This is a bullshit spec, as are 90% of all specifications given with LCD, Plasma, and any other non-CRT display technology in existence. (The CRT guys woulds lie too if their tech weren't so mature.)
Contrast ratio, brightness, and screen-performance information are generated by suing highly tailored test patterns and performance benchmarks that have little to do with the real image, but a lot to do with published specs.
For example, depending on how the technology responds, the contrast ratio test may consist of a white square, box, or dot on a black field, or a measured sequence of black-to-white screens, with the measured difference in brightness given as the contrast ratio.
The best analogy is speaker specs, which unless they are linked to recognized performance specifications (like frequency response given as plus/minus decibel variance from 20 to 20,000 Hz), are completely misleading. A speaker advertised as delivering 500 Watts may only be able to handle that much power as a transient, and even then a speaker can only "deliver" the power fed into it, which means you also need a 500-W amplifier.
A very good example was at the latest Society for Information Display (www.sid.org) show. Samsung had both the largest LCD and the largest Plasma in existence at the show, and although the brightness and contrast "specs" for the Plasma was greater, the LCD obviously had a brighter and sharper image in operation. True, the blacks were better in the Plasma, but that was the only visible distinction to the discerning viewer and only shows how little a guarantor of performance a high contrast rating is.
This news is certainly encouraging information, and will certainly result in a better-performing display appearing on our shelves soon. But to look at any given spec and shout "halleluia!" is being overly generous.
Many people, myself included, now offer free electronic versions of their books in an attempt to spread readership and increase hard-copy sales.
The intent is that many book lovers will buy the print version of a story they enjoyed, as well as reccommend the book to their non-Ebook friends to read.
To download a free copy my book, CYBERCHILD, go to www.smartalix.com/cyberchild.htm. A preview is also on that page so you can decide if it is your cup of tea.
It is available there in both PDF for Windows and Mobipocket PRC for Palm devices, so you can read it on your computer or your Palm-based PDA.
You forgot the third and most crucial step - you also have to be able to commercialize it. I have seen fantastic technologies founder (like LCOS, for example) because the creators could not scale the manufacturing process to commercial levels.
The future of LCD backlighting is in LED technology, not flourescent lamps. No matter how bright or how rapidly strobed a FL backlight is, it is still poor-quality white light. Flourescent tubes only produce an approximation of white, not true white light. Since an LCD is basically a varible light filter, the colors that come out the front are only as good as the spectrum of light coming in the rear.
By using Red, Green, and Blue LEDs in a backlight (as Sony and Samsung among others are developing) the LCD has a true (RGB mixed) white light that enables an LCD to deliver 110% of the color gamut of the original NTSC color spec!
In addition, LED response times are such that they can also be strobed for the same effect.
Yet another advantage of LEDs is that they have a lifetime significantly longer than FL tubes so the LCD would have an operating lifetime close to that of a CRT. In addition, since the color balance of the white balance can be adjusted (being made up of RGB light) the color balance of the screen can be maintained accurately over the 10-year (minimum) life expectancy of the backlight.
My recently-released book deals directly with nanotech and its impact on society.
The story is about a little girl, Gordona, who is thrown into a
situation as the result of being exposed to advanced technology in the
form of an escaped lab animal with a bloodstream full of microbots (based on nanotech, it will be a REALLY long time before we have true nanobots). She gets "infected".
While those near to Gordona struggle with the understanding of what
happened to her, the corporation behind the research is searching for
her to get their technology back.
Set in the near future, CYBERCHILD explores what happens when advanced
science meets human reality, an action thriller that explores
real-world issues and the challenges presented by medical research and
developing technology. The story strikes a balance amongst technology,
futurism, and geo-sociopolitical economic forces.
This is only one more effort in the electronic-paper race. There are flexible bi-stable (image memory) flexible displays in development from Kent Dislays (flexible Cholesteric LCD), Kodak (Electronic Paper), E-Ink (Electronic Paper), ZBD Displays Flexible Nematic LCD), Philips (Flexible OLED), SiPix, and many, many others.
At the recent Society for Information Display show almost every major player had a flavor of electronic ink prototype at their booth.
You guys need to look around at what else is out there before you get too excited about a flashy news announcement.
This technology is not about personal usage. It is for multi-user environments where different people have different needs. Sound is a secondary concern.
For example, this technology would allow a sign at a train station or airport to simultaneously display departing and arriving flights, providing full-screen images to both viewers on one monitor.
In a car, it is illegal for the driver to watch TV or a movie while driving, so the driver gets a navigation display while the passenger gets a movie. (We'll let the driver listen in).
In a control or security panel, two operators can watch two different video feeds from a sngle montior, saving valuable panel space.
In a store, the images can be pitched to the direction of pedestrian traffic. Those coming to the point of sale from different directions will see a different ad.
The applications are only limited by the imagination of the designer.
What everyone is forgetting is that VOIP systems will need serious UPS protection on every part of the system.
Since a VOIP network device requires power, that means that they need either a separate power line, an internal battery, or Power-over-Ethernet capability. However, with the exception of a device with an internal battery, any VOIP device will stop working during a power failure unless it has its own UPS.
Some VOIP providers will deliver power along with connectivity, but most will leave last-mile infrastructure to the user. This means that anyone installing their own VOIP devices must also provide power backup, or they will be high and dry in any power failure.
This is not the case with POTS, as the power comes with the signal.
Power supply and power redundancy, IMHO, will be the biggest hidden cost and failure generator in implementing VOIP.
Even if they are only used by the impaired, computer implants in the brain are inevitable. We have the developing technology, and we have people who not only need (the invalid) but want (the techie) that technology.
Interestingly enough, my book Cyberchild deals with this exact subject.
The story is about a little girl, Gordona, who is thrown into a situation as the result of being exposed to advanced technology in the form of an escaped lab animal with a bloodstream full of microbots. The lab was using the microbots to create an injectrable system to build a computer in the brain from the inside. (I believe that it is the installation method that deters many from the idea of a computer in their head.)
While those near to Gordona struggle with the understanding of what is happening to her, the corporation behind the research is searching for her to get their technology back.
Set in the near future, CYBERCHILD explores what happens when advanced science meets human reality, an action thriller that explores real-world issues and the challenges presented by medical research and developing technology.
Computers in the brain will be an eventual commodity in the not-too-distant future.
If you assume that the diagram is a translation (why would the Germans write in English?), it is very possible that this is real. If you simply change the word "plutonium" to "uranium" the diagram becomes a close copy of the way the "little boy" atomic bomb (the one we dropped on Hiroshima, btw) operated. It used a gun design almost identical to that of the German(?) diagram.
This is not only a battery problem, it is a power consumption issue. You can have the best battery in the world in your device, but if it is inefficient you are wasting your time (literally).
Devices are getting more efficient every day, but there is still room for improvement. Blaming the battery only addresses half of the problem.
The CRT is too cheap and robust, and performs too well to be eliminated completely. CRT will find its way into applications that due to price, longevity, or reliability require more than an LCD or plasma display.
Like the LP, the CRT will hang around as a niche product, used by those that require its unique properties.
I love my Treo 650. It is a major improvement over the 600. I also think it is a better device for all-around smartphone use than the Blackberry, which is a very business-oriented device.
I've played with the new device, and I like it a lot. It fits into the hand surprisingly well, and the screen looks great. THe screen is also easy to change between portrait and landscape modes, useful when switching from data apps to pictures and video.
There is an alternative technology for creating a large flatscreen TV. It uses a blue INorganic electroluminescent phosphor with filters, and I have seen 34-inch prototypes already.
The company is called iFire, and they are based in Toronto (yes, the Canadians are a player in the next-gen display industry). Their site is http://www.ifire.com./
They plan to have 37+ inch screens in retail by NLT early 2007 at pricepoints below LCD and decent plasma.
You can also read my book, Cyberchild. It deals with a company that is exploring using microbots injected into the bloodstream to build a computer inside the skull. This avoids the primary problem with implants, the invasive surgury involved.
The Imagic retinal-scanning color microdisplay display from MicroVision uses a single dual-axis pivoting micromirror to create SVGA-resolution images by rapidly scanning a single pixel directly on the retina to produce an unpixelated image.
They call it a fabric, but it isn't. It is a film. A fabric is woven together, and in this case the atoms are linked side-to-side. If it was woven, by definition it wouldn't be one atom thick.
LCoS is actually a superior technology in many ways, but it seems that nobody can make it cheap and plentiful. When I saw the Intel demos of the product at CES (private suite), I was very impressed with the image quality. There are other companies like Brillian and Spacialight currently selling 720p and 1080p LCoS chips, but in relatively small quantities for high-end and private-label applications.
The primary advantages of LCoS involve its construction. In an LCD, since the light has to pass through the display, there is a limit on the size of the pixel since the transistors in it are opaque. This means that the pixels can only be shrunk to a certain size before light transmission is compromised, forcing high-resolution projection LCDs to increase in size to accommodate more pixels.
A similar problem also exists in DLP chips, but due to mechanical considerations of the mirrors and clearances needed. An LCoS chip has its transistors behind immobile pixels, and therefore does not share either shortcoming.
Yet another advantage to having the transistors behind the pixel is that you can then add more than control transistors to each pixel. This allows you to add features like video memory and logic on-chip.
Frankly, I think it is shortsighted of Intel to pull the plug on LCoS, and has increased the pessimism in the industry of whether any company can field these devices in quantity.
You obviously don't know much about Kodak. They have some of the best researchers on the planet, and have invented significant technologies such as organic light-emitting diode technology, developed their own version of electronic paper as well as a micromirrror-based projection system to rival the DLP from TI, and make the best image sensors available (The Hasselblad 16- and 22-megapixel digital backs use Kodak image sensors.)
The problem was that every time one of these developments were brought to Kodak management, the myopic bean-counters refused to back it because the profit would never approach what they pulled down from film. In a way, the loss of the film industry is a blessing in disguise, as it will force Kodak to pay more attention to the other technologies it has developed.
Re:I'll stick to my LaserDiscs....
on
Star Wars on DVD
·
· Score: 1
Not only that, but if you get the "Star Wars Definitive Collection" on Laserdisc (I paid $200 for mine retail when it first came out), the boxed set also includes all that documentary footage and a book, "George Lucas, the creative impulse" covering all of his mivies and the ideas behind "Star Wars".
Of course, I give out a little ironic laugh every time I look at the title.
Everybody here keeps talking about reaction masses and thrust as the only things that matter. There is an additional significant factor that takes a part in this success, and will take a significant role in every other vehicle using the approach of the White Knight/SpaceShipOne system.
The spaceplane is part of a binary system, consisting of a carrier aircraft and a rocket plane. The carrier aircraft takes advantage of the largest barrier to traditional rockets, the atmosphere. It does so by generating lift with wings. If there were no wings involved, the energy required to get the rocket plane to the altitude where its engine can push it into space would be prohibitive.
The system is also completely scalable. A bigger carrier aircraft would be able to carry a bigger spaceplane, using its bigger wings to generate more lift to carry the greater load. I don't have the math to calculate how big an underslung rocket plane could be carried by a 747-sized aircraft could be, but it would certainly be able to carry a bigger payload than the current SpaceShipOne.
The hardest part is getting above 90% of the atmosphere, and wings are perfectly suited for that task.
Low Earth Orbit may be at 93 miles, but the official boundary of space as recognized by the US Air Force is 50. Any pilot who flys higher than that is authorized to wear astronaut wings. This was accomplished regularly during the X-15 rocket-plane program.
It seems that all the discussion is about the laser, when the real breakthrough (and the real value-add from the Israelis) are the processors that take in the sensor data, analyze it, and steer the laser to the target.
Recently, an Israeli company called Lenslet (www.lenslet.com) developed an optical DSP that can process 8 x 10^12 3-digit multiplications per second. I wouldn't be surprised if this company is one of the subcontractors.
Slashdot Mirror
Ever!
In fact, private spacecraft will probably have suites designed for nothing but zero-gee sex (ZGS).
C'mon, ZGS has to be better than regular sex if only because your arm won't fall asleep with her head on it anymore.
This is a bullshit spec, as are 90% of all specifications given with LCD, Plasma, and any other non-CRT display technology in existence. (The CRT guys woulds lie too if their tech weren't so mature.)
Contrast ratio, brightness, and screen-performance information are generated by suing highly tailored test patterns and performance benchmarks that have little to do with the real image, but a lot to do with published specs.
For example, depending on how the technology responds, the contrast ratio test may consist of a white square, box, or dot on a black field, or a measured sequence of black-to-white screens, with the measured difference in brightness given as the contrast ratio.
The best analogy is speaker specs, which unless they are linked to recognized performance specifications (like frequency response given as plus/minus decibel variance from 20 to 20,000 Hz), are completely misleading. A speaker advertised as delivering 500 Watts may only be able to handle that much power as a transient, and even then a speaker can only "deliver" the power fed into it, which means you also need a 500-W amplifier.
A very good example was at the latest Society for Information Display (www.sid.org) show. Samsung had both the largest LCD and the largest Plasma in existence at the show, and although the brightness and contrast "specs" for the Plasma was greater, the LCD obviously had a brighter and sharper image in operation. True, the blacks were better in the Plasma, but that was the only visible distinction to the discerning viewer and only shows how little a guarantor of performance a high contrast rating is.
This news is certainly encouraging information, and will certainly result in a better-performing display appearing on our shelves soon. But to look at any given spec and shout "halleluia!" is being overly generous.
Burt Rutan is Zephram Cochrane's Great-grandfather.
Many people, myself included, now offer free electronic versions of their books in an attempt to spread readership and increase hard-copy sales.
The intent is that many book lovers will buy the print version of a story they enjoyed, as well as reccommend the book to their non-Ebook friends to read.
To download a free copy my book, CYBERCHILD, go to www.smartalix.com/cyberchild.htm. A preview is also on that page so you can decide if it is your cup of tea.
It is available there in both PDF for Windows and Mobipocket PRC for Palm devices, so you can read it on your computer or your Palm-based PDA.
You forgot the third and most crucial step - you also have to be able to commercialize it. I have seen fantastic technologies founder (like LCOS, for example) because the creators could not scale the manufacturing process to commercial levels.
The future of LCD backlighting is in LED technology, not flourescent lamps. No matter how bright or how rapidly strobed a FL backlight is, it is still poor-quality white light. Flourescent tubes only produce an approximation of white, not true white light. Since an LCD is basically a varible light filter, the colors that come out the front are only as good as the spectrum of light coming in the rear.
By using Red, Green, and Blue LEDs in a backlight (as Sony and Samsung among others are developing) the LCD has a true (RGB mixed) white light that enables an LCD to deliver 110% of the color gamut of the original NTSC color spec!
In addition, LED response times are such that they can also be strobed for the same effect.
Yet another advantage of LEDs is that they have a lifetime significantly longer than FL tubes so the LCD would have an operating lifetime close to that of a CRT. In addition, since the color balance of the white balance can be adjusted (being made up of RGB light) the color balance of the screen can be maintained accurately over the 10-year (minimum) life expectancy of the backlight.
The story is about a little girl, Gordona, who is thrown into a situation as the result of being exposed to advanced technology in the form of an escaped lab animal with a bloodstream full of microbots (based on nanotech, it will be a REALLY long time before we have true nanobots). She gets "infected".
While those near to Gordona struggle with the understanding of what happened to her, the corporation behind the research is searching for her to get their technology back.
Set in the near future, CYBERCHILD explores what happens when advanced science meets human reality, an action thriller that explores real-world issues and the challenges presented by medical research and developing technology. The story strikes a balance amongst technology, futurism, and geo-sociopolitical economic forces.
At the recent Society for Information Display show almost every major player had a flavor of electronic ink prototype at their booth.
You guys need to look around at what else is out there before you get too excited about a flashy news announcement.
This technology is not about personal usage. It is for multi-user environments where different people have different needs. Sound is a secondary concern.
For example, this technology would allow a sign at a train station or airport to simultaneously display departing and arriving flights, providing full-screen images to both viewers on one monitor.
In a car, it is illegal for the driver to watch TV or a movie while driving, so the driver gets a navigation display while the passenger gets a movie. (We'll let the driver listen in).
In a control or security panel, two operators can watch two different video feeds from a sngle montior, saving valuable panel space.
In a store, the images can be pitched to the direction of pedestrian traffic. Those coming to the point of sale from different directions will see a different ad.
The applications are only limited by the imagination of the designer.
What everyone is forgetting is that VOIP systems will need serious UPS protection on every part of the system.
Since a VOIP network device requires power, that means that they need either a separate power line, an internal battery, or Power-over-Ethernet capability. However, with the exception of a device with an internal battery, any VOIP device will stop working during a power failure unless it has its own UPS.
Some VOIP providers will deliver power along with connectivity, but most will leave last-mile infrastructure to the user. This means that anyone installing their own VOIP devices must also provide power backup, or they will be high and dry in any power failure.
This is not the case with POTS, as the power comes with the signal.
Power supply and power redundancy, IMHO, will be the biggest hidden cost and failure generator in implementing VOIP.
Interestingly enough, my book Cyberchild deals with this exact subject.
The story is about a little girl, Gordona, who is thrown into a situation as the result of being exposed to advanced technology in the form of an escaped lab animal with a bloodstream full of microbots. The lab was using the microbots to create an injectrable system to build a computer in the brain from the inside. (I believe that it is the installation method that deters many from the idea of a computer in their head.)
While those near to Gordona struggle with the understanding of what is happening to her, the corporation behind the research is searching for her to get their technology back.
Set in the near future, CYBERCHILD explores what happens when advanced science meets human reality, an action thriller that explores real-world issues and the challenges presented by medical research and developing technology.
Computers in the brain will be an eventual commodity in the not-too-distant future.
If you assume that the diagram is a translation (why would the Germans write in English?), it is very possible that this is real. If you simply change the word "plutonium" to "uranium" the diagram becomes a close copy of the way the "little boy" atomic bomb (the one we dropped on Hiroshima, btw) operated. It used a gun design almost identical to that of the German(?) diagram.
This is not only a battery problem, it is a power consumption issue. You can have the best battery in the world in your device, but if it is inefficient you are wasting your time (literally).
Devices are getting more efficient every day, but there is still room for improvement. Blaming the battery only addresses half of the problem.
The CRT is too cheap and robust, and performs too well to be eliminated completely. CRT will find its way into applications that due to price, longevity, or reliability require more than an LCD or plasma display.
Like the LP, the CRT will hang around as a niche product, used by those that require its unique properties.
I love my Treo 650. It is a major improvement over the 600. I also think it is a better device for all-around smartphone use than the Blackberry, which is a very business-oriented device.
I've played with the new device, and I like it a lot. It fits into the hand surprisingly well, and the screen looks great. THe screen is also easy to change between portrait and landscape modes, useful when switching from data apps to pictures and video.
There is an alternative technology for creating a large flatscreen TV. It uses a blue INorganic electroluminescent phosphor with filters, and I have seen 34-inch prototypes already.
The company is called iFire, and they are based in Toronto (yes, the Canadians are a player in the next-gen display industry). Their site is http://www.ifire.com./
They plan to have 37+ inch screens in retail by NLT early 2007 at pricepoints below LCD and decent plasma.
You can also read my book, Cyberchild. It deals with a company that is exploring using microbots injected into the bloodstream to build a computer inside the skull. This avoids the primary problem with implants, the invasive surgury involved.
http://www.smartalix.com/cyberchild.htm
The Imagic retinal-scanning color microdisplay display from MicroVision uses a single dual-axis pivoting micromirror to create SVGA-resolution images by rapidly scanning a single pixel directly on the retina to produce an unpixelated image.
They call it a fabric, but it isn't. It is a film. A fabric is woven together, and in this case the atoms are linked side-to-side. If it was woven, by definition it wouldn't be one atom thick.
LCoS is actually a superior technology in many ways, but it seems that nobody can make it cheap and plentiful. When I saw the Intel demos of the product at CES (private suite), I was very impressed with the image quality. There are other companies like Brillian and Spacialight currently selling 720p and 1080p LCoS chips, but in relatively small quantities for high-end and private-label applications.
The primary advantages of LCoS involve its construction. In an LCD, since the light has to pass through the display, there is a limit on the size of the pixel since the transistors in it are opaque. This means that the pixels can only be shrunk to a certain size before light transmission is compromised, forcing high-resolution projection LCDs to increase in size to accommodate more pixels.
A similar problem also exists in DLP chips, but due to mechanical considerations of the mirrors and clearances needed. An LCoS chip has its transistors behind immobile pixels, and therefore does not share either shortcoming.
Yet another advantage to having the transistors behind the pixel is that you can then add more than control transistors to each pixel. This allows you to add features like video memory and logic on-chip.
Frankly, I think it is shortsighted of Intel to pull the plug on LCoS, and has increased the pessimism in the industry of whether any company can field these devices in quantity.
You obviously don't know much about Kodak. They have some of the best researchers on the planet, and have invented significant technologies such as organic light-emitting diode technology, developed their own version of electronic paper as well as a micromirrror-based projection system to rival the DLP from TI, and make the best image sensors available (The Hasselblad 16- and 22-megapixel digital backs use Kodak image sensors.)
The problem was that every time one of these developments were brought to Kodak management, the myopic bean-counters refused to back it because the profit would never approach what they pulled down from film. In a way, the loss of the film industry is a blessing in disguise, as it will force Kodak to pay more attention to the other technologies it has developed.
Not only that, but if you get the "Star Wars Definitive Collection" on Laserdisc (I paid $200 for mine retail when it first came out), the boxed set also includes all that documentary footage and a book, "George Lucas, the creative impulse" covering all of his mivies and the ideas behind "Star Wars".
Of course, I give out a little ironic laugh every time I look at the title.
Everybody here keeps talking about reaction masses and thrust as the only things that matter. There is an additional significant factor that takes a part in this success, and will take a significant role in every other vehicle using the approach of the White Knight/SpaceShipOne system.
The spaceplane is part of a binary system, consisting of a carrier aircraft and a rocket plane. The carrier aircraft takes advantage of the largest barrier to traditional rockets, the atmosphere. It does so by generating lift with wings. If there were no wings involved, the energy required to get the rocket plane to the altitude where its engine can push it into space would be prohibitive.
The system is also completely scalable. A bigger carrier aircraft would be able to carry a bigger spaceplane, using its bigger wings to generate more lift to carry the greater load. I don't have the math to calculate how big an underslung rocket plane could be carried by a 747-sized aircraft could be, but it would certainly be able to carry a bigger payload than the current SpaceShipOne.
The hardest part is getting above 90% of the atmosphere, and wings are perfectly suited for that task.
Low Earth Orbit may be at 93 miles, but the official boundary of space as recognized by the US Air Force is 50. Any pilot who flys higher than that is authorized to wear astronaut wings. This was accomplished regularly during the X-15 rocket-plane program.
It seems that all the discussion is about the laser, when the real breakthrough (and the real value-add from the Israelis) are the processors that take in the sensor data, analyze it, and steer the laser to the target.
Recently, an Israeli company called Lenslet (www.lenslet.com) developed an optical DSP that can process 8 x 10^12 3-digit multiplications per second. I wouldn't be surprised if this company is one of the subcontractors.