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  3. Displays to keep an eye on A New displays are starting to appear in consumer devices, offering advantages over today’s liquid-

Displays to keep an eye on A New displays are starting to appear in consumer devices, offering advantages over today’s liquid-

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问题                           Displays to keep an eye on
A  New displays are starting to appear in consumer devices, offering advantages over today’s liquid-crystal screens. From tiny mobile phones to enormous fiat-panel televisions, liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) are everywhere. The technology is cheap, even for large panels— witness the tumbling price of LCD televisions—and can brilliantly display text and graphics. LCDs have made notebook computers possible and have pushed aside the bulky computer monitors of a few years ago. They make it possible to show films on aeroplane seats-backs, play video games on the train and see digital photos right away on the back of a camera.
B  However, LCDs are not perfect. They can be power hungry, tend to produce washed-out images in bright sunlight and are often thick and inflexible. As a result, several other display technologies, each with benefits and drawbacks of their own, are starting to appear in consumer-electronics devices. Some of them could give the LCD a run for its money, at least in some areas, by offering crisper images, brighter colours, thinner screens and lower power consumption.
C  Electronic paper displays, first developed in the 1970s, are finally making their way into a number of products. Appropriately enough, Sony and several other manufacturers are using the technology in portable "e-book" devices intended to replace books and newspapers. Colour LCDs are grids of tiny shutters, each of which decides how much light to let through from a "backlight" behind the screen. Electronic paper, conversely, relies on ambient light from the surroundings, just like ink on paper—so electronic-paper displays are sharp and easy to read in bright sunlight. Better still, once the screen has been set to display a page of text, no electrical power is needed to keep it there; power is consumed only when the screen is updated, which can extend the battery life of mobile devices.
D  The technology is also easy on the eye, says Nico Verplancke of IEBT, a Flemish research institute. Last year he oversaw a trial of electronic-paper technology carried out by De Tijd, a Belgian newspaper. The newspaper asked 200 readers to evaluate an electronic edition displayed on the iLiad, a device made by iRex Technologies of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. Their responses to the display were favourable. "The reading experience was pretty amazing," says Mr Verplancke. "It was very close to reading normal paper."
E  Sony has developed a similar device called the Reader, which went on sale in America last autumn. Like the iLiad, it uses electronic-paper technology from E Ink, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. E Ink’s technology has also been used in the Motofone, Motorola’s low-cost mobile phone for the developing world, a Seiko wristwatch, a weather-station and a flash-memory stick. And it will appear in a new mobile device with a five inch (13cra) roll-up display that will be introduced in Italy later this year. The "Librofonino", an e-book reader with a cellular connection for receiving information, was developed by Polymer Vision, based in the Netherlands, and will be sold by Telecom Italia.
F  A second emerging technology is based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Such displays, which are based on the electroluminescence of organic compounds, are said to be thinner and brighter than LCDs, and offer wider viewing angles. Since they emit light directly, OLED displays do not need a backlight. So far OLED displays have appeared mostly in small devices such as music players and as the secondary display on the outside of mobile-phones. Sales of OLED displays in 2006 reached $615m, says Vinita Jakhanwal of iSuppli, a market-research firm.  But the technology is improving and annual sales will grow to around $3 billion in 2012, she predicts.
G  The technology’s main drawback is that OLED displays only have a lifetime of around 20,000 hours, or a little over two years in continuous use, so they are not yet suitable for use in laptops or TVs. But those working on the technology are optimistic that this problem can be solved. "Every year, the R&D team is making strides," says Dave Das of Samsung. The South Korean electronics giant is one of the biggest backers of OLED displays. The firm is already using the technology in some of its mobile phones and music players, and introduced a prototype TV with a 40-inch OLED screen in 2005. Samsung is one of the biggest manufacturers of LCD TVs, but OLED technology could offer better brightness and contrast, and faster response. "It’s better at displaying fast-moving images, for example a football game," says Mr Das.
H  Another emerging technology, called iMoD, is being developed by Qualcomm, an American firm that developed the CDMA technology that underpins modern mobile phones. The idea is to exploit microscopic mechanical structures that reflect light in such a way that specific wavelengths interfere with each other to create vivid colours, like those of a butterfly’s wings. (The name is derived from "interferometric modulator display",) Qualcomm says this approach can produce pure, bright colours using very little power. It has demonstrated the technology in prototype form and hopes to license it to handset-makers. Marlene Bourne, an analyst who covers the field of "micro-electromechanical systems", says iMoD is an impressive technology. As with electronic paper and OLEDs, it is certainly worth keeping an eye on.
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