Seeing Things

FTLComm - Winnipeg - August 2, 1998

The things we look at in this technological age continue to add significantly to the meaning of the word "Amazing". At Advance Electronics on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, we had the opportunity to look at a few of the latest wonders. On the right is the new Apple Studio 15" active matrix flat display. This stereo speaker equipped computer or video monitor, is one of the best in today's marketplace and weighs in at around $3200. The LCD screen is virtually glare free, flickerless and can be viewed at extreme angles with outstanding clarity. The product below is what your next television could look like. The picture below shows the back of a $15,000 Sony 42" plasma flat panel display that can accept any video signal it is given from television to high definition and all the various computer monitor configurations. The screen proportions are 16 x 9 which is the screen proportions we see in the theatre. The newest television format which is on its way onto the market this fall is this 16 x 9 format as opposed to the present 4 x 3 televisions of today. This display is presently being only sold as a commercial product but there are consumer products in the marketing stream.

If you watch Entertainment Tonight on television you will have seen this screen in the back ground being used on their set.



It is a full six inches thick and weighs under a 50KG.

This picture above and the one below left illustrate the extreme angle that the picture can been seen. This technology has been largely propelled by the development and popularity of the laptop computers with their LCD screens. Upscale offices of today are equipping their executive desks with displays like Apple's Studio and this Sony Plasma display is finding its way into board rooms and business reception areas instead of multiple CRT monitor video walls.

Now from the big to the really little. The monitor wore here



in this image below by Timothy Shire II of Advance Electronics is Liquid Image's M1 display which sells for about $1,600. It is a gray scale monitor that the user wears. The tiny screen is less then a centimetre across and displays 320 x 240 pixels. It will accept a video as well as a computer signal and is controlled by a belt worn pack. The people who are buying this product are technicians and engineering types often working on schematic plans which they can superimpose on the work at hand working from a laptop.