Posted 10/30/08 at 04:57:40 PM by Alex Castle

Shinoda Plasma Corp is showing off a huge, flexible, prototype plasma display at the FPD exhibition in Japan, with plans to sell it commercially starting next year.

Unlike traditional plasma screens, with light-emitting cells located between sheets of glass, Shinoda’s display will use cells inside of incredibly thin glass tubes. These tubes allow the screen to be thinner than current plasma displays, and also allow it to be flexible.

The screen of the prototype is 3 meters by 1 meter, and only a millimeter thick. As if that weren’t enough, the screen is light (1.4kg) and energy efficient (600 watts) as well. Sadly, the technology isn’t ready for use in TVs and monitors yet—it can’t display  resolutions higher than 960 by 360 pixels, but we should start seeing it in public display capacities as early as next April or May.

Assuming this technology does become suitable for consumer displays, how do you think it’ll change the commercial landscape? Tell us your thoughts after the break.

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display, hardware, plasma, Shinoda Plasma Corp

Posted 07/22/08 at 03:13:31 PM by Paul Lilly

Ever get that eerie feeling you're being watched? Forget what your therapist told you, you have every right to be paranoid. NEC Corp. has just developed a new 50-inch plasma display that not only likes being watched, but watches back. On top of the display sits a tiny camera capable of identifying a person's age and sex, and it can perform the same trick with a group of viewers. Armed with that information, the display can then target advertisements based on the predominate demographic. For example, if most of the viewers are determined to be senior citizens, it might show an ad for the Jitterbug instead of Apple's iPhone.

"Changing advertising products in accordance with the viewer would bring advertising closer to the purchaser," said Hiroshi Takahashi at NEC's solution business promotion division.

And he's right, but is that a good thing? Imagine stopping near a billboard with your longtime girlfriend and as you bend down on one knee to propose, the display starts belting out a "Viva Viagra!" jingle. Or Herpex. Interested parties need only hold their cell phone over a special device and the display will feed them a URL, coupons, and any other pertinent information, but depending on what's being advertised, you may want to wait until your girlfriend's not looking.

The 50-inch display will make an appearance later this summer at an annual festival in Tokyo run by Fuji Television network and be presented as an entertainment device. Visitors will know they're being watched, but will they like it?

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tv, display, nec, hardware, consumer electronics, plasma

Posted 07/21/08 at 11:22:32 AM by Paul Lilly

Plasma displays are all but dead, and as any Maximum PC subscriber knows by now, the quality of LCD monitors can (and do) vary wildly, even among the same manufacturer (see VX2035WM and VLED221WM). Even still, LCDs dominate the PC landscape, and because prices have fallen so far in the past year, LCD televisions are also becoming increasingly commonplace. But there's a new contender on the horizon.

Researchers from Microsoft and the University of Washington talked up a new technology called "telescopic pixels" in this week's Nature Photonics. As the name suggests, the new tech takes advantage of an old concept and finds its roots in the optical telescope. How it works is each individual pixel consists of two opposing mirrors with one changing shape based on applied voltage, and the other reflecting light through a hole on the primary mirror and onto the display screen. Arstechnica has the full technical rundown, but what's most interesting are the several potential upsides over today's pixel technology.

Find out what potential advantages telescopic pixel technology might bring to the table after the jump.

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lcd, monitor, display, hardware, build a pc, plasma, telescopic pixel tech

Posted 07/05/08 at 12:21:55 PM by Paul Lilly

Absolutely no flatulence jokes will be blasted out in this blog, and while I'll do my best to hold it in, scientists are letting out concerns that a gas used in the making of LCD and plasma screens could be hurting the environment. The news couldn't have come at a worse time; plasmas and LCDs account for almost half of all televisions produced this year, and that trend doesn't appear to be slowing down. Almost all of them benefited from nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) during the production process, a potentially harmful gas also used to produce semiconductors and synthetic diamonds.

Exactly how dangerous NF3 might be to the environment remains a mystery, and will likely become a point of contention. Skeptics will point out that NF3 isn't one of the six gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol international climate change agreement, a legaly binding treaty designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but NF3 was only produced in tiny amounts when the treaty was signed over 10 years ago and production has since skyrocketed. Today scientists estimate the gas to be 17,000 times stronger than carbon dioxide and warn it could cause more global warming than coal-fired power plants.

Find out why the United States should be particularly concerned after the jump.

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lcd, monitor, consumer electronics, panel, build a rig, plasma, environment, global warming