Just when you thought it was safe to figure out that LCD OLED Q-Dot LCD whatever display technology was settled for the next decade, now comes some smart guys at MIT who have taken some “bio-inspiration” and come up with a “Brilliant Display” using a technology named “IMOD” for short or “interferometric modulator” and Qualcomm is coming out with it on a cell phone.

See it in the sunlight, too…and uses a lot less energy to make a really nice display.

From Scientific American Nov 2007 issue:

A new technology that mimics the way nature gives bright color to butterfly wings can make cell phone displays clearly legible, even in the sun’s glare
By M. Mitchell Waldrop
[…]
the devices do use an array of artificial microstructures to produce the same kind of iridescent colors as are seen on the wings of tropical butterflies. And Qualcomm is betting that its approach will give IMODs several advantages over today’s dominant liquid-crystal-display (LCD) technology.
[…]

Something about a small gap between the display layer and a reflective surface behind manages to provide a truly remarkable display.

So…move over OLEDs and Quantum Dot stuff….

Someone had to test it….

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It’s not in English, but…when they hold up the < href=”http://www.icaruscanopies.aero/main.htm”>Icarus VX-39 canopy, it’s the one Luigi is jumping…

That number, 39, you ask? Stands for 39 square feet of surface area….if you must know.

Once I “trusted” my life to a “square” in the late 70’s, my first one was a 230 sq ft “Strato-Cloud.” Went to a 200 Sq Ft Pegasus, then a 150 sq ft Performance Designs Sabre 150 and (so far) ended with a Sabre 120. When I made that transition, I was doing about 160+ jumps/year and I was loading the wing up nicely, thank you. Exit weight was…how shall I say this…more than the “tail tag” said, but I flew it well and have no injuries, or even close calls, because of problems handling the canopy to discuss as a result.

Parachute technology in the civilian sector has come a long way since guys with hot knifes and a few C-9 (28 ft diameter) surplus military parachutes (still with lines, they didn’t chop them off back then) could slice out a few panels to see how they flew. My first “owned” parachute was in fact, a C-9, formerly white, but dyed maroon by the prior owner.

When “squares” appeared in the mid-70s, they had 5 “cells” (chambers). Most jumpers today have 9 cell canopies, but the “extreme” jumpers, who love the “swoop,” some of them use 21 cell versions, to get a thinner wing, and more “stiffness,” to generate better lift and speed. Some canopies have air locks, which, once the air is rammed in during the opening sequence to shape the cell, is trapped within, also providing a stiffer wing to the air, with improved performance.

“We” have come a long, baby!

Oh, and when you’re bored with your canopy’s performance, then you can strap on a “wingsuit” and have a “come to Jesus” experience…

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Helicopter not included…

Oct 22, 1797… The modern parachute is born as Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the 1st human parachute descent from the air. Garnerin jumps from a hydrogen balloon at a height of 2,300 feet in Paris.

Hmmmmm….the development of a safety system for inherently dangerous modes of travel that defy gravity.

Now, just look at how it’s no longer the domain of surplus C-9 28′ canopies modified by a few brave and adventurous souls with hot knifes, but an industry of it’s own.

Hmmm…reminds me of “Conspiracy Theory” but with HMDs. “Drawing on air” but oh, so cool…

Artists ‘draw on air’ to create 3D illustrations
By Lisa Zyga

By putting on a virtual reality mask, holding a stylus in one hand and a tracking device in the other, an artist can draw 3D objects in the air with unprecedented precision. This new system is called “Drawing on Air,” and researchers have designed the interface to be intuitive and provide the necessary control for artists to illustrate complicated artistic, scientific, and medical subjects.
[…]

Pretty cool stuff….but you need the HMD of your choice…

Look at this:

The Sensics piSightâ„¢ products are the world’s most immersive head-mounted displays, ideal for numerous applications including virtual prototyping, training, data mining and more. The panoramic, upgradeable, high-resolution piSight displays offer:

Panoramic field of view that delivers full 3D immersion: from 82° to 180° diagonal, depending on model
A modular, upgradeable design that fits a very wide range of performance and budget requirements
High resolution: Up to 4200×2400 pixels per eye (2400×1720 effective)
Ease of use: weighing less than 1 kg (2 lbs.), piSight HMDs feature an open-frame design that is comfortable and stays cool

More specs:

ProductspiSightâ„¢ Specifications

The following table shows key performance parameters common to all the piSight panoramic head-mounted displays. Please visit the available configurations page for the information about specific configuration.

Field of view
(depending on model) 82° to 180° diagonal
58 ° to 179 ° horizontal
29 ° to 84 ° vertical

Binocular overlap 29° to 82° depending on model

Resolution 20 pixels/degree
2.9 arcmin/pixel throughout entire visual field

Color 24 bit color
75% of NTSC gamut
>800:1 contrast

Frame Rate 60 Hz

Eye relief 18 mm

Interpupillary distance 55 mm minimum
71 mm maximum

Headsupported weight 1.5 to 2 lbs (0.7 to 1 kg) depending on model

Tracking Compatible with most motion trackers and many eye trackers

Toss in, some most likely very, very pricey (today) Sensics PiSight Full Immersion 3D displays and what a virtual experience you’ll have…like IMax, without having to find a parking place…or the each time excessive ticket prices.Now…how to get into the I/ITSEC conference in November in Orlando to check the Sensics products out…Between that and holographic displays, a whole new word of visual delights await us.

If you’re the random selection of the first hundred commenters on the item in the blog…

Take My Tech!. The dude is listing blog entries for his games and things like wireless PC Cards and laptop bags. Put a comment under the things you would like to have a shot at and …. when there are 100 comments, then a random commenter is picked to get the item…and he ships for free…

Displays. LCDs are getting cheap. Who can’t afford a 17″ these days with rebates? Ok, what’s next?

Organic Light Emitting Diode or OLED displays. From Wave Report tutorial on OLEDs:

Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) technology

An OLED is an electronic device made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. This process is called electrophosphorescence. Even with the layered system, these systems are very thin, usually less than 500 nm (0.5 thousandths of a millimeter).

When used to produce displays, OLED technology produces self-luminous displays that do not require backlighting. These properties result in thin, very compact displays. The displays also have a wide viewing angle, up to 160 degrees and require very little power, only 2-10 volts.

OLED displays have other advantages over LCDs as well:

* Increased brightness
* Faster response time for full motion video
* Lighter weight
* Greater durability
* Broader operating temperature ranges

There are two types of OLED displays – passive and active. These distinctions, plus narration about the OLED 2001 conference and the market challenges that the technology will face can be read in WAVE 151 or as a separate article on the WAVE Report site.
[…]

Thin and no backlights needed! I also read a year or so ago, they have figured out how to stack the blue/green/red diodes, rather than placing them in a small triangle to make a pixel. That breakthrough will provide even higher quality displays, tripling the resolution.

BUT WAIT! There are also PLEDs – Polymer LEDs. And I found them when the search box had PLED as a typo by me in it. So I got edumacated by mis-spelling…

From Cambridge Display Technologies FAQs:

How do PLEDs displays work?
PLED displays are made by applying a thin film of light-emitting polymer onto a glass or plastic substrate coated with a transparent electrode. A metal electrode is sputtered or evaporated on top of the polymer. Application of an electric field between these two electrodes results in emission of light from the polymer. When a current is applied, electrons from the cathode migrate through the cell and meet positive ‘holes’ migrating from the anode. When they meet, they form so-called excitons, and as the electrons drop into the holes, energy is released as light. See also How PLEDs work.
[…]
How big can PLED displays be manufactured?
Displays up to 40 in. have been demonstrated and ultimately, because of the scalability of ink jet printing, even larger displays are expected. The relative simplicity and flexibility in manufacturing means that different technology sets could enable modular display devices that can be tiled to produce very large displays.

Approximately how much will it cost?
Costs to manufacture, when compared with LCDs of comparable volume and maturity of production tools and processes, are expected to be 20-40% lower.

What are PLED displays used for?
PLED has four key applications:

* Large single pixel displays can be used in lighting applications, replacing incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
* Low information content displays where inorganic LEDs are currently used: video, hi-fi, shaver, watch etc
* Displacement of cathode ray tube (CRT) or LCD (traditional television and computer display applications): mobile phones, digital assistants, computers and televisions.
* New display applications for which PLED characteristics make it uniquely suited. E.g., replacement for traditional automotive instrument panel, dynamic advertising applications, graphical signs for point of sale or purchase, electromechanical signage, bio-medical testing.

See that? Print them with an inkjet like process….and, like OLEDs, cheaper than LCD technology. I have also read that the LED displays can be put on a flexible/bendable (not foldable) base, leading to all sorts of new ideas for paper thin display surfaces that are not required to stay flat all the time to be usable.

Now, never fear, the scientists are even father out with Quantum Dot display technology…

QD Vision has this to say about the practical stuff, you know like price and performance:

[…]
QD Vision has developed a prototype of a 32-by-64 red pixel QD display that uses the new printing process. Quantum dots were printed within a sandwich of organic semiconductor thin films, which when driven by a current, enable quantum dots to emit light. The quantum dots are 5nm inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals synthesized by QD Vision.

Quantum dots displays are expected to provide sharper colors and cost less to make than the competing technologies like organic light-emitting diodes while using a similar manufacturing process to OLEDs.
[…]

MIT Labs have been working to develop the technology for a while now:

Quantum-dot LED may be screen of choice for future electronics

December 18, 2002

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–MIT researchers have combined organic materials with high-performing inorganic nanocrystals to create a hybrid optoelectronic structure–a quantum dot-organic light-emitting device (QD-OLED) that may one day replace liquid crystal displays (LCDs) as the flat-panel display of choice for consumer electronics.
[…]
CREATING BRIGHT LIGHT

The QD-OLEDs created in the MIT study have a 25-fold improvement in luminescent power efficiency over previous QD-OLEDs. The MIT researchers note that in time, the devices may be made even more efficient and achieve even higher color saturation.

“One of the goals is to demonstrate a display that is stable, simple to produce, flat, high-resolution and that uses minimal power,” Bulovic said.

The MIT researchers were inspired by advances in all-organic LED (OLED) technology. OLEDs, which can be used to create TVs or computer screens only a fraction of an inch thick with the same brightness as LCDs, have been making their way into commercial electronic devices. The MIT group envisions that QD-OLEDs will in time become complementary to OLEDs because they can be built on the same electronic platforms with compatible manufacturing methods.
[…]

So, the future for your display surfaces/devices looks bright and inexpensive, too!

Toys….

Virtual Reality headsets have been a technology I watch from afar.Two things have made them “not just yet” for the run of the mill users: 1) Cost! and 2) Resolution. The second actually drives the first, when you consider the expense in making a small LCD, or now OLED, display less than an inch square have the same resolution as most people run on their laptops and 15/17″ LCD monitors: 1024×768 pixels.

I once was working on the Computer Aided Dead Reckoning Tracer project, when they used an upended Mitsubishi 37″ TV as the viewing surface. There was a quest to replace the CRT technology with a digital projector by the engineers working the project, and at the time, they were lucky to have a 800×600 pixel display for the projectors (similar issue with the LCD in the projector). Pushing the manufacturing process to make 1024×768 yielded significant failure rates in the LCDs produced. That was 1997-8.

Things have come a lot further now, and Vuzix has a series of head mounted displays (HMDs) that are affordable and can display a 1024×768 picture to each of your eyes. Not surprisingly, they also build such equipment for the military/tactical market, which, most likely has been a major factor in driving the cost down for the run of the mill consumer by expending military R&D dollars.

The one headset in particular that I have “my eyes on” (maybe I should say “in”) is the iWearYR920. Besides being able to take a VGA display feed, it also has head tracking built in. That means the unit, while worn, sends a signal back via the interface to tell the computer which direction you are “looking” in the virtual world. Big deal? Yes, it is. For games like Flight Simulator X from Microsoft (check out a video of the VR920 in action with FSX here), when you look around your cockpit, or the outside of the cockpit, the display shifts as though you were looking there, without the operator having the slew the picture about artificially with key strokes. That adds another layer of realism to the game….
Specs:

Technical Specifications:
Twin high-resolution 640×480 (920,000 pixels) LCD Displays
Equivalent to a 62″ screen viewed at 9 feet
24-bit true color (16 million colors)
Visor weighs 3.2 oz.
60 Hz progressive scan display update rates
Fully iWear® 3D compliant and supports NVIDIA stereo drivers
Built-in noise canceling microphone for Internet VOIP communications
Built-in 3 degree of freedom head-tracker
USB connectivity for power, tracking and full duplex audio
Analog VGA monitor input
Support for up to 1024×768 VGA video formats

Features:
6-foot slim, single cable design with miniature USB and VGA connectors
Large field-of-view optics to allow a fully immersive experience
iWear® 3D enabled for automatic 2D/3D control; no buttons required
With built-in microphone users can communicate from anywhere in the world as if they were standing next to each other (or inside the game)
Integrated 3 DOF head-tracker lets users look around inside virtual worlds as if they were there

User Adjustable:
Removable, flexible headphones
AccuTiltâ„¢ viewer pivots up to 15 degrees
Soft, comfortable, hypoallergenic nosepiece extends out up to 3/8″
Custom fit headstrap included for extra secure fit

Supported Media:
Plug and play video with virtually all PC applications
Thousands of pre-existing applications in full 3D (supported by NVIDIA stereo drivers)
The VR920 will completey change the plethora of massively multiplayer applications from World of Warcraft to Internet chat in virtual worlds

Advanced Optics:
32 degree field of view
3/4″ eye relief and 5/16″ eyebox
2.5″ Intraocular Distance (IOD)
Color corrected 10th order aspherical lense with diffractive surface

Box Contents:
iWear VR920
Headstrap
Drivers, manual and software disc
Quick start guide with warranty and safety instructions
Lens cleaning carrying pouch

Price tag? SRP $399. Not cheap, but…not like the $24,000, many, many lb beast I used to find around the net that would do the same thing in military grade simulation applications…

In case you don’t need head tracking, but are in the habit of watching movies, but have the significant other that doesn’t share your choice of movies, or you are on the road/in the air a lot, or just bored and sit and watch movies, there is the AV920 for a savings of $50 @ $349 to plug into your DVD player.

What does it look like? 62″ display at 9 feet. Like sitting in the TV/Living Room with the $3000+ dollar big screen. See, it’s really affordable if you explain it to her that way…and she won’t even have to watch it because you grabbed the remote first and you saved at least about $2650!

What’s not to like?

You know…it could be like this:

Read more about this monstrosity here…

Just a slice of life:

Driving in the pre-dawn traffic to work, and lo and behold….no warning on the radio stations, that breathlessly report accidents and traffic snarls.

I have come to believe by the time the radio news reports an accident, it’s just about been cleared up when you hear it.

So, heading south with the herd of fellow worker bees, I see smoke ahead, off to the left, but the road takes a turn that way. Traffic, is moving like it normally does, so I surmise the source may be on the northbound side….

As I come over the rise, there is a law enforcement vehicle behind the smoking one. Traffic is merging to the right of the four southbound lanes. I find, not being in the right already, have to begin moving over. The talk radio station news begins the 1/4 to the hour report. Nada on the smoking car. Speaking of smoking, the flames become apparent in the vicinity of the hood of the stricken vehicle. I begin to fear the authority on site will call us all to a halt, for safety reasons, but somehow, the traffic still flows, as drivers fairly politely allow others to enter their lane on the right, which also will quickly become a major exit.

I get moved, then have road space to get back over one lane to the left to continue on my normal path. As I pass the car stopped in the middle of this major artery, the entire front end is fully ablaze in the pre-dawn, almost sunrise light. Tires are flat and falling off the front rims, but I don’t slow more than necessary, still keeping my head on a swivel for the other vehicles around mine.

Now in almost no traffic (for a change), i head towards work, and the hourly report comes on….not a word about a major car fire, but there are at least three other fender benders in the county.

Funny, with all the cameras and live feeds and helicopters…and cell phones…somehow the news didn’t get the story.

Before you head of to read this post and scramble to set your recorders, drop by Sunday Ship History covering the strategic surprise landing at Inchon, Korea this week in 1950 by Eagle1!

I caught the show before, but I saw last night it will be on again, Friday, Sept 21st @ 10PM (EDT) on the Science Channel.

The “Build It Bigger” series has an episode “Super Fast Warship” where Danny Forrester goes aboard the USS DONALD COOK (DDG-75)” on sea trials and gets the big nickel tour. He tours the 5″ magazines and loads powders and projectiles in the gun’s hoist. They do “PAC” (pre-action calibration fires) for the 5″/62 cal and the Mk 15 CIWS mounts, as well as showing helo ops and vertical launch missile video. Danny also crawls inside one of the LM-2500 Gas Turbine modules, and fires “air slugs” for the MK 32 triple tube Mk-46/50 torpedo mounts. In addition to this and taking a ride in the RHIB in the ocean off the coast of Maine, the host also goes into the yards of Bath Iron Works (Where America Builds destroyers!) and show some of the processes used to take raw materials and produce an incredibly advanced and complex warship in 4 years.Worth a watch. Some great detail shots and superb discussions of fabricating major parts, then putting them together with some of the biggest cranes in the world.Oh, yes, you can go to the Discovery Channel show listings and set it up for en email reminder, too!

For a long time, I have had my eyes be attracted to earth bound transportation that have the looks of fighter planes.

Thanks to CPU Magazine, I found one more:

It’s the “alé” from Fuel Vapor Cars:

The “alé” features a unique 3-wheeled configuration: 2 in the front, and one in the rear. The front wheels drive and steer the vehicle. This design enables the car to perform at a superb level, particularly in cornering, with the car easily pulling 1.7 g’s in corners during track testing on street tires. The three-wheeled automotive platform also aid in improving fuel efficiency and aerodynamics.

Honda mill, swallowing a highly vaporized fuel mixture, getting 92 MPG on gasoline! Runs lean, low emissions, 1/4 mi in the low 12s, measures side forces of 1.7G in the corners….

But…IT LOOKS LIKE THE BUSINESS END OF A FIGHTER!

Added benefit (IMHO): One seater, so I don’t have to fight over listening to talk radio while I’m driving…Might be in limited production next year, in the $75-100K range. Just consider the pent up frustration those of us with bad eyes can purge ourselves of, especially when they go into mass production.

If, however, you’re more into open cockpits, bugs in the teeth type of pseudo flying experience, and have a “green” streak in your genes:

Then there’s the “Killacycle” (Hot chick not included, void where prohibited, not available if you can’t get your own, and not legal in all 50 states anyhow), the battery powered motorcycle. 8.168 in the qtr mile makes it really fast…but it uses over 1000 batteries to make that happen.

There you are: Today’s gleaned technology news, selected because I think it’s cool stuff.