Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Straubing, Germany
Posts: 71

There's talked a lot already about the new reflective color screens.
So we know they are cheaper, need less power and are available in 16bit color versions.
But does anyone know more about the screens? How much will they cost? How fast will they be (frame rate)?
Another important thing: What will the backlight be like? Will there be white LEDs illuminating the screen? Will the brightness be adjustable?

And what about the new OELD screens? I've heard they are much faster than current LCDs and TFTs, need also less power and are cheaper. So what screen do we have in some years, reflective color or OELD?

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

Reflective LCD displays are already in use on some handhelds, the Compaq iPAQ in particular. They have adjustable brightness, but the contrast settings are fixed. In terms of viewing quality they are awesome! You can see the screen in both indoors and outdoor environments, and they use much less power than traditional Active Matrix displays. In fact, you can even shut off the backlight (actually, its a side-light) completely.

If you have never seen a Reflective display in action, go to Circuit City or Best Buy and play around with an iPAQ.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Straubing, Germany
Posts: 71

Sounds good. But the backlight itself is not adjustable, is it? By using the display at night (for astronomy, for example) it would be useful to make the backlight (ok, let's say side-light ) a bit darker. Even the Visor's backlight, which is not very bright at all, blinds you at night, i've tried this.
But the idea of trying the iPaq is good, i will do that next time...

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

The backlight on the iPAQ is adjustable, I think it has 4 brightness levels. So I'm assuming all Palm devices that will have this same display will also have some form of brightness adjustment.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Not so sunny, San Diego, CA
Posts: 51

OLED's diplays

Organic LED displays are the next big thing in PDA displays.. TFT/reflective are monsters compared to OLEDs Good places to check 'em out are MIT's Technology Review, and Kodak, Universal Display, IAPP (in German), Cambrige displays , Ritek , and a few others have websites devoted to the technology and prototypes =)
The slickest thing about OLEDs is that they don't require a rigid substrate, so they can be deposited onto anything flexible.. personally, I'm waiting for jackets with OLED displays painted on them What this means is that the PDA will no longer be shackled to the area dimensions of the display; the monitor can be rolled up into the PDA, allowing the actual display size to be far larger than the device when it's stored.. (for you Roddenberry fans out there, think of the "globals" from Earth: Final Conflict)
Benefits:
1. True video-quality displays
2. No need for backlighting, as the OLED pixels actually emit light
3. Decreased power consumption
4. Significantly reduced cost and ease of construction
5. Flexible/rollable screens!

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

I'm betting that flat-plane CRT technology beats OLED to the market.

Basically, FPCRT uses a flat array of individual electron emitters, rather than an electron gun to excite a layered array of RGB phosphers to emit light and produce a picture.

They may never be flexible, but will allow extremely thin color self-illuminating and low power displays.

What I'm REALLY waiting for, is gene technology to let us grow a data port on our forehead that is sensitive to infra red signals. Video sent via infrared would be decoded and directly imprint on the image areas of our brain, as an alternative to input from our eyes and optic nerves. Your PDA could then be a simple flashlight device. You'd aim it at your forehead, then "see" the screen in your mind's eye. All done? Close your forehead eyelid. Your regular eyes will take over. @�-]

Not this year? I'll wait.

Dave 8-]

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Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

quote:

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Originally posted by DBrown
What I'm REALLY waiting for, is gene technology to let us grow a data port on our forehead that is sensitive to infra red signals. Video sent via infrared would be decoded and directly imprint on the image areas of our brain, as an alternative to input from our eyes and optic nerves. Your PDA could then be a simple flashlight device. You'd aim it at your forehead, then "see" the screen in your mind's eye. All done? Close your forehead eyelid. Your regular eyes will take over. @�-]

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I'm waiting for computers to gain artificial intelligence...and then rise up to crush us like the cockroaches we are!

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

quote:

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Originally posted by foo fighter
I'm waiting for computers to gain artificial intelligence...and then rise up to crush us like the cockroaches we are!

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NC, Indiana
Posts: 465

Artifical Intelligence

Here's a good book about artificial intelligence. It states that computers won't exceed humans until 2020. However some have said that his estimations of the number of neurons (the basis for his calculation), is grossly underestimated and that 2020 is far too optimistic (or pessimistic, depending on your viewpoint ).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...2039278-0566150

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-Vincent

Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

So... Why is it taken so long? OLED's sound like there are no problems with them, and they solve all the old problems.. Why !?!?!?!

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-miradu

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Not so sunny, San Diego, CA
Posts: 51

OLED Displays due this year

If ya'll read thru some of the OLED manufacturer's pages, you'll see the simplest reason they aren't available yet.. They're just barely out of R&D! Cambridge just invested like $25M into a 1st gen production facility in Britain to turn out limited quantities and spur the market for larger production.. essentially, nobody even knows these things exist as an option yet, so no rush to manufacture (demand determines supply). Of course, as soon as the bloody things hit the market and everybody starts going apes**t over truly hangable largescreen tvs and monitors, color phone and PDA displays, yada yada.. then there'll be no end to the drive to mass produce..
In the meantime, save up your pennies and/or invest them in OLED/PLED/OEL manufacturers
I wonder if there'll be replacement OEM screens for retrofitting current PDA's? Hmmmmm

Also, check out Luxell who are making OELs for military/avionics.. lookin' good!

Last edited by WorldCTZen on 02-20-2001 at 08:18 AM