And You Thought Displays Were Just About "Bigger"

There's a pervasive theme to every CES conference, and 2008 is no different. This show is all about TVs and monitors, dominated by everything from Panasonic's 150-inch to Mitsubishi's new OLED (organic LED) monitor. It's enough to make you want to throw up your hands, cry uncle, and say, "Do I need to buy a new one already?"

I took a stroll through Samsung's behind-closed-doors technology display area with Scott Birnbaum, who showed me that the most amazing is yet to come. (And that buying the right monitor is going to get even trickier.)

OLED: Like Mitsubishi, Samsung has an OLED display technology. These LEDs emit their own light with no need for backlighting. That means they'll consume less electricity, produce a sharper image, and be housed in a substantially slimmer frame than liquid crystal displays. The Samsung display I saw was only a few millimeters thick. Samsung showed the world's largest OLED display (40 inches) on the CES 2008 show floor.

Reactrix: OK—imagine playing with your whole body as the input device (similar to what you do with Nintendo Wii, but no controller required). The Reactrix WaveScape Gesture Control technology that Samsung embedded in its display turns your TV into a large blue screen. By punching and tapping my hand in the air, I played volleyball and did a punching bag workout. I clicked through menus with a wave of my hand. Samsung says that Hilton Hotels will be installing these Reactrix monitors soon. (Watch out for the room lamps!)

Outdoor Display LEDs: I never thought much about the fact that outdoor LCD signage had to be readable in bright light. If you've taken your phone or PC out to the beach, you know sunshine is problem for readability. Samsung demonstrated both an outdoor lighting LCD and a touch-screen version of its outdoor lighting LCD. Outdoor LCDs require a different sort of manufacturing process but will make it affordable for retailers and outdoor billboard to use LCD technology.

120MHz: Most displays today run at 60Hz, which I always thought was plenty fast enough for the eye to see. Samsung showed me a 120Hz technology that it calls motion compressed frame interpolation (MCFI). The way it works is sort of like animation—if you have a ball tossed at point A and landing at point B, MCFI interpolates the points in between. To the eye, the images look considerably sharper with no blurry edges from trying to keep pace with the movement.

WLED Technology: Said to be a great technology in emerging markets, WLED technology provides basic illumination for low-cost TFT-LCD panels in an extremely small footprint.

Quadruple Full-High definition (QFHD): On the show floor Samsung displayed a TV with a resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels, which is four times greater than that for a typical high-definition display in an 82-inch form factor—the largest QFHD to date.

Superior Viewing: Angles: SPVA is a Samsung technology for superior viewing angles. It is used on Samsung LCD TVs and some high-end monitor panels. Today we're used to watching DVDs on a screen that's formatted for an aspect ratio of 16:9. That's why those black borders feel like they're squeezing videos. The new SPVA technology gives you a screen that's got a 16:9 ratio and that makes all the difference.

Notice I haven't said the "p" word (plasma)? And, of course, I'd like one display with ALL of the emerging technologies packed inside.

*Photos courtesy of TechEBlog and Engadget. I had a camera malfunction.