Philips launches 16.5 cm, high definition photo display for the home

2006: 74 million digital cameras sold worldwide in 2004 passing film camera sales and that’s before we factor in the digital cameras available in every mobile phone. Most mobile phones now have a camera and people upgrade regularly. A billion phones will be sold this year. Around the turn of the deacde, half of all the people on the planet will have a phone and henceforth most human beings will be permanently carrying a digital camera. Mobile cameras are everywhere and the financial barriers to taking a photograph (i.e. the cost of a bunch of silver-halide based chemicals and photographic paper and labour in order to get a hard copy print) has been completely removed. Forty billion digital snapshots were taken in 2005 according to Kodak, the company that used to own the photography business. Philips today staked its claim to putting those 40 billion images on show. The Digital Photo Display, a 16.5 cm, high definition, full colour panel designed to digitally reproduce photos at their very best with print-like picture quality and full 16-bit colour and adjustable brightness of up to 200 nits. Digital images too often get filed to a PC hard drive or CD, rarely to be seen again – Philips aims to remedy that. The Digital Photo Display’s 137 x 91mm, 720 x 480 pixel LCD screen delivers a quality that matches colour prints in a traditional picture frame.

Between 50 and 80 JPEG pictures from SD, MMC, Memory Stick and CompactFlash memory cards, or directly (via USB) from digital cameras or PCs can be uploaded into the Digital Photo Display, with the exact number of stored images dependant on the file size of the original picture. Alternatively a memory card can be kept in the Digital Photo Display to increase the number of images available to be displayed.

Philips software optimises uploaded photos without compromising display quality, with pictures able to be viewed individually, as thumbnails or displayed in a slideshow.

A PC is not required to access images - simply insert a digital camera memory card and copy the photos across. This simplicity is an important feature, with photos transferred instantly with a straightforward, intuitive one button touch operation from the camera or PC via a standard USB cord.

Reproducing the rich detail and vibrant colours consumers are accustomed to seeing in printed photos, the Digital Photo Display can be used for landscape or portrait images and also comes with a handy feature that allows users to automatically turn the display on and off at preset times everyday. It can be powered either from the internal battery or by using the supplied AC adaptor. When unplugged from the mains, the rechargeable battery will allow up to 50 minutes of operation.

This product has been introduced in response to the immense popularity of digital photography amongst consumers. Philips research has found that many consumers do nothing more with their photographs than store them on a PC, with no more than 20% of pictures taken ever printed out. Consumers are also digitally scanning old prints to preserve precious memories, but doing nothing more than archiving them on a PC. Whatever route consumers are coming to digital photography, the Digital Photo Display provides a dynamic platform for displaying images with simplicity and ease.