Tablet PC's in Bright Sunlight?
chadma asks: "I'm developing a program to be used on a Tablet PC; the unit will be used outdoors >80% of the time. I've seen some tablets from ViewSonic and MotionComputing and wondered if anyone had any experience or suggestions in the best screen for high sunlight conditions. Has there been any study or anyone with experience that could suggest the colors we use in the design? Would a white background with black text be most appropriate?"
Actual, much better than trans-flective is the cholesteric display. It actually looks better in direct sunlight than it does indoors! And it takes very little power, power consumption is proportional to how many rows you redraw (power is only consumed when you update the image, unlike a normal LCD which is related to time and brightness). Downside is refresh rate, you can about 4hz full-screen, or 8hz half screen, or 16hz quarter screen, etc. You will have problems finding these displays in commercial products, but if daylight readability is absolutely critical it may be worth paying to have some installed after-market.