OLED is a very promising display technology and larger-sized displays are very soon coming into the market. But LED-backlit devices have been around for quite a while and will soon a get a boost with the introduction of a LED coating technique that Nanosys developed. It works by applying nanoparticles to LEDs that allows them to produce a blue hue, the most efficient color as far as energy consumption is concerned. This process is ideal for LED-backlit displays because the blue-coated LEDs deliver enhanced color while using the same energy profile as standard white LED-backlit displays. We are seeing more and more laptops and HDTV sets with LED-backlit displays coming into the market today. This means there is a potentially-rich market waiting for this new technology. So expect more manufacturers to come out with new products that utilize this new technology hopefully within this year.
This year’s CES witnessed the rebirth of 3D and there was so much hype about tablet PCs and other new devices. One notable product development is on pico or mini projectors. If you can remember, Nikon launched last year the Coolpix S1000pj compact digital camera. It has a built-in projector that can project a display up to 40 inches, thus earning the title as the world’s first pico projector. This small device employs LEDs, in conjunction with microscopic mirrors, instead of conventional lamps used by full-sized projectors. One leading manufacturer in this field is Texas Instruments, which came out with the Digital Light Processing Pico chips. Each DLP chip contains up to 2 million microscopic mirrors that can reflect a high-resolution image on a wall or screen when applied a digital video signal. Because of its very small size, DLP Pico projectors can be crammed into all kinds of small devices such as mobile phones and digital cameras. New products, which utilized the DLP pico technology, include a snap-on projector for the LG eXpo mobile phone, the Samsung W9600 projector phone and the Brightboxe, said to be the world’s first Pico gaming projector.
Zeon, a Japan-based company, has developed a revolutionary film for the polarizing plates of LCD displays. Its purpose is to boost the picture contrast of the display by as much as 10 times. They call the material phase difference film and it is based on Cyclo Olefin Polymer. It restrains the diffusion of light from the LCD backlighting resulting to clearer pictures on the screen. This technology will work in LCD displays that utilize IPS or in-plane-switching technology. The company claims the film not only improves contrast ratio but also allows a wider viewing angle, making it also ideal for digital signage devices. At present, Zeon sells these phase difference films only to Samsung, which uses IPS technology. It, however, will start to mass produce the new films within this year targeting the 40 inches and larger LCD TV market. It also has developed a film that employs the same type of technology for OLED-based display devices.
Next3D, an industry pioneer in stereoscopic 3D technology, has announced in CES 2010 that it would soon bring 3D to the home via broadband, satellite and cable connections. Next3D has more than 35 years of aggregated experience in 3D display, stereoscopic delivery and 3D content production. It developed a 3D Full HD codec for a wide array of devices such as PCs, Mac, Blu-ray, gaming consoles and TV set top boxes. The bandwidth-efficient codec allows the delivery of stereoscopic 3D in Full high-definition 1080p quality over broadband, satellite or cable channels. It is a proprietary encoding and playback technology but is proven to work with 3D components that are already available in the market and present in the home. Next3D has entered into a partnership with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. for the production and delivery of 3D content and it plans to launch this innovative service within the first quarter of this year.
Electronic ink technology is a big hit in this year’s CES and one of the pioneer companies in this new industry is E-Ink. This company supplies the super-thin, high-quality screens of the majority of e-Readers in the market today like Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Sony’s Reader, Skiff Reader and the iLiad. Motorola is the first mobile phone manufacturer to use E-Ink’s technology in its F3 mobile phone. Electronic ink is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules filled with liquid dye and pigmented balls. It is applied to an ultra-thin plastic sheet with an embedded microelectronics circuit. This circuit is used to apply positive or negative charges to the microcapsules in order to come out with the desired images or text. Electronic ink is predicted to radically change the way we read books and newspapers. With books, this bold prediction is already happening with the introduction of e-Readers in the market. And if indeed the technology is used in newspapers, huge amounts of ink and paper will be saved and this will be a big help to save the environment.
Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of Singapore recently introduced at this year’s CES a portable hydrogen refueling station, called the HYDROFILL that can be used in your home. It is a small desktop device that when plugged to any power source extracts hydrogen from the water tank and stores the extracted fuel in small refillable cartridges in solid form. The extracted hydrogen is absorbed by metallic alloys contained in the cartridges converting it into a crystalline form. This new development in portable fuel cell technology is a great step towards consumer fuel generation and will eventually reduce our dependence on traditional utility-generated power and fossil fuel. This may also lead to the development of more battery-powered devices, which may include low-cost electric vehicles that can already travel long distances using portable energy sources such as the HYDROFILL. This technology is also earth-friendly for the extraction and conversion processes do not produce byproducts that can be harmful to the environment.
Gefen has came up with a solution to connect your Blu-ray player to your HDTV without the use of an HDMI cable or through wireless means. You can now transfer Full HD 1080p content and multi-channel audio between your HDTV devices up to 30 feet. You simply connect the sender unit to the HDMI port of your 3D player and plug the receiver unit to the HDTV’s HDMI port and start enjoying your favorite HD movie. This is especially useful if you want to avoid cable clutter between your source and your display. This wireless gadget works in the 60GHz frequency spectrum so the HD signal is guaranteed not to be affected by interference from 2.4GHz and 5GHz devices like access points and Wi-Fi-enabled appliances. The Gefen TV Wireless for HDMI 60GHz is an amazing gadget but will work only point-to-point. This means you can only hook one source (Blu-ray player or cable/ satellite set top box) to your TV at a time. It’s also a little bit pricey but if you have those extra bucks, you can get it at $999.
There is no doubt that one of the hottest item or could even be no. 1 in CES 2010 is 3D. A lot of exhibitors have on display something about 3D and almost everybody is talking about this exciting technology, which is actually just making a comeback. There was so much hype about 3D many years back but it fizzled out probably because encoding and display technologies then were not matured enough. The big names in consumer electronics have made announcements and live demos on the CES floors and ahead of the pack is Panasonic, which showed its upcoming 3D camera that will record full left and right HD videos in SD cards. Samsung, Toshiba, LG and Vizio likewise showed their 3D LCD TVs but did not announced shipping dates. There were also solutions on 3D Blu-ray players, set top boxes, glasses and video gaming that were presented on the exhibit floors. Considering recent industry developments, 2010 is predicted to be the year of 3D. The success of Avatar and the proliferation of 3D contents and hardware will most likely make this bold prediction a reality.
Smartphones are now not just accessories but are already necessity gadgets that one must have to always stay connected. Who doesn’t know of the iPhone and the BlackBerry and did nor hear about Google’s Nexus One? For sure, smartphones have made our lives easier without having to bring separate cell phones and laptop computers when we go mobile. But one company from Canada, Allerta, have pushed the technology a step further by putting some of the smartphone functions into a wrist watch. The company branded the gadget as inPulse and could be the world’s first smartwatch. Dummy models were shown at CES and features include support for displaying SMS, caller ID and yes, BlackBerry messages. The inPulse though, is not a stand-alone device but an accessory gadget that will allow you to view information from your BlackBerry smartphone. It is reasonably priced at $149 and the first batch of shipment is scheduled in February 2010.
D-Link has just introduced at CES 2010 the Boxee Box, a TV set top box powered by the popular multimedia software, the Boxee. The latter is a cross-platform application (PC, Mac and Linux) that lets users watch movies and TV shows from the Internet and get connected with peers through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. D-Link is bringing this experience to the next level by housing the application in a hardware device with additional features like HDMI, RCA and S/PDIF audio/ video ports for connection to HDTVdisplays. It also has dual USB ports, an SD card slot, 1Gb Ethernet port and built-in Wi-Fi. With the Boxee Box, consumers can now watch their favorite movies and TV shows and get connected to their friends in one platform without leaving their HDTV set. The gadget is expected to be shipped within the first half of 2010 at less than $200 retail price.
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Televisions | cesar | 
January 31, 2010 7:11 am | 
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