Cars and displays: two of my favorite topics! For SEMA, the folks over at RIDES have revamped the Hyundai Genesis. RIDES has built a really cool mobile office in the back seats of the Genesis. The mobile office is built out of two Mac Minis and one MacBook Air. There are two 8.4″ 800 x [...]

Ford has revealed a gauge cluster called SmartGauge with EcoGuide that uses two LCDs. This technology will be incorporated into Ford’s 2010 Fusion Hybrid and Mercury’s 2010 Milan Hybrid cars. The centrally-mounted speedometer is analog but to the left and right is all high-tech with graphics that can be personalized to provide four different level [...]

Audi’s new Q5 CUV will be rolling out of factories later this year with some NVIDIA power. NVIDIA’s graphics horsepower will be generating some cool map transitions for Audi’s Multi-Media Interface (MMI) billed as a 3D infotainment system. In addition to map transitions, NVIDIA’s GPU will generate photorealistic graphics of points of interests, etc. I [...]

There were a lot of developments in displays that were showcased during SID 2008. One of the best stuff was related to OLEDs, lower power consumption, thin profiles and LED backlights generating unheard of contrast ratios. I’ve posted about just a few of them. Here they all are for your convenience:

Epson Electronic Paper Display at [...]

Epson OLED
Size: 8″ (20.3cm)
Pixel Format: 800 x 480
Brightness: 200 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 100,000:1 or greater

Epson showcased some impressive OLED displays during SID. Epson improved the light emitting materials by developing a proprietary element structure resulting in extending the life of the OLED device to more than 50,000 hours (to half brightness). The thickness of the OLED [...]

AU Optronics (AUO) will be the first display manufacturer to showcase a curved LCD during SID 2008. The LCD uses a conventional TFT LCD process and curves 100mm in a single plane. Potential applications for a curved LCD could be clocks, watches, automobile dashboards, etc. According to AUO information presentation is uniform including color and [...]

LED light sources have become common in automotive taillight applications. For taillights, the light does not have to project and need to be simply bright enough for other drivers to see when daytime running lights (DRLs) and/or the brakes are engaged. Because of the low brightness requirements, LEDs have been able to replace regular bulbs [...]

Opel’s GTC Concept Car uses LEDs from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (OSRAM) for external lighting, namely parking lights, daylight running lights, and fog lights. OSRAM used thin-film technology that substantially increases brightness that allow the reduction of the number LEDs needed for external lighting on automobiles to just a few. OSRAM’s Golden Dragon LEDs illuminate the [...]

Note: This post has nothing to do with displays, but since I am very interested in automobiles, the B&O and Audi R8 combination, I just couldn’t resist. So, here is the original post that I drafted a while back. The Audi R8 continues to be a mysterious sports car that I have yet seen in [...]

The BMW 5 Series sedan has 18 LEDs that form two rows at the upper edge for the combination rear lamp direction indicator. The rear light design wraps around the corner and merges into the side marker lamp where four more LEDs are used and a reflex reflector. The really cool-looking part of the rear [...]