Prysm: Laser displays are the future
While Prysm's innovative LPD screens will initial be used in advertising displays, the company hopes to release TVs and monitors in due course.
As reported over on Gizmodo - quoting an Xconomy article - a California-based startup called Prysm has developed a new display technology called Laser Phosphor Display, or LPD, which it hopes will replace traditional liquid crystal displays.
The advantages to the LPD technology are pretty impressive, if the company's claims are true: the display scales to any size or shape, including tileable displays for big screens or ribbon-shaped displays for advertising purposes, and draws significantly less power than a traditional backlit LCD - up to 75 percent less, in fact. Prysm also claims quality advantages: the lack of an LCD-style backlight means contrast levels are much closer to those achieved with older CRT-based displays, the viewing angle is significantly increased over LCD displays, and the images don't suffer from the motion blur that even the best liquid crystal screens can exhibit.
The display technology works in a similar manner to traditional cathode ray tube displays, with a laser taking the place of the tube to sweep across phosphor stripes and create a the image. Gone, however, are the bulky magnets that CRTs required - replaced instead with rotating mirrors that direct the beam where required.
Initially Prysm will be concentrating on large screens for corporations, where it hopes that the initially high purchase cost will be offset by the energy savings over time. However, the company believes that once the production has scaled up the price should drop low enough for the display to be adopted for consumer use - including computer monitors, TVs, and even mobile handsets. Quite what the timescale is on such releases isn't revealed, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on in the future.
Does the thought of a phosphor-based display - with all the lovely contrast and incredibly low black levels that suggests - fill you with joy, or would you need to see one in action before you start saving for your next TV purchase? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyIf I can't mount it on my wall I'm not really interested.
+1
Except that, moving objects, in this case, a mirror, I don't find it a good idea...
Any idea on refresh rates on these?
I for one DON'T want to go back to the bulky screens we all know a little to well. Damn my arms still hurt when I think of it :P
What are the sizes we can expect? Is it back to CRT-style screens? Then I'll pass...
Oh thank goodness you don't find it a good idea! I was worried that these guys just decided to use mirrors for the fun of it and for epic lulz. Thank goodness you've brought up a good point that you don't like mirrors and therefore the technology is not useful! Phew..
Me too....i still havent used a single LCD that has come close to the picture quality in terms of contrast, true blacks, that my old Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 19' did, 5yrs ago.
Never stopped regretting the fact i sold it........yes it was bulky, but i have come to loathe all this 'non native' resolution crap with LCD screens.
(1) This is an old joke.
tehe, I still have my old 21" Dell CRT. Every so often I clear the space and heave all 65lbs onto my desk to remind myself just how good things were in the days before we were compromised into fashion victims.
And for the one that mentioned laser lifetimes. What about laser printers that run for years and years without issue? Surely that much of the technology is proven to work.
As for the lifespan of a laser, lasers used in printers are only ever used for a few seconds at a time, not for hours on end, as they would be used in a TV or monitor. They are solid state devices, though, so I'd imagine they'd have lifespans comparable to those of LEDs.
While my CRT was great when it came to colours, the sheer crispness of an LCD is great with text and work.
The CRT was better for gaming though.
Still have the 30+ Kg brick standing around, but some electronic bug bit it :(
Ahh if only. As long as the future had less Ben Affleck in it, that is.
Everything else sounds good though.
I DID look for a good, large, widescreen CRT, and found only one.
I can't remember who made it, I just remember the res was amazing (2560xsomethinglikethat) and the price was waaaaaaaaaaay out of budget for a home PC user. Pro only.....
If I could get a cheapish 24" 1920x1080/1200 or 2560x1600 CRT, I would buy it no probs...
Still though, I would wait and see if the tech is all that juicy or just a big buzz. If it's that epic, certainly I'll be looking forward to get one
this new tech should be really neat, and i don't think the mirror issue will be all that much of a problem, since you can do that kind of think using memory materials. however, i share the concern with the depth of the screen, i think there is some limit to how thin projection based technologies can get. they did say it could theoretically fit in a hand-held device, but i would really like to see a diagram on how it actually works before i believe that. anyone have links to white-papers?
PEW!
And they don't use big moving mirrors, they use tiny micro mirrors on a DLP chip - a chip about the same size as the one in your PC.
And, as far as I'm aware, no sharks are involved either. Sorry to disappoint :(
Yes, this story also reminded me of SED's.
The ones on the screen would just be faster...
bloody great film! shame the monitor he made isnt real tho cause it would bwe thre best display ever!
If you read closely it's not going to be anything like the size of a crt, it's just the way it works is similar to a crt. They're potentially going to be used for phones
Same thickness as the really thin OLEDs or LED LCDs I wouldn't have thought they'd be that thin, but they shouldn't be thicker than an LCD.
I'd be concerned about depth. From the sounds of this, it has more in common with a rear projection TV or CRT than with a LCD or plasma. Not sure if they can make it thin.
Also have my doubts about luminous efficacy of it. Lasers are a lot less efficient than LEDs, especially since we're talking about probably an ultraviolet laser.
There's some cool laser stuff in the pipeline (check out quantum cascade lasers).
Now, I'm curious though. Would this be an ultraviolet lighting up phosphor dots, or a tunable dye laser being adjusted? Hopefully the latter.
What about pixel pitch? There's a limit to how collimated you can get a laser, and if a laser hits adjacent pictures, it could cause interference. Will the monochromatic lasers work as well as polychromatic LED backlights?
Sounds interesting, though.
Ask yourself this: What is the most unreliable component in a computer?
Answer = Hard disk.
Nah, not a new idea and it won't become mainstream. The very first TV ever was based on scanning mirrors. It didn't survive against the competition: solid state - no mechanical parts.
DLP displays (both rear- and front-projection systems) have been around for years, the technology is proven and tested. In a projection system, the most unreliable component is the bulb - using lasers instead of a bulb should increase the lifespan of a projector significantly.
The only thing I'm dubious about is the depth of any Prysm-type display - as the screen size increases, surely the laser/mirror array has to be further away from the phosphor screen? SO the bigger the display, the deeper the display?
I'd also be concerned about the smallest size they're saying they'll get to - surely there's a minimum depth where the lasers and mirrors can work?
Even the new Samsung LED backlit screens don't produce true blacks. They even contain some blue tinge in large black areas of the screen. My Samsung doesn't compete with my older Plasma screens.
It would be very interesting to see how this Laser technology compares in terms of contrast levels and deep true black levels of Plasma.
'Screen burn' shouldn't be any problem on modern plasmas.
I have been doing general PC work and gaming on plasma screens for years and never experienced any permanent burn in of images.
http://www.plasma-lcd-facts.co.uk/myths/screen-burn/
I think I'll stick with my nice, quiet solid state display devices thank you.
The mirrors they are referring to if I'm not mistaken are the same ones that are used in rear projection tv's. The so called mirrors on a chip.
go stand next to a modern rear projection tv and see if you can "hear" the mirrors OR see if they a bad lifespan (they don't) the technology is mature and useable.
The only undesirable is the fact that they need calibration from time to time.
I've never known a DLP need recalibrating before. The only problem I've ever come across with DLPs is the colour wheel that they use - among some people (me included), they cause a "rainbow effect" where you see brief flashes of colour across the screen, especially when you move your head or look at the edges of the screen from the corner of your eyes. It's so annoying to me that I can't use DLP systems for home cinema.
The problem is solved when using 3-chip systems or (in this case) separate laser beams.