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Hello MEMS, Goodbye Monitors
ftantil writes "In this article Bob Cringely says traditional monitors (CRTs *and* LCDs) will eventually go the way of the Underwood. I've always liked the idea of seeing the image equivalent of a 27" monitor by looking into a slot in my cellphone, but it never occurred to me that these things could replace TVs too."
If monitors are every replaced with a slot in your cell-phone or funky geek ware glasses, what are we support to hit when something doesn't work.
Besides how many more deaths might this cause then cell-phones, driving down the road typing up a document in one eye and driving with the other.
Medevo
Some better descriptions of how MEMS display work here and here (flash based, but very good)
Optimally we would get something that comes in rolls and can be cut to size. Then you just stick a piece of fiber on it anywhere, and have it communicate with you optically. Every pixel should have its own driver circuit, and they should speak to one another with various shortcut buses woven throughout the material. It should also be capable of speaking to other pieces of the material if you make it overlap. This way we could have large (if initially slow) displays. Then you just need a discovery method to determine the properties of the display, and a resolution-independent display method.
In the meantime; I don't want an empty box. If I have a MEMS-based display, it had better be painting the image directly onto my retina, which is much more useful anyway. I'm willing to put on goggles, though that shouldn't be necessary; within a certain (smallish) range of motion it should be able to track me just fine.
If we DO use a MEMS mirror-based display, we should be using a large number of mirrors to minimize the depth of the thing and also to maximize refresh rates.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The cable giants and the MPAA will love retinal displays because that means they can finally charge "Pay Per Viewer." No more of those digital pirates bringing 30 friends over to watch the latest boxing match. Now every pair of eyeballs can be individually billed. Of course that would also mean the death of movie theaters because Hollywood will be able to charge you at home for each one of your little urchins when Harry Potter X comes out.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
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-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
How come nobody has stated the obvious yet ?
It's perfect for pr0n!
Now your boss will have to look at your facial expression to see if you're working or not; good poker players need never work again!
graspee
Huh? This is just another display alternative. HDTV is a digital broadcast format, allowing higher resolution material to be displayed.
In fact, many of the new HDTV displays are using MEMS technology. See http://www.dlp.com/
DLP is used both for front projectors, and reap projection HDTV's.
If that's successful, the MPAA will introduce legislation that requires you to pay per eyeball. "We don't want to overcharge one-eyed consumers," says the press release.
Coming? It's already here. What he's calling by the generic name MEMS, Texas Insturments calls by their trade name DLP (Digital Light Processing). It's all over the place, expecially the digital presentations of "Star Wars, Part 2: Attack of the Clones". Not mentioning the most successful current MEMS technology really costs him some credibility.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb