Empowering display industry professionals with cutting-edge insights and analysis
For nearly a hundred years after Friedrich Reinitzer observed cholesteryl benzoate changing into its liquid crystal state in 1888, nine years before the invention of the CRT, liquid crystals remained little more than a chemical curiosity. Then in 1971, Drs. Schadt and Helfrich of Roche developed the twisted nematic liquid crystal and opened the door … Read more
The development of the twisted nematic liquid crystal (TNLC), with its 90° twist, made the production of commercially viable LCDs possible. Though relatively cheap to make and requiring very little power (hence their use in watches, calculators, etc.), there are problems associated with using TNLCDs in larger, more complex displays. In calculator type displays, each … Read more
The Universal Display Corporation (UDC) is one of the most prominent developers of Organic Light Emitting Devices (OLEDs). Working with researchers at Princeton University and the University of Southern California, it has produced several variations of the OLED designed to help it achieve its goal of developing multi-purpose flat screen monitors which can be wall, … Read more
Before the stream of electrons produced by the CRT’s cathode reach the phosphor coated faceplate, it encounters the shadow mask, a sheet of metal etched with a pattern of holes. The mask is positioned in the glass funnel of the CRT during manufacture and the phosphor is coated onto the screen so that electrons coming … Read more
Objects in 3D scenes are most commonly created by fitting together a large number of polygons (usually triangles), edge to edge, creating a “wire-frame” which approximates the object’s surface. By drawing only those triangles which lie on surfaces visible to the viewer (known as “hidden line removal”), recognisable, though unrealistic, objects can be portrayed. There … Read more
FEDs have proved difficult to develop and many companies had dropped their development projects in favour of other technologies. One company, however, has been working on a variation of the FED which currently looks to be a good contender for commercial production due to its simplicity and lower production costs. The company is Canon and … Read more
The most common form of deflection yoke used in early colour monitors is known as a saddle-toroidal yoke. Its name comes from the shapes of the vertical and horizontal deflection electro-magnets’ windings. The winding of the electro-magnet used for vertical beam deflection is saddle shaped, while the one responsible for horizontal deflection takes the form … Read more
Effective as they can be at producing recognisable 3D scenes, Gouraud and Phong shading will never produce anything that could be described as photo-realistic. To achieve this, it’s necessary to use rendering techniques that mimic the physics of real-world lighting. The most commonly used of these are called “ray tracing” and “radiosity“. Ray tracing is … Read more
Ray tracing mimics the reflection and refraction of light rays in a 3D scene to produce image detail surpassing anything possible using Phong shading. Effective as it is, though, ray tracing by itself will not produce photo-realistic images. At the very minimum, some kind of ambient lighting must be applied to the scene to reduce … Read more
Most silicon chips are made of single crystal silicon, which has a very low resistance to electron flow. However, silicon can exist in different forms (just as carbon can exist in the form of diamond, graphite, soot and buckminsterfullerine). As well as single crystal silicon, other forms are Poly-silicon and Amorphous silicon. Polysilicon (p-si) is … Read more
MIP-maps are used to store several different copies of a texture, at different scales, for use in 3D scene rendering. One of the accompanying illustrations shows four versions of a texture applied to flat surfaces which were parallel to the screen, each surface covered by a single, unprocessed, copy of one of the textures stored … Read more
In the search for a large sized flat screen display technology, LCDs do not have the field all to themselves. Though late to join the commercial battle, the next flat large screen devices being commercialised are plasma display panels (PDPs), a technology developed from the principle of the fluorescent (or “strip”) light. In a fluorescent … Read more
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