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'Computer-On-Glass' Display

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the good-enough-to-lick dept.

bfries writes "Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), unveiled a screen Tuesday with microprocessor circuitry applied directly onto the glass, enabling it to function like a computer. It uses Sharp's continuous grain silicon (CGS) technology and should be used on some products in 2005."

33 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. I can see the case mods coming now. by Salden · · Score: 5, Funny
    • Coke Bottle PC
    • Casserole PC
    • Fish Tank PC
    Wait, that last one's been done before...
    1. Re:I can see the case mods coming now. by billybob2001 · · Score: 5, Funny
      I can see it now:

      Yeah, of course my pc runs on windows...

      The answer? Defenestrate now!

  2. Cool... by Gruneun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just remind me to be excited again in three years. It's interesting, but not really news until there's, at the least, something to look at.

    1. Re:Cool... by telstar · · Score: 3, Funny
      ...but not really news until there's, at the least, something to look at.
      • As as Slashdot reader that received the Christmas Victoria's Secret catalogue yesterday, I whole-heartedly agree.

    2. Re:Cool... by ari_j · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry. A duplicate story will be posted at least quarterly until it matters; and then they'll stop when it's a salable technology. So when the stories about it stop, wait 3 months and buy.

    3. Re:Cool... by BlueUnderwear · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So I guess, by looking at the rate the dupes are posted, we should see that computer in two weeks...

      --
      Say no to software patents.
  3. Business card computer made of glass? by gpinzone · · Score: 5, Funny

    CRACK!

  4. Yeah? by somethingwicked · · Score: 3, Funny
    should be used on some products in 2005

    Yeah? You think so, buddy? Well, what if we decide not to use it, huh? What are YOU going to do about?

    Who are you to say if we SHOULD use it or not...

    Oh, hold on...that might not be what you meant.

    Somethingwicked, you ignorant slut.

    --

    ---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---

  5. How's it look. by FreeLinux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm curious about how these screens look. One of the issues with LCD is the screens appearance. They are often hard to view unless at a precise angle, if you wear glasses, especially polarized glasses, they are even harder to view. Touch screen films make them harder still to view and now they are embedding the actual circuitry in the display. What's the viewing like?

  6. Glass/Silicon by pubjames · · Score: 3, Interesting


    What is the difference between glass and the silicon crystal used in chips? Aren't they kind of similar?

    1. Re:Glass/Silicon by Eccles · · Score: 3, Informative

      Glass is quartz and/or silica not silicon.

      Hmm, what gets 5s these days...

      Quartz is silicon dioxide (SiO2), as opposed to pure silicon. It's like the difference between rust and iron.

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
    2. Re:Glass/Silicon by dhovis · · Score: 5, Informative
      I'm going to expand on this a little. I'm a ceramics person, so I'm actually qualified.

      Glass is primarily SiO2 or "silica", but what we go around calling glass has plenty of additives. Most of what we call glass is actually soda-lime glass, so called because it contains ample ammounts of soda (Na2O) and lime (CaO). Those two ingredients help lower the melting point of SiO2 and make it a lot easier to process. Pyrex is a brand name for borosilicate glass and its composition allows it to be very strong and resistant to thermal shocks (this is why you can put Pyrex in the oven without worrying about it shattering). LCD glass is probably different alltogether.

      Very pure amorphous SiO2 glass can be made, but it is much more expensive and is often sold as "fused silica" or "fused quartz".

      True "quartz" is a crystalline (ordered) phase of SiO2, and it is not the only one. Crystoballite and tridymite are two other crystalline phases of quartz.

      In any case, SiO2 is a dialectric, and not a semiconductor, so the computation being done in this story is all contained in the layers on top of the glass and not in the glass itself.

      --

      --
      The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.

  7. Heat dissipation by mortis_aeturnus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Glass is a very very poor heat conductor. Having anything running at a very low temperature on this would pale any laptop overheating horror stories. This would definately limit the power of the processor you can use. This would make a nice (and slower than 4.77mhz) palm top but nothing more.

    1. Re:Heat dissipation by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They didn't say they were planning on having an Pentium 4 2.8GHz-on-glass - the processing probably won't be very powerful for some time.

      Meanwhile wouldn't it be nice to have a half-inch thick high resolution LCD TV?

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  8. Quick! Ship it now! Do it now! by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 3, Funny
    All we need is enough processor power to decompress a JGP. Shit it! Shit it now! We *need* this thing!

  9. Slow Glass by geoff+lane · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When storage density reaches about 60 Gbits/sqin
    you can store the all the data for a single pixal for a 90min movie within the area occupied by the pixal.

    Once that's possible you can create dedicated movie "books".

  10. Picture of the product... by httpamphibio.us · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't read japanese, but I believe this is a picture of what the article talks about.

    --
    sig.
    1. Re:Picture of the product... by mohrt · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here is the page translated to english.

  11. Mod by BoBaBrain · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here is an overview of a case mod for such a system.

    The processing power isn't great, but it did manage to support Wine.

    --
    I am a Karma Library.
  12. Digital Photos by Jezza · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well they're talking about ultra-high resolutions for things like photographs, and maps. Of course this is going to need huge storage and processing abiliy if they're going to reporduce photographic quality on anything larger than a really small display. I'm guessing that the display would probably be most useful if it could dynamically change resolution perhaps displaying several resolutions at once, to combine video (HDTV perhaps) a computer output at a "normal resolution" (90dpi or so) and a photo quality section (say 300dpi or better).

    The abiliy to offload some of the processing on the display would be very helpful. I can see that being a very useful display. Still the idea of storage on the display sounds like Minority Report to me. Very cool.

  13. 1 GHz limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Reading up on the CGS link, it looks like the technology has a medium-imposed 1 GHz hard upper limit, since it's not really a single silicon crystal, but a set of crystals ("grains" in MatSci speak) in which some effort is made to blur the lines between the grains (hence "continuous"). My guess is some sort of annealing process. The grain boundaries become
    a problem at 1 GHz.

  14. Brain fart... by Gruneun · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What if the screen was made up of two pieces of glass, with water being passed between them? Water is obviously a proven way to transfer heat and it would be invisible to the user.

    1. Re:Brain fart... by Gruneun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Heat must escape somewhere.

      My suggestion was meant to be more along the lines of the water-cooling (with a radiator) that is popular among the overclocking crowd, not just a static pool of water. A display like this could be mounted on a wall, with the pump and radiator in a separate location, connected by a hose.

  15. Wow! Now I can really... by The+J+Kid · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..have a Beowolf cluster of Windows PC's !

    *Runs for cover*

    --
    Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.
  16. A whole new meaning... by twoslice · · Score: 3, Funny

    to the term my computer just crashed...

    --

    From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
  17. Didn't look like you could use as a display by CutterDeke · · Score: 5, Insightful
    In the picture with the article, you could see the traces on the glass. Do they not show up when this is incorporated into a display?

    I don't see the significance of this.

  18. Large Photo in Reuters by hangel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Large Photo in Reuters.

  19. Re:Transparency by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's plenty of reason.

    If Palm could make a PDA with one piece of glass instead of glass and PCB, it could save money.

    Every LCD I've seen on a shelf or in a picture has a casing on it. If that space had extra glass with a microprocessor embedded - your LCD screen could be higher quality for less money.

    If you want to go to the extreme of the clear hand-held computer, you will probably still have an area to hold it by and maybe even some buttons for using it, which will provide space for circuits.

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  20. What about on skin? by Suppafly · · Score: 3, Funny

    circuitry applied directly onto the glass, enabling it to function like a computer.

    Circuitry applied to glass is absolutely fascinating and all, but I want to know when they will come up with a good way for printing circuitry on skin. I want computerized skin damnit. One more potential reason to legitimize orgies..

  21. I was driving down the road.. by SecGreen · · Score: 4, Funny

    and I saw a rock hit the windshield with a loud crack. As one of the cracks slowly grew across the windshield, different parts of the car started malfunctioning until finally, the engine sputtered to a stop...

    I can just hear the engineers... "Well we already have to put circuitry on the windshield for the HUD.. why don't we just go ahead and put the fuel injection computer and all the other electronics there as well..."

    Hey, you think it wouldn't happen? I bet you thought that refrigerators would never have Internet access either...

    --sg

    --
    Dupe posts are /.'s tacit protest on the rights of users to time-shift content...
  22. Super-fantastic application... by Gruneun · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can make my house windows out of these things and project happy people interacting on them. I can fool the whole neighborhood into thinking I have friends.

    [sigh]

  23. Cool future uses and bad future uses by phorm · · Score: 5, Funny
    The cool
    • Portable (touch-type?) displays you can plug in anywhere. Download new library books by chapter (into temporary memory?).
    • Restaurant tables? TV's: watch the game on your table. Virtual colouring books for kids
    • Forget the coloured contacts. Glasses will come back in style as you get your own mini-HUD
    The bad
    • Billboards, now every office window can be one!
    • Spyglass-capabilities
    • And you thought your palm broke easily when you dropped it
    The ugly
    • Microsoft WindowPanes home edition and the BWOD (Blue Window Of Death)????!!!
  24. Dangerous DRM possibilities by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't like this. Think about the possibilities for DRM: this is basically Jack Valenti's wet dream. If the whole computer is directly on the glass, there's no place to jack in. No place to tap the signal. No place to do anything. DRM hardware implemented mere nanometers from the pixels. Let's hope this technology does not come to fruition.

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