Kyo-Yuzen It’s an art of kimono dyeing that was invented around 1700 in the middle of the Edo era in Japan. Characteristic of Yuzen dyeing are stable colors, water resistant, precise patterns, thin lines, artistic blurring, and multi-level gradations.

In the image above, the details are precise. Colors with gradients look beautiful. The green leaves almost have a three dimensional quality. (Photo courtesy: Nikkei Trendy Net)

Ufo Hayashi is a Japanese artist who is known to apply his skills in Kyo-Yuzen to modern high-tech gadgets and transform them into high-tech works of art. (more…)

Sony BRAVIA KDL-46V5100 Specifications

Display: 46″ TFT LCD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Contrast Ratio: 5000:1 (static), 50,000:1 (dynamic)
Viewing Angles: 178/178
Color Gamut: 90% NTSC
Connectivity: HDMI (4), Component (2), USB (2), VGA, S-Video, Composite (2)
Tuner: ATSC, NTSC, QAM
Power Consumption: 245W (operational), 1W (standby)
Dimensions:
44.1 x 28.5 x 3.8″ (w/o stand)
44.1 x 30.4 x 12.7″ (w/stand)
Weight: 49.8lbs (w/o stand), 56.2lbs (w/stand)
Price: MSRP US$1799

High Contrast & Color Gamut Sony‘s KDL-46V5100 is a 46″ 1080p LCD TV with some features that stand out. The static contrast ratio of 5000:1 is fairly high and the color gamut is 90% NTSC instead of the regular 72% NTSC probably due to a WCG-CCFL (wide color gamut CCFL) backlight. Other notables include four HDMI plugs.

Nice Design But I like the simple design of the KDL-46V5100 but there does seem to be a some distraction in the smooth design thanks to the buttons and text in the front. Placing them in the front is more convenient but most of us probably don’t use them all that much thanks to the remote control. It would have been better if those buttons were placed on the side of the otherwise good-looking unit.

No 120Hz The KDL-46V5100 falls short in one area: there are no motion blur reduction technologies. If you’re glued to ESPN, I would recommend getting a TV with at least 120Hz.

Deal If you happen to be also in the market for a PS3 (or know someone who is), you might be interested in Best Buy’s deal (ends May 2) where you get $300 off if you purchase both.

Localization “Chisan chishou” means local production for local consumption. Make stuff near the customers. This is the concept that Sharp will be implementing in four regions: China, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. Mikio Katayama, Sharp’s president, announced on April 8, that the company will forge joint ventures in these regions to construct LCD fabrication plants.

Production Technology “Our core technology isn’t making LCD panels and it isn’t making LCD TVs; it’s production technology,” stated Katayama. Sharp will engage a local partner company and share the cost of building a new LCD fab. The LCD panels will then be sold to the partner including royalties for its intellectual properties. Profits will come sooner because the large cost of building a LCD fab will be significantly reduced. Materials and parts required for LCD manufacture will increasingly be procured locally.

Bold & Smart This is a bold and unique move in the LCD industry. I think it is a smart move by Sharp. Local production for local consumption will allow Sharp to minimize currency fluctuations, import taxes, and distribution costs. Because these LCD factories will be closer to the markets they are serving, Sharp will be able to respond much quicker to what customers want and overall demand fluctuations.

Source: Yahoo! UK & Ireland

80% LED Backlight AU Optronics (AUO), Taiwan’s largest LCD manufacturer, is very optimistic about LED backlights for notebook PCs. The company expects 80% of its LCD panels geared for notebook PC applications to feature LED backlights. That’s a big increase from 60% in Q1’09. The picture you see above is a profile shot of Dell’s Adamo 13 that makes use of a 13.4″ TFT LCD with a LED backlight sporting a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1366 x 768 pixels.

CULV Growth The growth is due in part to growing demand for CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) notebook models according to AUO. The company claims to have a 20% market share of the global CULV notebook LCD panel market in Q1’09. AUO was the first company to begin developing CULV LCD panels.

“LED TV“ LCD TVs will slowly transition to LED backlights too. Samsung is aggressively promoting its “LED TVs” which are LCD TVs with LED backlights that are positioned on the edges to make them ultra-thin. AUO expects 5% of its total LCD TV panel shipments to feature LED backlights by the end of 2009. That number will double by the end of 2010.

The transition from CCFL to LED as a backlight lightsource is going on strong. The benefits include more ruggedness, thinner LCDs, lower power consumption and greener products thanks to LED not having to make use of mercury, a poisonous substance.

Source: DigiTimes

HUD Head-up display. The name is unsexy. Let’s use Digital Eyewear instead. Digital Eyewear can be thought of as glasses that have display capabilities embedded within. SBG Labs, an optical technical company located in Sunnyvale, California, is developing its digital eyewear solution called DigiLens. It makes use of holographic optics technology. Those are some big words.

Holographic Optics Technology Light-emitting laser diodes, or lasers, shoot highly concentrated beams to the glass surface. Holographic gratings, which are computerized transparent devices, diffract light and bounces it back to your eyes. Or more simply: a laser is shot on the glass, the light bounces off and into your eye.

SBG is focusing on military and avionics applications. Consumer models will probably follow. And when they do, I’ll be waiting to try them on.

Source: The New York Times

Epson is to Microsoft as X-Desk is to Surface Epson has introduced a Surface-like table called the X-Desk. It is a multitouch table that uses rear projection technology and infrared sensors to interact with your fingers and real objects such as mobile phones.

Retail Focus Epson is gearing the X-Desk for retail applications. For instance, AT&T could use it to compare features of different mobile phones. I could also see this in the homes of the rich: kids come up to it, put their smartphones on it, and start messing around with their pictures. I’m assuming the X-Desk will be expensive.

X-Desk App Store I have an idea Epson. Create a developer community by opening the APIs on the X-Desk. Then create an Xapp Store. Have the X-Desk automatically connect to the Xapp Store to download cool apps. Sounds cool? I can test it out for you.

Source: crave

Samsung Yepp YP-P3 Specifications

Exactly YP-P3NB Samsung’s Yepp YP-P3 with 32GB became available on 2009.04.23 in South Korea. The 32GB version has its own model name: YP-P3N. And you can only get it in black, unlike the picture above. Samsung likes to put the code for black at the end of the model name (like most other companies) so the final model name would be YP-P3NB.

Just a quick note on the display: The YP-P3NB sports a 3″ touch-enabled TFT LCD with 480 x 272 pixels.

Competitive Price The price is around KRW380,000 (about US$284 based on the current exchange rate of KRW1338.4/US$). That compares well with the iPod touch: the 16GB version is US$299 and the 32GB is a flatten-your-wallet US$399.

I like the simple design with the slider UI below the LCD. With a price like that I hope Samsung will decide to ship it across the Pacific.

Source: LikEraser (Korean)

Robert Yi, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, cautioned:

It is still premature to expect the global economy as well as the consumer demand recovery in the near term.

Earnings Down Yi cited rising factory utilization rates by memory and LCD manufacturers and increasing prices as risk factors for Samsung in 2009. Samsung announced first-quarter earnings on April 24. Net income fell from KRW2.19 trillion to KRW619.2 billion due to losses from semiconductors and LCDs.

LCD Turn Red Samsung’s LCD division experienced a loss of about KRW310 billion, a complete reversal from a year ago when the division posted a profit of KRW1 trillion. LG Display, the second largest LCD manufacturer behind Samsung, announced last week that demand is stronger than expected and prices are starting to increase. LGD expects losses to stop before the end of the second quarter.

Bottom Line Although demand is clearly starting to pick up compared to earlier this year, overall demand for LCD goods will require more time to rebound to levels seen a year ago. With demand for LCD goods improving there is the risk of LCD manufacturers becoming over-excited and building an over-supply situation in the second half of 2009. If that happens inventory will climb, prices will collapse and profits will decline. Of course, end-user consumers will be happy to see even lower-priced LCD TVs, monitors and notebooks.

Source: Bloomberg

retroleum, a user on flickr, posted up some shots taken by a Japan-spec Panasonic GH1. Clicking on the picture above will take you directly to a GH1 test video taken at 1080i/24fps. Looks good but slightly under-exposed and it did have a little difficulty auto-focusing on the lens cap. The really cool thing about the GH1 is the auto-focus feature while taking a video: Canon’s 5D Mark II cannot do that. Of course the GH1 is really exciting because you can take pictures and HD video with different types of lenses without going bankrupt. The 5D Mark II is much more expensive but the video quality coming out of it seems to be much better. That’s my opinion, so you should check out this video by Vincent Laforet for comparison. Let me know what you think.

OLED-Info has gotten a video of the Philips Lumiblade transparent OLED wall in action. The OLED wall reacts to objects in front of it and has a retro feel but is definitely very high tech. The OLED wall is both a lighting fixture as well as a type of display and that makes it very interesting. Now how about a massive multitouch OLED display?

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