Hasta La Gadget!

Audi makes some pretty sleek cars, and their designs are often cutting edge, especially when you check out their new ideas about lighting technology. I’ll admit that most cars that I’ve had needed better lighting, especially when you’re driving along dark country roads, far away from the freeway.

Audi is thinking about doing away with traditional taillights and replacing them with form-fitting OLED lights instead.

These cool looking organic lights would cover the entire width of the trunk, and potentially cover the entire body of the vehicle. The lights will swarm as the car accelerates, and the red lights will flow towards the direction in which the car is turning. Using the brake causes the lights to gather in pools.

This seems like a smart idea, but I can already imagine the costs of replacing the lights if someone rear-ends you. Also, I think it will take some time before this kind of display becomes legal. It could definitely be seen as a distraction to other drivers if not executed properly.

[via Geek & Hype]

Look closely at the image above. See that clear portion depicting a food fight? That’s coming through the right lens of dedicated eyewear made specifically for Samsung’s 55-inch OLED Multi-View HDTV. The sleek, silver-trimmed 1080p set, recently unveiled at CES 2013, utilizes a quad-core processor and 240Hz refresh rate to send specific “firing patterns” to a user’s eyewear that’s then filtered out by swapping the input control (A /B) located above the left ear. The actual 3D effect varies from an artificial seeming emphasis on layers of depth, to the more traditional, and quite impressive, “in your face” immersive experience. Multiple input configurations are also possible, allowing users in the same room to watch either two separate 3D images, one 3D plus two 2D images or four 2D images simultaneously. So, basically, you can keep playing your PS3 while a loved one watches Homeland.

The 55-inch set also comes equipped with an inbuilt webcam that’s tucked just behind the top front panel and supports Samsung’s Smart Hub. Pricing hasn’t been made known at this time, but you should see the Multi-View set hit retail sometime mid-July 2013.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung

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If you follow the technology world and TV technology specifically, you might remember years ago when the first large-scale OLED panels were unveiled at last year’s CES. While the displays can be incredibly thin, lightweight and bright, they’re also extremely expensive at this point.

Panasonic is working on a new method of producing OLED panels using a printing technique that is said to be more economical than traditional display construction methods. In fact, the company is showing off a 56-inch 4K2K OLED panel at CES 2013 that was constructed using this method.

According to Panasonic, its “all-printing” processes is capable of producing OLED screens of up to 56-inches, and will allow the construction of smaller displays as well. In the all-printing method, OLED materials are applied to a substrate using a printing technique that forms an electroluminescent layer. The printing method applies just the right amount of organic material exactly where it is needed making for less waste and a shorter production lead times.

That means that Panasonic’s method is able to make OLED panels more quickly and more cheaply than comparable methods. This printing process allows for separate application of red, green, and blue OLED materials. Panasonic says that this construction method will allow it to create next-generation displays for use in the home, medical field, broadcasting, and aircraft applications. There’s no indication of exactly how much cheaper panels produce using this method might be. It would be nice if this production method could help create an affordable OLED TV. The cost of producing the screens is one reason why modestly sized OLED TVs currently cost $10,000 or more.

My local movie theater has a number of auditoriums with different screen sizes. While most of those theaters have flat screens, I’ve noticed that the larger auditoriums have screens that are actually curved. Apparently, that curvature has something to do with making the surface a uniform distance from the viewer’s eyes.

At CES 2013, LG is showing off prototypes of the world’s first curved screen OLED TV. LG says the reason for that curvature is to ensure that the entire screen surface is the same distance from the viewer’s eyes removing any problem with screen-edge visual distortion and the loss of detail. Of course, the curved screens just plain look cool too.

The first curved OLED screen is 55-inches wide and uses LG’s four-color pixel system that has a white subpixel working along with the traditional red, green, blue set up. The extra white pixel gives the TV better color and improved brightness. Pricing and availability on the TV is unannounced, but given the fact that their plain old flat OLED screen will sell for about $12,000, you won’t be seeing these in living rooms any time soon.

One word describes LG’s EA9800 curved OLED: stunning. We were as wowed as anybody else stumbling about LG’s monstrous booth who happened upon this three-panel wide miracle. LG is touting this 55-inch WRGB set as the industry’s first curved ergonomic display with Cinema 3D support. The idea behind the curve is to reduce screen edge distortion by keeping the entire display surface the same distant from your eyes. Pricing and shipping date is a mystery, but, LG’s flat 55-inch OLED set is a cool $12K so you can expect something in that ballpark we’d assume. Unfortunately we couldn’t get as close as we wanted, though we still grabbed a bit of video and some pictures for you to enjoy. So breeze on past the break and check them out.

Continue reading LG’s curved EA9800 OLED display eyes-on

Filed under: Home Entertainment, LG

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