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WSJ: Google X Display Team Works Toward Bezel-Free Modular Displays

Posted by timothy on from the mary-lou-can-do-no-wrong dept.

The Wall Street Journal reports in a paywalled article that a team under Pixel Qi founder and OLPC co-founder Mary Lou Jepsen at Google's skunkwork labs Google X is working on modular video displays that could be expanded by snapping them together "like Lego." Ars Technica, TechSpot, The Verge, and several others summarize the claims made by "three people familiar with the project"; here's a snippet from TechSpot's version: Even in the home and office, the use of multiple displays isn’t uncommon but just like with larger implementations often used for advertising purposes, screen bezels are always a problem. Bezels are less visible from a distance but up close, they pretty much ruin the experience. The scope and target audience for the project is unclear at this hour as we are told the project is currently in an early stage. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to stitch images together across screens, both electronically and through software.

28 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Desperate Times? by danknight48 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Posting for a paywall article? Budget must be low at Slashdot to advertise for wallstreet journal.
    You getting 20% of the signup costs?

    Great article i bet, shame i'am too fucking tight to give you 20p to read it.

    1. Re:Desperate Times? by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 2

      This has been going on forever -- it used to be back in the early 2000s that every other article was a link to the New York Times with a "subscription required" warning.

      People frequently used to request an option to get rid of postings that linked to pay sites, but we never got it. Although at least we eventually got the "Shut Up JonKatz" option.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    2. Re:Desperate Times? by icejai · · Score: 3, Informative

      Too tight or too lazy.

      Just copy/paste the WSJ article title into google, and click the link.

      You kids...

    3. Re:Desperate Times? by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      Posting for a paywall article? Budget must be low at Slashdot to advertise for wallstreet journal.
      You getting 20% of the signup costs?

      Great article i bet, shame i'am too fucking tight to give you 20p to read it.

      If you don't like ads, then you shouldn't read it anyhow. The ad for the paywall article is about making modular ad walls that when combined can make even bigger ad walls.

      Think Shinjuku Tokyo Japan, but everywhere, in your home, at the groceries, at work, etc., brought to you by Google and as easy to assemble as legos.

  2. Done before by j-stroy · · Score: 1

    This is how video walls are made. Not news. Doesn't matter. Btw I still haven't forgotten the day this site died.

  3. One of the biggest challenges? by wisnoskij · · Score: 2

    One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to stitch images together across screens, both electronically and through software.

    Umm, Every OS on the market already does this when you hook multiple monitors up to it.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    1. Re:One of the biggest challenges? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Umm, Every OS on the market already does this when you hook multiple monitors up to it.

      Right up until you run a 3d app. Then you have to have the right graphics system in your PC and it's left up to the video driver.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:One of the biggest challenges? by binarybum · · Score: 1

      agreed. pay article, but I suspect the summary may be leaving some detail out here. I'm not sure why this would be an issue at all. Pixel 4000 is last one on screen one - pixel 4001 is first on screen 2. Giant jumbo tron screens are modular - this seems like a solved problem. I wonder how you protect the edge of a bezel-free monitor though?

      --
      ôó
  4. Skeptical of seamless images / Ars Project by maynard · · Score: 1

    I wonder how the group plans to stitch together multiple displays seamlessly. Removing the bezel is only part of the problem. There'd still be a noticeable seam between panels, never mind the problem of lining up pixels. I suppose one could argue that beyond a certain pixel density - +400dpi or something - lining up pixels exactly wouldn't be necessary. But then you'd have to offset by that difference, and the joined panel would have to test for and respond to that offset to compensate.

    I think most would be rightly skeptical of this until seeing the tech work first hand.

    On another subject, at the Techspot article there was a link to the Ars project. It's some kind of hot swappable modular phone in development.

    http://www.techspot.com/news/5...

    According to that, you can't swap out CPU or display live but just about everything else would be hot swappable. It's got a nifty photo showing parts to some kind of mock up or beta device.

    All I could think of when looking at this was Stringer Bell from The Wire swapping out sim cards in his phone and what a boon that might be for criminals. Or at least crime drama on TV.

    1. Re:Skeptical of seamless images / Ars Project by ihtoit · · Score: 2

      I reckon it'd be like Lego. A 4-stud panel (that's 4-stud wide, standard height) would have a 16:10 aspect, a 2-stud 8:10. Tile a row of 4s, then the next row would consist of a 2, then 4s and a 2 at the other end - just like building a Lego brick wall. The panels would necessarily need to sport the same dot pitch, and the studs form part of the electronics to align the panels. Because the interlocks are in the same positions relative to the vertical edge on all the panels, they align themselves and you get a seamless horizontal join. The vertical seams would probably require some sort of coating to prevent abrasion as you connect the panels, and the whole kit can be controlled via a single stud unit (or even a 2 or 4 stud as part of a stand?) which feeds from a single output unit (like say, an UHD output from an SLI rig) and would probably have the ability to sense and count the number, type/s and relative positions of the connected panels and send outputs accordingly. Yes, it's like screen spanning in Windows (done it with a 4-screen setup by hacking cases, the result was pretty nice with only a 1/8" join which you barely, and I mean barely noticed from four feet away. The bugbear I had with that was the EIGHT cables the setup needed just for the screens and the fact that I had to set up the panels manually! Some sort of positional sensor would make that a lot less of an issue)

      The other question would be one of intended use. For a wraparound, the wall would need to be curved to account for the proximity of the player otherwise you lose a lot in perspective. This can (and does) ruin it for gamers. For a video wall, this can be flat as you'll be viewing it from a distance.

      Through all of that though, I think anything more than 48" diagonal and you're really looking at a projector otherwise you're spending obscene amounts of money on lots of heavy glass. A 48" wall built with 16" monitors is nine monitors.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    2. Re:Skeptical of seamless images / Ars Project by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      By using OLED, it should be possible to make a screen with pixels literally right up to the edge. By using a fairly serious locking connector mechanism, it should be possible to clamp those panels down tightly enough to where the line is not really perceptible when the array is active.

      All I could think of when looking at this was Stringer Bell from The Wire swapping out sim cards in his phone and what a boon that might be for criminals. Or at least crime drama on TV.

      I'm sure it will feature in Watch Dogs 2 or similar, but it's fairly irrelevant. Besides, there are already dual-SIM phones.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Skeptical of seamless images / Ars Project by maynard · · Score: 1

      drinkypoo - gee, I remember you. Nice to see some old timers 'round here.

      I'm sure it will feature in Watch Dogs 2 or similar, but it's fairly irrelevant.

      Way to let out a balloon. Comparing The Wire to Watch Dogs is like serving Chef Bloyardee and calling it Bolognese.

    4. Re:Skeptical of seamless images / Ars Project by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Way to let out a balloon. Comparing The Wire to Watch Dogs is like serving Chef Bloyardee and calling it Bolognese.

      The point was that a modular phone figuring in a plot is more worthy of the former than the latter. And it's all based on hearsay, anyway. I have no direct experience with either. It's not my kind of game, and it's not my kind of television, respectively.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Skeptical of seamless images / Ars Project by plover · · Score: 1

      I'm thinking you place two current monitors side by side, then slap a strip of OLED tape down the seam. With a small matter of programming, and a few photo transistors on the back side, it could be self calibrating and self aligning. As far as the OS goes, it would just be another tall thin monitor.

      --
      John
  5. Re:wait for a few more gens of Oculus Rift by maynard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Carmack's keynote at the 2014 Oculus Connect conference said it would take several more generations before Samsung would have panels that could support seamless 120 fps. Apparently there's a problem with peripheral vision noticing 60fps with a significant number of people. Basically, Samsung is focused on developing panels for the phone market and Oculus piggypacks on that development line. They don't have the market penetration to drive display research.

    The most interesting part of his discussion was proposing interlaced formats and variable refresh rates with G-sync to up the perceived refresh rate around peripheral vision.

    The talk is about 90 minutes and - ironically - audio is not synced with video. Still, he doesn't talk much bullshit and it's an interesting listen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  6. Seamless screen joining by NixieBunny · · Score: 1

    I get the sense that these folks want to eliminate the non-pixel space between adjacent LCD screens. That will take some fancy screen design, as the connections to the controller chips occur at the edges of the glass. Those connections are currently many pixels wide.

    I imagine that someone will figure out a way, but I won't hold my breath.

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
  7. Ya know what's harder than lining up the pixels? by waferbuster · · Score: 2

    You know what's harder than lining up the pixels perfectly on adjacent panels? Getting the brightness, contrast, color, and gamma matched. It's not as noticable when screens are separated on your desk, but put them side by side and all those little hot and cold spots are going to create a very noticable demarcation line at the seam.

    --
    I'm an individual! Just like everyone else!
  8. Re:Ya know what's harder than lining up the pixels by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

    You know what's harder than lining up the pixels perfectly on adjacent panels? Getting the brightness, contrast, color, and gamma matched. It's not as noticable when screens are separated on your desk, but put them side by side and all those little hot and cold spots are going to create a very noticable demarcation line at the seam.

    Yeah, it's actually quite an annoyance - we got multimonitors at work, and it drove me up the wall that one was bluer than another. So you'd have two Explorer windows open, and one was tinged a different color. Especially annoying when you have windows spanning the gap (either due to coding flaws or when moving a window to the other monitor) and it takes the tinge.

    Took me an hour to get two seemingly-identical Dell monitors to be well, matched enough to not drive me up the wall. And we're talking about a 1" split with the bezel.

  9. Re:Ya know what's harder than lining up the pixels by Rick+Richardson · · Score: 1

    http://amzn.com/B009APMNB0

    For $90 bucks ...

  10. Re:Ya know what's harder than lining up the pixels by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Yes, color correction devices exist. However, to perform a really good calibration on an ordinary monitor takes about nine tests which take ten to thirty minutes each depending on how frisky your device is feeling that day. You're going to have to do that for every single panel in the set.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  11. Oh Dear... by Greyfox · · Score: 1

    That's going to upset some people over at r/bezels.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  12. portrait view by swell · · Score: 1

    We already have screens too wide, unable to present a readable document which is taller than it is wide. Great for widescreen movies and certain spreadsheets, not so good for letters, legal papers, business documents, books or magazines.

    We may have to stack these monitors somehow.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  13. Really? by cwatts · · Score: 1

    "One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to stitch images together across screens, both electronically and through software."

    I'm not discounting the intelligence of the designers at Google, but splitting video of any resolution across multiple monitors is not something that needs to be figured out. Christy, Green Hippo, Derivative and dozens of others have been offering solutions to this for years, if not decades. The finest pitch LED screens are about 5mm, these days (I'm talking about the big screens behind [yer favorite rock star], not desktops) and the gaps between the panels are essentially invisible. And solutions abound for color/contrast/brightness/gamma normalization.

    There is certainly work to be done with consumer/professional displays meant for the desktop, but if you've got the money to bolt together a couple of monitors and you expect the join to be invisible, you've probably got the money to buy a bigger monitor.

    Unless, of course, you're going to shape it like a windshield and stick it on the inside of your car. I don't recall seeing that at any trade shows yet.

    --
    chris watts íë¦ìS ì(TM)ì
  14. Re:Ya know what's harder than lining up the pixels by cwatts · · Score: 1

    Get a new cable, that will probably fix it. And it's magenta, not pink.

    --
    chris watts íë¦ìS ì(TM)ì
  15. Re:Ya know what's harder than lining up the pixels by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    It would seem practical to use a single HD webcam to calibrate all the monitors in this way.

    Might work if you calibrate the webcam before each run. But you'll need an ideal setup...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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  17. I wanna... by RatchetDriver · · Score: 1

    Bezel less display sounds so good I wanna have sex with it...

    --
    Nothing to see here. Move along.
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