there's also the small matter of the supply being dominated by Samsung Display, which makes over 90% of AMOLED screens. "Now Apple and Samsung are engaged in intense legal battles," says Werner, "it is unlikely that Apple would want its arch-rival to also be its single source for OLED displays."" via Tech Radar

Cephalopods may be the key to better e-paper screens "When the creature needs to be a little lighter in color, muscle fibers pull the cell membrane outward, reducing the density of the pigment. These fibers relax when a darker color is needed. E-paper screens like the one used on the Kindle use a similar technique with light and dark pigment capsules embedded in each pixel." via Geek.com

HDTV Expert - No OLED-TV Panel Production from LGD until 2013 " The best bet for LGD’s delay is still the oxide backplane. Oxide remains the most promising next-generation semiconductor material for thin-film transistors (TFTs), and Sharp has apparently gotten it to work for LCDs in volume production. But oxide researchers overwhelmingly say there are a few remaining stability issues, at least when oxide TFTs are used with OLEDs, that will take another year or so to resolve." via HDTV Magazine