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

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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

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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

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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