Among the technologies at the 2006 Electronica Show were a lot of companies showing red-green-blue (RGB) LED matrix display modules for signage and arena applications. The pixel density isn’t high enough yet to be used in consumer applications, but they’re getting there.
Speaking of LEDs, a guy (or gal, it was hard to tell) was wandering about dressed as a red LED. I didn’t have the heart to tell them they looked like a huge dildo.
Among the events held was a CEO forum, moderated by Prof. Hermann Simon of Simon-Kucher & Partners and attended by Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, President & CEO of Infineon, Michel Mayer, Chairman & CEO of Freescale, Frans van Houten, President & CEO of NXP Semiconductors, and Satoru Ito, Chairman & CEO of Renesas Technology. The two big points I came away with was that todays engineers are ever-more reliant on system solutions and reference designs and the fact that solid-state lighting is going to change the world sooner than people think (points I’ve always championed, BTW).
A few companies used ice sculpture to demonstrate the concept of cool in ICs and power management systems. Handling heat is the biggest issue facing next-generation devices.
Here’s a shot of HDTV flat-panel OEM display modules from Samsung. I’d like to get one of these and create my own custom enclosure. Note how vivid the image is even with my crappy camera at an angle!
Here’s one last shot of the infamous Congatec booth.
To see the previous installment, CLICK HERE.
That last picture is why you keep getting banned in the UAE then 🙂
Would it work if we covered her face?
I didn’t have the heart to tell them they looked like a huge dildo.
Probably a good thing. They might have told you what you look like… 😉
Note how vivid the image is even with my crappy camera…
It has done pretty darn good.
The only thing I would change, if it doesn’t have custom/manual white balance, is to get another equally-portable camera that does – and get one of the small Expodisc/Expocap devices to set the WB on the available-light shots. Like the first shot part 1, of the Power Integrations booth.
http://tinyurl.com/y7e2wg
The Expodisc small enough to fit a Digicam shouldn’t be too pricey. It’s the ones to fit larger dSLR lenses that cost $$ – especially since you can get by with the Expocap, and not need to spend more for a “calibrated” Expodisc…
Covering her face is what got us banned. Without a burka or shadoor, she’s just another shameless infidel.
Alix — had fun, this morning, reviewing your series with my father-in-law. He’s going crazy waiting for more solid state lighting to make it to the U.S.. He travels with his 5th-wheeler since his retirement — and he says that’s one of the hottest topics at truck/RV stops. Everyone wants to get rid of traditional light bulbs and get switched over.
That’s a communist dildo!
3,
Thanks for the advice, Mike. I’m upgrading soon, I’ll just hate to give up my Altoids-box hard case!
4,
I just conducted a panel on solid-state lighting for my day job, as soon as it’s available online I’ll send you the link. SSL is goig to change the world in both predictable and interesting ways.
6 SSL is goig to change the world in both predictable and interesting ways.
A LED droplight caught my eye in a local ad, since my couldn’t-care-less co-workers are always breaking the bulbs in our flourescent work-lights.
http://www.usedcartools.com/LED_light.htm
NOTE: The one in my local store was about half the price of the one in the link.
I was surprised to see that it also contained a rechargeable battery in the unit, so the cord could be disconnected during use.
Fun to see what else they will come-up with.
wandering about dressed as a red LED. I didn’t have the heart to tell them they looked like a huge dildo.”
So that’s why it has a big smile on its face. 🙂
It sure does look like a dildo.
What’s that red thing, to the right?
I knew a friend who had one of these disks years ago. It was around $90.00 dollars. A bleached coffee filter will provide just as accurate white balance. When I was in photo school I had made a homemade filter holder for the hasselblad with a coffee filter in a self-made slide holder. I had even used the filters in threaded filter ringssandwiches with uv materials. Hasselblad stuff is massively overpriced so one learns how to work around this handicap and make something on your own.
There is also, can’t think of the name of the material, that hospitals use. It’s gauze-like but translucent. Same principle.
Then again, a lot of the images were shot on the fly with no time for set-up.
12 Then again, a lot of the images were shot on the fly with no time for set-up.
There are at least 3 ways to get the colors closer to waht they should be:
1. Software in a PC, after the show. Use the “eyedropper” tool to select an item which should be white or grey… if one exists in the shot.
If not, you need a way of providing a white and/or grey reference
2. expodisc/coffee filter/pringles lid – set the white balance in an area before taking pictures – or after taking them – if your PC-based editing software lets you apply WB from one image to others taken in the same lighting conditions.
3. similar to #2, but using one of the various white/grey cards to set WB – either before or after getting the shot.
The Altoids-tin sized cameras are handy, but something that has a RAW mode makes such color-corrections much easier.
If your current software doesn’t support WB adjustment in jpeg, I think the free beta of Adobe’s Lightroom does…
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/
Too bad digicams like Canon’s new G7 drop the RAW mode… to help differentiate them from the “entry-level” dSLRs. 🙁
I work as an engineer designing solid state lighting products.
There are a few applications for LED lighting that make sense, but general illumination is over-hyped. LED (white) lighting takes much more electricity than flourescent lighting, it presents lots of thermal issues that are expensive/tricky to solve, and it is always more expensive than traditional lighting. LEDs are only useful for illumination when it is exceedingly expensive to replace a light bulb (like on a bridge) or when a single color is required (such as a traffic light or a vehicle light).
LEDs for illumination applications will cause some changes in the marketplace, but they will be gradual – very gradual. LED technology has a very long way to go before it makes any significant changes in anything.
We’ll see. To judge a developing technology by current device performance is not the best way to predict its future.