Display Week : SID 2015
Volanti Displays attended this year’s Display Week 2015, the Society for Information Display held at the San Jose Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. The exhibition is the premier showcase for global information display companies and researchers to unveil cutting-edge developments in display technology. Our goal was to catch up on some of the newer technologies that were being presented there. For 2 days we roamed around the convention floor talking to display experts and soaking in all the creative energy.
Among some of the cooler exhibits at the convention was the I-Zone which offered researchers space to demonstrate their prototypes or other hardware demo units while giving attendees a chance to view best-in-class emerging information display technologies in a dedicated area on the show floor. It is always fun to see new innovative ideas being brought to life.
The Sharp Corporation booth showcased one of the most eye catching items on the convention floor. Circular shaped displays known as Free Form Displays ( FFD ), are devices that can be shaped to meet a wide range of user needs thanks to the incorporation of IGZO technology and proprietary circuit design methods.
With signal interfaces such as VGA and LVDS slowly becoming less prominent in the displays world, the playing field is now becoming more dominated by DisplayPort and HDMI. Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) has become the primary internal connection for mobile PCs. We stopped by Digital View‘s booth to check out several of their controller solutions, primarily their 4k controller and to get an up close and personal look at the eDP Connectivity panel they were demonstrating.
Around the convention floor we were seeing several different examples of curved displays. LG had some very fun curved shaped displays on view for guests. It’s difficult to imagine how digital signage applications could be used on curved surfaces such as these but with innovative content creation these displays could make huge visual impact.
There were several display companies on hand that boasted ultra high definition resolution also known as 4K ( 3840 x 2160 ) to 8K ( 7680×4320 ) which refers to the horizontal resolution of these formats. 8K is a display resolution that may eventually be the successor to 4K resolution. One advantage of high-resolution displays such as 4K to 8K is that each pixel is indistinguishable from another to the human eye from a much closer distance. 1080p is the current mainstream HD standard, with display companies pushing for 4K to become a new standard by 2017. We were very impressed with the images and pixel density that were being displayed. The future is bright!
Some of the SID buzz items around the convention floor were the Transparent Touch Displays. One of the memorable demonstrations of display technology was the touch refrigerator on Sumsung’s booth. Guests could not only get a clear view at the items placed inside the refrigerator but could also place their fingers on the screen to prompt nutritional facts about each item. Very clever. Curious about the technology? Transparent Displays are an electronic display that allows the user to see what is shown on the glass screen while still being able to see through it. It is a technology that has been around for a decade or two, but only as of 2012 was it being incorporated into consumer products like handheld devices, televisions, and other technology. Transparent screens will be used more frequently as technologies such as augmented reality become more popular amongst the consumer markets. Augmented Reality is a way of enhancing a user’s view of the world through digital images overlaid onto real ones.
E-ink is a fascinating technology that not only is energy efficient but also practical in many digital signage settings. What is E-ink and how does it work you ask? E-Ink is the creator of electrophoretic, or, electronic ink — the optical component of a film used in Electronic Paper Displays (EPD). Although futuristic-sounding, electronic ink is actually a straightforward fusion of chemistry, physics and electronics. It’s so much like paper, it utilizes the same pigments used in the printing industry today. This brief video explains the technology.
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