THIRD ANNUAL SCREENS ISSUE - MediaPost

While screens measuring up to 84 inches were on display,
the next sweet spot for home entertainment looks like it will be
the super-thin 55-inch OLED screen, versions of which were on
offer from both Samsung and LG Electronics. Sony also showed
off a 55-inch screen, composed of 6 million LEDs in place of
plasma pixels. OLEDs, or Organic Light Emitting Diodes, produce
sharper pictures in deeper colors than the current generation
of screens, but are generally too pricey for consumers. At
an estimated $8,000 for the 55-inch screens, which should hit
the market this year, that hasn’t changed much yet. But it soon
will. As it does, consumer expectations for the quality of content
that’s streaming to their homes will rise. As the march toward
ever-higher quality images continues, consumer expectations
will continue to rise. To keep up, production quality of both programming
and marketing will need to stay ahead of the curve.
Samsung’s 55-inch screen is also now thinner than ever:
try half an inch. While that’s convenient for hanging on your
living-room wall, it has more interesting implications for
another technology the company will soon be bringing to
market: the see-through TV. Samsung’s LCD is as transparent
as your living-room window — or the window in your office,
which is where it’s more likely to be installed at first, according
to Samsung product manager Scott Cohen.
The Transparent Smart Window is just that: transparent. LCD
images appear on a pane that also admits the view beyond. The
An idea that has cropped
up in science-fiction novels
since the ’50s (including The
Space Merchants by Frederik
Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth),
retina projection displays
have been prototyped once
or twice since then, though
the obvious constraints of the
technology — such as viewing
angle and possible damage
to the eye — mean that
progress will be dependent
on advances in related
technology. Still, the thought
of having a Terminator-like
heads-up display at your
disposal is a compelling one
(provided you’re not planning
on traveling back in time to
assassinate the savior of the
human race, that is).
REAL AUGMENTED REALITY
At present, augmented reality
consists of little more than
geolocated markers that can
be overlaid on a map or image
of your surroundings, and at a
relatively coarse level of precision
that has, thus far, kept such applications
from being really useful.
But when augmented reality can
actually alter your picture of the
world around you — by mapping
images more precisely to
the buildings, objects and people
that are in your view — look for
it to work deep changes in how
we understand and interact with
Smart Window is also a touchscreen, bringing images of the Tom
Cruise paranoia trip Minority Report to life very effectively. While
Samsung envisions the Smart Window hanging in the office of an
inventory manager overlooking a warehouse floor, transparent
screens have many more interesting uses than that, including
desktop monitors that let people on either side of the screen flip
images back and forth; apartment windows that display weather
reports or overlay traffic conditions on your view of the city;
automobile windshields that give visual driving directions and
traffic alerts; and even bathroom mirrors that display news or
shows while you’re brushing your teeth in the morning.
Screens Are More Mobile Than Ever
Examples like these start to get at the kind of ubiquitous presence
that screens will soon begin to have in almost everyone’s
lives. But screens are also about to take on new roles outside the
home or office. While we’re not yet at the point at which screens
can recognize and identify a sidewalk stroller by reading his or
her retinal image, we’re getting close — close enough to bring
new meaning to the phrase, “For your eyes only.”
One technology just now hitting the market is lightweight
video-enabled eyeglasses from companies like Vuzix, whose line
of “mobile video eyewear” was also on display at CES. The Vuzix
glasses incorporate high-definition display technology into the
our surroundings. Whether you
plan to access this information on
your smartphone, in your Vuzix
eyewear or via your smart contact
lenses, you’ll first have to wait
until better object recognition and
pinpoint geolocative technologies
are developed — but rest
assured, they’re on their way.
THOUGHT-CONTROL CURSORS
Besides being pioneers of
contact-lens display technology,
the University of Washington is
also working on what amounts
to electronic telepathy: using
brainwave sensors developed
there, subjects are able to move
a cursor on a screen just by
thinking of vowel sounds in their
heads. Emotiv Systems offers
a “neuroheadset” that can be
used to control games and other
applications, and NeuroSky is
selling “brainwave sensors for
everybody.” It will be some time
before the technology is cheap
enough to attract a market —
meaning few developers are
creating useful applications for
it at the moment. But as the
headsets come down in price and
size, expect the screens of the
future to start reading your mind.
M.W.
Spring 2012 MEDIA MAGAZINE 55