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Video: Animated digital tapestry wows visitors at Shanghai Expo 2010
Anyone who’s had a look at our Yez concept car story will know that the Chinese Government haven’t taken any half measures with Expo 2010 in Shanghai. In an absolutely frightening display of power and wealth it splashed out roughly US$60 billion on the event – that’s more than the GDP of two thirds of the world’s nations. China’s foreign currency reserves currently amount to the greatest fortune ever assembled anywhere at any time on planet earth – US$2.5 trillion – and they're only just getting started with accumulating wealth. The theme of the Shanghai expo is “Better City – Better Life” and, while a lot of the focus is on technological inventions and advancements, the goal of the Chinese Pavilion is to show the past, present and future. There is no better illustration of this than the centerpiece of the Pavilion – a stunning digital tapestry that takes one of China’s most famous paintings and updates it for the 21st Century. If you were impressed by the beautiful moving scroll that wowed audiences at the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in 2008, then prepare to be blown away all over again. Read More
It’s not uncommon to see children attempt to reach out and touch objects the first time they don 3D glasses and sit down in front of a 3D TV. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have created a new virtual reality device that enables users to do just that. The relatively low-cost device called the Heads-Up Virtual Reality device (HUVR) combines a consumer 3D HDTV panel and a touch-feedback (haptic) device to enable users not only to see a 3D image, but “feel” it too. Read More
Apple has added a US$1000 27-inch LED model to its Cinema Display range, slotting it in between the US$800 24-inch LED Cinema Display and range-topping 30-inch HD Display. With a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels the 27-incher offers 60 percent more screen real estate than the 24-inch Display, and an ideal compromise if you shy from the hefty USD$1800 price tag of the 2560 x 1600 pixel 30-incher and can wait until September for the 27-incher to hit the shelves. Read More
Projecting images onto water surfaces is the latest display technology to get a 3D makeover. With its ability to target light onto and between individual water droplets the AquaLux 3D can display text, video and other moving or still images on layers of falling water. In contrast to existing technologies for projecting images onto water surfaces, AquaLux 3D makes it possible to create 3D images by using multiple layers of precisely controlled water droplets. Read More
LEDs... is there anything they can’t do? Well yes, actually, there is. They can’t be something other than a point light source. That’s not ideal when it comes to flat – and increasingly thin – displays such as television and cell phone screens. How does one go about converting that three-dimensional point light source into a two-dimensional display, without losing much of its intensity? The answer could be found in a new machine that efficiently and inexpensively produces fiber optic film sheets. Read More
NFL football fans will no doubt be familiar with Mitsubishi's world-record HD displays at Dallas Cowboy's stadium, the largest measuring 22 m high by 49 m wide on the sidelines. This week the company announced the installation of another enormous Diamond Vision screen, this time at Hakodate Racecourse at home in Japan. Read More
A relationship with the Prancing Horse marque that stretches back to 2003 has seen Acer release a range of Ferrari branded products including the Ferrari 4000 Carbon Fiber notebook and the Ferrari F-20 LCD display. At Computex 2010 this week the company is showing off the latest devices including the Acer Liquid E Ferrari special edition smartphone. Read More
The latest flat-panel TVs and computer screens produce images by an array of electronic pixels connected by a transparent conductive layer made from indium tin oxide (ITO). ITO is also used as a transparent electrode in thin-film solar cells. But ITO has drawbacks: it is brittle; its production process is inefficient; and it is expensive and becoming more so because of increasing demand. One potential alternative is to use tiny copper nanowires and researchers have now perfected a simple way to make these in quantity. The cheap conductors are small enough to be transparent, making them ideal for thin-film solar cells, flat-screen TVs and computers, and flexible displays. Read More
The miniaturization of electronic components has seen mobile devices shrink to the point where screen size is a major limiting factor. That could be set to change with Sony announcing it has developed a super-flexible full color OLED display which can be repeatedly wrapped around a thin cylinder while still producing moving images. Could we soon see mobile phones with pencil form factors and roll out displays? Read More
If your computer is lacking the necessary video port to marry up with the new display you desire, Gefen has just made it easy for you with a “USB to DVI HD” adapter. The adapter offers plug and play connectivity for any digital display using the DVI, VGA or HDMI format, with support for resolutions up to 1920x1200, 1080p and 2k. Read More
