Finding a Display You Can Read in the Sun? 63
max3000 asks: "I'm currently building an embedded device that will be used outdoors, and the technology is pretty much nailed down at this point, except the display. Quite honestly, I'm confused and lost in all the display technologies out there: LCD (TFT, passive/active, and so forth), ChLCD, OLED, FED, AMLCD, EL, electrophoretic, ePaper like eInk, and more (some of which may overlap). Can you help a confused, fellow reader? What I need is (apparently) fairly complicated: an outdoor, sunlight-readable (at-a-glance readable, not squint-your-eyes readable), VGA/SVGA display. The display should have a 4-6 inch diagonal, capable of displaying at least 16 color grayscale, and it should be based on a technology with a roadmap to color in 2-3 years time. If not driveable directly from a PC, the display should come with a development kit that is." What small displays are out there that can meet these specifications?
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Re:Have you looked? (Score:4, Funny)
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I hope the next time you ask for help with something someone gives you an equally useless and glib reply. Now, unless you have something constructive to contribute, why don't you go back to jerking off to pictures of your sister?
OLPC's XO (Score:4, Informative)
I googled in my memory.
At last FOSDEM, Jim Gettys gave a presentation [fosdem.org] of the technical specs of OLPC's [laptop.org] XO-1 machine. I remember I found the part about the low-voltage sunlight readable display [wikipedia.org] particularly impressive for a $135 device.
OLPC XO-1 manifacturer Quanta announced [slashdot.org] selling a XO-like device on the open market later this year, at a price around $200. Presumably it will have a display of the same technology.
Ask Sharp (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ask Sharp (Score:4, Informative)
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No, Ask QuallComm (Score:2)
Unfortunately, it's still under development!
But here's a link that explains it: http://www.qualcomm.com/technology/imod/index.htm
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Gas stations (Score:2, Informative)
Simple. LCD with a backlight that turns off and on. Look at what gas station pumps use.
OLPC (Score:4, Informative)
* Liquid-crystal display: 7.5" Dual-mode TFT display
* Viewing area: 152.4 mm × 114.3 mm
* Resolution: 1200 (H) × 900 (V) resolution (200 DPI)
* Mono display: High-resolution, reflective monochrome mode
* Color display: Standard-resolution, quincunx-sampled, transmissive color mode
* Special "DCON" chip, that enables deswizzling and anti-aliasing in color mode, while enabling the display to remain live with the processor suspended.
http://laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml [laptop.org]
eInk (Score:2, Offtopic)
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But otherwise, yeah it meets his requirements.
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Refresh rate (Score:2)
It is useless for any type of scrolling display or animation.
For an Ebook, clock, or watch it isn't bad.
Evident in the Palm and phones (Score:4, Interesting)
And the same holds true for cell phones. I have a typical LG phone from Verizon (provided by work, do I have no choice in the model) and it has a great battery life, the features are decent, and the voice quality is better than most, but in the sinlight, the internal screen is completely unusable. The monochrome external screen is amazingly clear in sunlight, but it is useless in that it doesn't match the internal screen. Thank, God for speed dials.
A good cell phone (Score:2)
This might be what the writer is looking for, in general. The screen's great, anyhow, and small.
Priorities! (Score:2, Funny)
Reading in the sun (Score:2)
Just remember to stop reading when all that oh-my-god-in-burning stuff begins!
--
Text link ads, the easiest way to earn money with your web [text-link-ads.com]!
Transreflective LCD (Score:2)
The display is the least of your concerns! (Score:1)
Same Question Here (Score:2)
I've had the same question...
I don;t like the current trend toward "shiny" displays on laptops.
What I'd really like to have is a filter I can put over a TFT display for times when I need to use a laptop outside. By saying "I've Googled and can't find anything" (which I have), I hope some wise-arse Slashdotian will inflate their ego and show me where such a device can be found.
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Nonsense (Score:1)
http://www.cdynamics.com/ [cdynamics.com]
http://www.cdynamics.com/sunlight-readable-display s.html [cdynamics.com]
So technically, it's a laptop that you don't have to throw your jacket over your head to see. Although it's not nearly as portable as my HP, and I can't see my HP
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Watch out for polarized filters (Score:1)
Otherwise you might see a very dim or black display.
epaper (Score:2)
You could buy some eink stuff for test purposes, and see if it's as good as they make out.
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Solarism (Score:3, Informative)
Cannot do (Score:3, Interesting)
The math is simple: direct sun light is about 1000 watts per square meter, or 13 watts on your display size. The back light has to be stronger, say twice as bright, but you loose about 50% of the light in the light bulb, in the light distribution, in the polariser and again in the colour filter. So you would need 400 watt of electrical energy to drive the back light!
Short version of the story: colour, good contrast and direct sunlight don't mix. Maybe some day with e-ink, but not right now.
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I'd like to clarify that the 'solar constant' isn't really tied to the way light is produced in bulbs. The point is that the 1000 W/m2 is total power over all frequencies of sunlight from IR to UV. Visible light is a rather small fraction of that.
300? (Score:4, Funny)
Stelios: [grins] Then we will post comments in the shade.
Modify an LCD (Score:1)
In short, use the sun as the
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Garmin GPS (Score:2)
The Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx [garmin.com] is built to be used in the sun, and its LCD is easily visible in bright light--the brighter, the better, in fact.
--Bruce
ePaper (Score:2, Informative)
Well duhh.... (Score:1)
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Simple: Transreflective (Score:4, Informative)
Display tech with potential, like e-Ink, just isn't there yet, and likely won't be for several years.
Of course, if you want to go crazy, you could always grab an old LCD, and mount it in an enclosure with a massively powerful backlight, and lots of airflow directed at the screen to keep the LCD from burning up.
Etch-A-Sketch? (Score:1)
E-Ink (Score:2)