Energy efficient, thin, bright. These three qualities perfectly describe a woman I know, and no, I’m not trying to get any brownie points here. But it’s not a mistake that makers of television sets are also eager to embody such a description for their improved designs. Simply, a set that is well-put together rises above the crowd.

But thinness only? That usually matters only to the eye of the beholder.

At CES this week, we’ll see plenty of manufacturers trying to reach ever thinner levels, while daring discriminating techies like us to find a loss in visual quality.

JVC will preview, in a private event outside the show floor, what it is calling the ‘world’s lightest 32-inch LCD TV’ at only .28 inches (or about 7mm). According to the company, designers managed to build this small set by offloading many of the heavy duty components to a separate box and by building a new optical back light system.

Apparently, JVC designers created one of the thinnest LED back lights out there and placed it behind the LCD panel for a more efficient application and quality contrasts. Other TVs use thicker LED modules with fluorescent lights. By focusing on the LEDs, the set is physically smaller and uses less harmful materials.

As for the cool-looking swirl that serves as the base of the set, we don’t know what it is made out of but it certainly lends it a futuristic air.

But Samsung is apparently willing to battle JVC for the thinnest LCD TV at the show. Early reports say that the Koran giant will show a 6.5mm-thick LCD, also using the same type of back light technology,

Both of these would beat Philips’ 8mm LCD prototype that was shown earlier this year. Still, none of these will likely beat the OLEDs that are in store for the show.

As we’ve noted before, the physical construction of OLEDs allows them to be thinner than any other display as well as more colorful. Since each pixel makes its own light, there’s no need for extra bulk. Both Samsung and Sony are expected to show larger OLEDs at CES, between 18-inches and 37-inches.

A research project funded by the European Union has developed a cheaper and faster system to manufacture flexible OLED displays.

According to researchers of project ROLLED, ramping up the production of the energy-efficient displays will accelerate the availability of associated future applications, like wearable displays and rolled up e-Ink newspapers.

Fittingly, the manufacturing process that Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre came up with is similar to that of regular newspaper printing. OLEDs are printed directly on top of flexible protective films (like the old roll-to-roll ‘pressing’ of the papers), where the resulting displays are rolled through in a single sheet that is later separated into individual pieces.

Currently, most of the OLEDs used in consumer electronics devices, like those of the Sony XEL-1 TV, are produced in a glass substrate. It’s a process that often lasts a long time, and is generally inefficient and wasteful.

In order for the OLED printing to work, the researchers developed new printable ‘nano-particle oxide (ITO) coatings’ that form the anode needed to drive an electric current between itself and and the cathode layers, lighting up the organic layer that forms the meat of the display in between.

What is also remarkable is how thin they’ve managed to make the completed OLED sheet. Each roll is .20 millimeters, or about as thick as three sheets of paper.

The ROLLED project isn’t the only one to figure out that the old/new printing process is a good idea.

Earlier this year, the main research group at General Electric produced a similar equipment module that mass-manufactures large, flexible OLED screens. GE is also focusing on developing a longer lasting OLED through more efficient diodes. In addition, companies as varied as LG Philips, Fujitsu and Sony have all teased flexible-displays with similar applications in mind.

According to Arto Maaninen, a manager for VTT, the first type of OLEDs that will likely come out of the project will be of the two-color variety and are likely to be used for ID packaging.

Lead photo: VTT

See also:

• GE Makes OLED Christmas Tree, Automates Scary 3D Surveillance Cameras

In the next couple of months, the NBA All-Star Game and the BCS championship game will be broadcast live in 3D in movie theaters. They will be among the first of several live events to be seen in the format.

According to Cinedigm and Sensio Tech, two of the companies behind the venture, over 80 theaters have been recently outfitted with satellite and 3D High-Def digital systems.

But executing this live event on a large scale involves more than a simple video feed from the event. It takes a few different companies and a 3D coding process.

Sensio Tech is a maker of stereoscopic 3D tech and provides the main innovation behind the theater broadcasts. Sensio’s sensor decodes the video stream from an HD DCP-200 playback server and produces the main 3D feed. This ‘sensor decoding’ is a detailed change in the depth perception of a video, a similar trick that’s expected to be used by video games in the next couple of years.

Before the feed is analyzed, it must be transmitted from the event in high-quality form. This is done by connecting the main HD feed with the 3D filter as it is sent through a DVB-S2 broadband IP transmission. It’s a key step that provides the maximum possible throughput on the satellite.

Otherwise, theatergoers might be forced to see a slow feed on a tape delay while it is being analyzed for 3D, and one that would result in an epic fail for the burgeoning tech. The IP transmission is mixed by IDC (International Datacasting Corporation).

By themselves, the broadband transmission and the 3D sensor might allow the viewing of an event at a single screen. But something else will allow theater owners to push the event to more than one screen and make it a more cost-effective technology. Streaming software by Doremi Digital will enable owners to send the signal to multiple screens in a single location, giving them the option to add more screens in case an event becomes a true must-see.

Two companies, Cinedigm and CineMedia, have been behind the inclusion of live events in major movie theaters over the last year. Cinedigm has brought several live sporting events, while CineMedia is behind the very successful broadcasts of several New York Metropolitan Opera productions.

So optimizing regular sports event for 3D appears to be a good idea but we’re skeptical that a lot of people will be willing to buy into it at the start.

For example, live sports events such as the BCS title game are usually available for free, and at this point, their depth perception can’t be optimized at the same level of detail as a multimillion-dollar production like Beowulf. In that movie, every scene that pops out is built around the technology’s maximum impact and takes months to perfect. We don’t know how Sension’s 3D theater clip will play, but the spontaneity of live action is bound to present significant depth perception problems. 

And any downgrade from the good 3D tech people are used to might prove to be a disappointment.

The NFL tried out a 3D feed at a couple of locations three weeks ago and the result was not perfect. Two satellite glitches blacked out the game at times, and a camera refocus caused some people to remove the necessary headgear. Still, people at that screening appeared to be enthused about the innovation.

The NBA All-Star Game is on Valentine’s Day 2009, and tickets will run for $20.

What do you say? Are you willing to give 3D sports events a chance, or will you save your money for upcoming 3D-only movies like  My Bloody Valentine?