[visionlist] CRT monitor solutions

[Andrew Watson]

Debora, Daniel, VisionList,

I asked around about the TMOS technology, and got the following  
cautionary reply:

> TMOS display technology is being developed by a company called  
> UniPixel
> Displays in Texas.  It is an interesting concept, but as far as I  
> know no
> one has ever actually seen one of these devices in operation.  It is  
> similar
> to another MEMs device by a company called Pixtronix.  The Pixtronix  
> display
> is much further along, and it was demonstrated at SID last year.  I  
> was
> impressed with the Pixtronix prototype and the potential of the  
> technology.
> Both of these concepts are similar to the DLP, but while the DLP  
> chip is
> very small and the image is projected up, the TMOS and Pixtronix  
> displays
> required a MEMs chip the size of the image.  Given the difficulty  
> that TI
> had achieving reliable manufacturing of even a very small MEMs chip,  
> it
> remains to be seen whether much larger MEMs arrays can be reliably and
> cost-effectively manufactured.



On Oct 27, 2009, at 10:44 AM, Daniel Reetz wrote:

> Hi Deborah, Visionlist,
>
> I have been actively researching future displays for the last three
> years, in part to get to the future of high dynamic range imaging (I
> work in a lab that studies Brightness, a high-frequency capable HDR
> display is one of our white whales).

> ...portions deleted
>
> Now the other technology that I mentioned is called TMOS. It was just
> recently announced, it is a brand new type of display that relies on
> MEMS technology, like DLP. Personally, I am very excited about this
> technology. The first thing that it has going for it is that it needs
> no new fabrication facilities. It can be made in ordinary LCD
> fabrication plants. That means the time-to-market should be short
> relative to OLED, which is still not cheaply or widely available. TMOS
> means "Time Multiplexed Optical Shutter". Basically, it is a display
> scale DLP device. Each pixel is a little mirror, capable of 2
> microsecond on/off times. They are situated above a backlight/FTIR
> light pipe which is being lit with LEDs that are modulated extremely
> quickly. Color is generated by flashing the mirrored element on and
> off over this blinking backlight as it transitions from R to G to B.
> Early claims from engineering/marketing people are 300hz refresh
> rates. If they meet 20% of that, we won't be doing too badly. And for
> those of us who study vision without color, that backlight can be
> comprised of only white LEDs, allowing for very, very good temporal
> resolution. In addition, the time-critical nature of this display
> (meaning, that the backlight must be refreshed exactly with the
> mirrored pixels, unlike LCD or LCoS, but like DLP) should presumably
> mean that timing is taken seriously with respect to input as well,
> though, since I have seen/analyzed no prototypes, this is just wishful
> thinking/speculation.
>
> I think LCoS may be a good interim solution (especially because JVC is
> trying to work with the high-end market, see , and TMOS may be the
> best future solution. Perhaps the vision community could get in touch
> with UniPixel or Samsung (the TMOS people) and play with
> prototypes/help guide development. It seems that all of us could use a
> standard display with good luminance, 200:1contrast, and fast temporal
> response (reliable 60hz, 8bit per primary), but furthermore, we could
> all use purpose-built displays. Because the TMOS technology is simply
> on-off at its core, there is no reason not to support, for example,
> more than three primaries, infrared plus RGB, or two whole different
> color sets defined by two different sets of primaries. (A photopic and
> scotopic display in one!). People interested in color could select
> their primaries of interest, and people interested in time could
> select fewer primaries to optimize temporal properties. Furthermore,
> since TMOS is completely digital, maybe we can get rid of all those
> nasty analog processors and drive the things ourselves, directly over
> DVI, or some other digital interface. Removing the analog-digital
> conversion step (with all the associated hardware voodoo/signal
> processing) would be a boon to vision researchers everywhere.
>
> In my mind, this is a technology that has the potential to be a magic
> bullet for vision research.They're talking about releases in Q1 2010.
> If you are at all interested, I hope you'll consider making the
> desires of the vision community known to them so we don't lose another
> interesting display down the "cheaper faster crappier" consumer-tech
> plug hole.
>
> Regards,
> Daniel Reetz
>
> PS. Their approach to color-breakup problems is interesting:
> http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2007016511
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 7:51 PM, Deborah Apthorp
> <deboraha at psych.usyd.edu.au> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm currently looking into purchasing some high-end CRT monitors  
>> for our
>> psychophysics lab. So far I am having a great deal of trouble  
>> finding anyone
>> who is still manufacturing CRT monitors, and the refurbished Sony and
>> Mitsubishi models we have are slowly dying. CRS only sells theirs  
>> as part of
>> the Visage package. My only lead so far is for a refurbished Fimi  
>> MGD 403
>> grayscale monitor for $3200 (ex-medical, I think). Has anyone found a
>> reliable supplier, or is there going to be a viable alternative to  
>> CRTs (for
>> instance, OLEDs?) in the near future? Otherwise, what are old-school
>> psychophysicists going to do? I would be very interested to hear  
>> opinions on
>> this.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Deborah Apthorp
>> _______________________________________________
>> visionlist mailing list
>> visionlist at visionscience.com
>> http://visionscience.com/mailman/listinfo/visionlist
>>
> _______________________________________________
> visionlist mailing list
> visionlist at visionscience.com
> http://visionscience.com/mailman/listinfo/visionlist