Flatvision Industry News

According to display market research, average selling prices for TVs are expected to be down in Q4 2009 for the first time since the flat-panel TV transition began, and TV manufacturers are developing a wide variety of design elements and performance features to differentiate products and slow price declines.

A key aspect in development of the above-mentioned differentiation is the interplay of performance, capabilities, cost, and power consumption. Most features and performance improvements carry cost premiums and increased power consumption, but intelligent design and utilization of new technologies may enable simultaneous improvements. Key examples of this trend are LED backlights and 240Hz frame rate operation in LCD TVs.

Research indicates that LED backlighting and 240Hz LCDs will serve as an enabling technology for new feature developments in TVs in 2010, specifically for 3-D TVs, an area of intense interest to TV manufacturers.

Power consumption is also becoming an increasingly important issue in consumer electronics, with energy regulations increasing in all regions — most recently in California. LED backlighting will continue to serve as a critical enabler of reduced power consumption. In the “Q4′09 Quarterly TV Design and Features Report,” energy regulations are examined with detailed descriptions of national regulations and ‘point of sale’ labeling policies.

(See full article at: www.informationdisplay.org)

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The South Korean Air Force has successfully developed a human-powered aircraft (HPA), which is powdered by direct human energy.

The HPA, known as Sky Runner, weighing 40kg, has a wingspan of 30m, and relies solely on thrust provided by the pilot pedalling during take-off and flight, according to Xinhua news agency.

The Sky Runner, during two separate preliminary flight tests held last September at the air force academy in central South Korea, had successfully covered 150m and 100m.

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The first Euro Hawk UAV for the German Air Force (GAF) was unveiled last month at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif. facility. It was apparent that the wing pods that house the SIGINT sensors, provided by EADS Defence and Security, have again grown in size, since AIN provided a description of this program at the Paris Air Show last June.

The Euro Hawk is a joint venture between NG and EADS DS, and is based on the Block 20 Global Hawk that is already in U.S. Air Force service. At the unveiling, a GAF official revealed that the flight test plan for the Euro Hawk has changed. It will now remain at Edwards AFB for at least a year, where it can fly in segregated airspace before being ferried to Germany.

The Block 30 Global Hawk is also intended for the SIGINT role, equipped with Northrop Grumman’s own advanced signals intelligence payload (ASIP). But AIN has learned from U.S. Air Force sources that deliveries to the USAF are still two years away because of integration difficulties with the UAV. In the meantime, NG will deliver Block 30 (I) Global Hawks equipped only with imaging sensors. However, the ASIP has been successfully added to a few manned U-2 surveillance aircraft. A Northrop Grumman spokesman told AIN there were no problems in adding ASIP to the Global Hawk.

Meanwhile, the future of the next Global Hawk version for the U.S. Air Force has been questioned. The Block 40 is supposed to carry the new MP-RTIP surveillance radar sensor that is under development by a Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team. The sensor has already been flight tested on the Scaled Composites Proteus testbed aircraft, and the Global Hawk Block 40 was unveiled at Palmdale last June. But the U.S. Congress has proposed a major cut in funding, and a source told AIN that the U.S. Air Force would now prefer the MP-RTIP to be installed on a larger and more powerful platform to enhance its performance as a moving target indicator. If correct, this has implications for the long-delayed NATO AGS program, which would also use the Global Hawk/MP-RTIP combination.

(See full article: www.ainonline.com)

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Police forces and other agencies on both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly using digital out-of-home media in their hunts for both criminal suspects and missing people, prompted by past successes. In the US, alleged bank robber Chad E. Schaffner was arrested this month in Missouri after a spell on the run which had seen him make the FBI’s “most wanted” list as well as featuring on digital billboards in seven states.

The decision to put Schaffner on the screens – whose owners generally donate spots free of charge for public-interest purposes such as law enforcement and locating missing children – was made by the FBI, which began using digital billboards in Philadelphia in 2007 and took the project nationwide after that exposure led to the apprehension of two suspects.

Schaffner was wanted for armed robbery, bank robbery, burglary and receiving stolen property.

“This case is an emblematic example of the importance of public/private sector alliances in bringing criminals to justice in today’s information age” said Richard Lambert, special agent in charge of the FBI in Knoxville, Tennessee, quoted in a local report.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, officers are hoping that out-of-home media will work as well for them in their hunt for a killer.

Digital billboards throughout the county depict Damon Adams, a local man who was shot dead during a robbery at his store in West Allis this summer. The spots show a picture of Adams’s shop, Dame’s Spot, as well as a phone number on which members of the public can give information about the incident.

Again, it was earlier successes with digital billboards – in this case the solution of crimes in the Wisconsin cities of Kenosha and Racine – that prompted police to try the medium again.

On the spot

Across the US, local outdoor-media owners as well as national firms contribute billboard airtime to the initiatives.

But while many such appeals are by their nature focused on specific localities, some campaigns – like the dragnet for Chad E. Schaffner – reach much further. For example, the FBI is currently running a nationwide series of digital-billboard spots in an effort to identify unknown sex offenders (pictured).

Other campaigns take advantage of digital out-of-home’s tight geographical targeting. In South Carolina, three digital billboards have been aiding the search by several agencies and organisations for missing teenager Brittanee Drexel. The 17-year-old comes from Rochester, New York, but was last seen in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on vacation with friends.

And in Britain, police are going a step further and employing mobile out-of-home technology to get their message to the right people in the right areas.

The South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire police forces in the north of England have both been using vehicles carrying large digital screens for projects including community-relations messaging in the suburbs of Doncaster, and an appeal for information about missing York woman Claudia Lawrence (pictured).

(See article at: http://www.screens.tv)

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A special-ops soldier carries a slew of gadgets into battle. There’s the GPS unit to pinpoint his squad’s location, and a laptop for pulling up blueprints of terrorist compounds or infrared readings of buildings scoped out by robotic surveillance drones. With a radio and its five-pound battery, it’s too much gear. But in a couple years, troops could lighten their load with a rugged, flexible, wrist-mounted display that’s in development by the U.S. Army and HP Labs.

The solar-powered, bendable computer screen will allow for instant data and radio transmission, all in a half-pound unit, says David Morton, the program manager for flexible electronics at the Army Research Laboratory. The display’s thin layer of transistors sends electric signals to an e-ink screen, which converts those signals into grayscale images, similar to the way the Amazon Kindle does. Unlike the Kindle, the two-by-three-inch display can bend to fit around the user’s wrist because HP stamps the electronics and optical components onto pliable plastic. The process eliminates the need for the fragile glass backing used in the Kindle and other displays, says Carl Taussig, the director of information surfaces at HP. “You can strike these things with a mallet, and they just keep on working.”

While the Army works on a color screen, troops will test the black-and-white device and provide feedback for the final version, which should be ready for military use by 2011.

(See article at: http://www.popsci.com)

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Ultra powerful processors to enable safer internet surfing. Innovative CCTV analysis to cut crime on public transport. Cutting-edge research to combat computer viruses.

These are some of the research projects that will be the focus of a major UK cyber-security centre launched today.

The new £25 million Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), based at Queen’s University Belfast, is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Technology Strategy Board, Queen’s University Belfast and a range of partner organisations.

CSIT is unique because it brings together, under one roof, cutting-edge expertise in data security, network security, wireless network enabled systems and surveillance intelligence systems.

Harnessing this expertise, CSIT will help pioneer the concept of converged security – the use of IT systems to improve people’s physical security while protecting the systems themselves to ensure they can’t be hacked into.

CSIT is one of the first Innovation and Knowledge Centres to be established in the UK.

(See article at: http://www.cctvinfo.com)

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Manufacturing companies taking a stronger environmental line these days do so because it’s good for public relations, good for business, good for the soul and also because they are required to do so, if not now, in the near future.

Many regulations, mostly from the European Union, are making it necessary for businesses to take a harder look at their supply chains.With some exceptions, companies in the United States haven’t had to do this to the extent that their overseas partners have: “All the toughest legislation comes out of Europe or California these days,” says Kimberly Allen, principal of Pañña Consulting. But as a practical matter, any company that wants to do business globally, and that includes most display companies, has to make sure that its products comply with EU rules. New legislation from other parts of the world Asia, for example is also in the works, and old legislation is constantly changing. RoHS, which went into effect July 2006, is currently being updated, as is REACH. These directives will only become more stringent.

Below is a short list of the environmental legislation most likely to affect display manufacturers. The accompanying web addresses contain more information about specifics, deadlines, and exemptions.

RoHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances. The directive originated in the European Union and restricts the use of specific materials found in electrical and electronic products: lead mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. http://www.rohs.gov.uk/

Since RoHS covers every component of a product, manufacturers need to know who made which components and where each component was made. “Some little pushbutton in your phone might have been made in one country and gone through two or three different factories in other countries,” before it ends up in a finished handset, notes Allen.

REACH, Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical Substances, is an EU directive that came into force in 2007, but is being phased in over a period of years. Like RoHS, it requires manufacturers to know the origin and contents of their products. Unlike RoHS, it does not ban substances (although it calls for progressive substitution of the most dangerous ones) but asks that all listed materials, harmful or not, be cataloged in a database. “RoHS involves six substances,” says Allen. “REACH deals with 10,000 to 20,000.” Whoever is deemed responsible for the product, usually the OEM, she notes, will need to maintain the necessary database. Manufacturers will be expected to be in full compliance with REACH by 2011 or 2012, she estimates. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm

WEEE, another piece of legislation from the EU, is the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act, in force since 2003. Unlike RoHS and REACH, “It’s more about the end of life of a product,” says Allen. WEEE was designed to promote collection schemes for the recycling of electronic equipment, although it also requires that heavy metals and certain other chemicals be phased out of products. The directive sets targets for collecting and recycling, and places the onus, for the most part, on manufacturers.

Certainly end of life is a challenge for the entire industry. Even cell phones, which might seem, on account of their portability, to be easy for customers to recycle, represent a lot of potentially hazardous waste. According to Allen, only about 10% to 11% of cell phones in the U.S. are currently recycled. “The rest end up in desk drawers or in landfills,” she says. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htm

Electronic Waste Recycling Act. This 2003 legislation out of California also has to do with end of life. Key elements of the ruling include a reduction in hazardous substances used in certain electronic products sold in the state, collection of an electronic waste recycling fee at the point of sale, and distribution of recovery and recycling payments to qualified entities handling the cost of electronic waste collection and recycling. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/electronics/Act2003/

EuP stands for Energy-using Products, and is yet another EU directive (finalized in 2005 but not yet enacted) and is aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly design before the supply chain even gets exercised.

“It requires DfE (Design for Environment) to have occurred before you make the product,” says Allen, who adds that it will involve some kind of stamp that can be displayed by approved products. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/eco_design/index_en.htm

Environmental legislation has already changed the way business is done in many areas of display manufacturing, and it will continue to do so in greater and greater measure. Some of the challenges are daunting: cataloging all the substances under the REACH directive, for example, will take time and cause some pain. Allen believes, however, that the end result will be positive. Companies will have a better knowledge of their supply chain and closer relationships with suppliers. “I think it has the potential to harmonize the supply chain,” she says.

A question on some people’s minds at least in the U.S. is, “Do companies really have to comply yet?” The answer is, “In most cases, yes.” Admittedly, enforcement and penalties aren’t standardized, and in some cases have been phased in over time. And there are exemptions, such as for medical equipment. But the processes of detection and enforcement are becoming more rather than less rigorous and legislative overhauls will provide for fewer exemptions as time goes on.

What actually happens if a company is discovered to be in violation of a directive depends on where the detection takes place. In the case of the EU directives, for example, it is up to individual countries to achieve results, and the EU does not dictate the methodology. Checking for compliance might mean requesting documents in one instance. It could mean physical checks with handheld XRF (X -Ray Fluorescence) analyzers in another. Or both. Penalties vary as well. For non-compliance with WEEE/RoHS, examples include a fine of 300,000 Forints (about $1600 US) in Hungary to a maximum penalty of 15 million Euros and 10 years in prison in Ireland. Fines have been levied in Europe, and products recalled. In practical terms, however, perhaps the biggest setbacks for non-complying companies are sales bans, loss of contracts, and negative publicity. Companies are starting to prefer to do business with companies that are compliant. The negative aspects of getting caught not complying seem to outweigh any financial and practical benefits of avoiding compliance.

One of the biggest challenges to companies in terms of compliance is end-of-life legislation. Manufacturers are going to have to figure out how to collect and recycle (and induce customers to recycle) their products on a global basis without losing money. Some cross-company collaboration efforts are already being made in this area, and of course recycling represents a new opportunity for third parties willing to figure out the logistics. The upcoming final installment in this series of green manufacturing news articles will look at end-of-life issues and the practical solutions some companies and organizations are proposing and enacting.

(See article at: http://www.informationdisplay.org)

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Oil firm Castrol is running a digital-billboard campaign in the UK that identifies the make and model of individual cars in order to offer them an on-screen oil recommendation.It is using cameras – similar to those deployed to catch speeders – to capture cars’ registration numbers and then using that information to determine their make and model from the central database held by the British government’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

This process takes less than two seconds, enabling the advertiser to flash the registration number and details of a recommended oil type on digital billboards further down the road from the camera as the driver reaches them. Our image shows the campaign running on a Clear Channel Outdoor digital billboard.

The registration data is not stored.

Meanwhile, car maker Lexus is also using digital billboards innovatively in Canada  –  in this case to promote its new ISC 250 convertible.

Its ads on screens operated by Outdoor Broadcast Network (OBN) change according to the weather, with the convertible’s top shown up or down.

(See article at: http://www.screens.tv)

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