Sharp's "veil view" angled dual-display LCD
We've got a feeling they spent more time developing this one than they did thinking of reasons it should be
developed (uh, yeah, you know what we mean), but Sharp's announced a new dual-display technology (which Babelfish
translated to "veil view"—we kinda like it) capable of showing completely different screens at different viewing
angles. Apparently with mass production already started, Sharp wants to get these things in notebooks asap—but we can't
help but wonder if their reasoning is a little flawed. If this is supposed to be a technology used to protect your
information from shoulder surfing interlopers, what does it do to protect your screen from the person peeking behind
you who's far less likely to be detected than the one sitting right next to you?
[Via Akihabara News]
Filed under: Displays
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
donjek @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
this has many other commercial applications.
you could watch 2 different tv shows from 2 positions on the couch. Or you could get two advertising $ for each square inch of advertising space etc.
jg @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
this must be useless product day between the ipod Shuffle keyboard, and the g-unit mp3 watch, and now this.
Mithras @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Nothing to see here! Just lookin' at pictures of kitty cats!
jimmy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
this + airplane wifi == looking at pr0n during overseas flights... gyeah boyyeee
travis @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
being someone who works in the national defense community. I think this is a step in the right direction. When traveling with class information, it is always nice to draw less attention to yourself. I like the technology but do not like the example with the brown image as the "alternate" view. It would be nice to see something where the alternative view is showing benign activity. So I can be in a plane reading over a document and to the person next to me, it looks like I'm reading through a webpage or otherwise benign document.
-oJo- @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Some hospitals already have a blur feature at angles so people can't see other people's records on screen. At least with this, I won't be wondering wtf is that monitor so fuzzy.
zib r. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
could be very handy if the screen could turn at the base, likt the thinkpad tablet/notebook. that way you could have multiple programs running fullscreen, and instead of alt+tab, you'd just turn the screen!
Aligner @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
You guys are mixing things up. There are 2 announcements from Sharp. One is the Veil-View which does not provide 2 screens, just restricts the image on screen to the viewer directly in front (at full resolution) and displays logos or other 'stuff' to the sides (with reduced resolution).
The other is Dual-View which is completely different. The right viewer sees one image displayed on half the screen pixels, and the left viewer sees another image displayed on the other half. I.e. 2 pictures interleaved at half the resolution of the standard panel.
Looks like Sharp made a mistake by making the 2 press pictures look the same.
Basically this means (judging by the comments so far) that there are twice as many things that you don't want to buy.
Wonderkid @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Ideal for fooling your boss into thinking you're doing something else. IE, while you work on an eye popping trouser rippin' spreadsheet, display some smoken naked totty on the angled view. That should keep him occupied.
Andrew @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
This would be great for the office. If someone looks at it from the side it looks like you're actually working.
the_c_in_cake @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
I know it was one of engadget's posts from a month or so back, talking about some graduate design student's concept for just this type of thing, using a thin, plastic layer not unlike the one used for holograms built into screens. I believe the site's comments were much more enthusiastic about the potential uses then, referencing keeping two kids busy with one machine, and I thought, maybe also useful if you wanted to run two Xboxes from that one 50 inch you have, instead of playing on split screens all the time.
Dean Heistad @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Hot damn - once again they shoulda consulted a marketing guru for the name.
It could be "Cone view", to play on the "Cone of Silence"!!
http://www.cinerhama.com/getsmart/innovations.html
Alas...
Tyler @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Anyone ever heard of HIPAA? This would be great in the healthcare field allowing us to ditch the POS 3M overlays.
Ray @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
obviously this is going to take pairs programming to a whole new level... ;)
Eddie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
The "obvious" application of getting two different views of the "same" screen, if it works with narrow horizontal viewing angle differences, is to create a true stereo 3-D display device requiring no funky glasses to see Z-axis depth in the image. First applications would be video games that construct 3-D entities that jump off the screen towards the user. Secondary applications would be 3-D movies (yawn) or 3-D rendering of photorealistic CAD objects or architectural drawings.
Aligner @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Try http://www.sharp3d.com if you think it could be used for 3D no glasses. No T-shirts available but Sharp have certainly "Been there, done that". Always worth a google search before revealing the next great idea!
Brad @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Or when playing a video game against someone else it could be setup so that each person sees only their player onscreen. That will eliminate the wandering eye that occurs when you are playing multiplayer on one screen.
Brad @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Or when playing a video game against someone else it could be setup so that each person sees only their player onscreen. That will eliminate the wandering eye that occurs when you are playing multiplayer on one screen.
Topmounter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
I am a little surprised at the negative response to this technology here.
This is a very nice feature to have for those of us who spend any amount of time working on airplanes.
Saggy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
I find it entertaining that they chose to display the technology in its most USELESS application: on a laptop with a 7" screen. Lol. If I'm not mistaken, the laptop in the picture is the Sharp CV50:
http://www.kemplar.com/sharp_cv50.php
I've got to agree with Chris. As I see it, the most useful application for this technology is on signage (for advertising and otherwise.)
Ryan's comments underscore the obvious question: why advertise this as a personal computing technology when its obvious expense completely outweighs the gains?
Frozt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
If the main purpose for this screen is privacy, we already have them 2 years ago. It is called 50 degree viewing angle lcd.
audiTT @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
This technology uses a plastic reticle with different polarization angles, mounted over the surface of a normal LCD, then the LCD presents in the even columns one image and in the odd images the second image (null, other, whatever).
1) It cuts resolution in half, so it means like working in a 400x600 screen
2) In order to see your own screen you have to look directly into the center of the screen perpendicular to it, if you move +-6degrees you will loose the effect (won't see nothing or see double)
3) This is the same as used on the sharp3d laptop (very very bad results) but with different angles (for 3d angles are calculated to duplicate the stereoscopy effect, and for the not peeking is a greater angle)
4) For advertising, you can only see the images at the right angle, otherwise they look doubled or blurry
5) Until something really cool comes out in 3D, an HMD with very high resolution >=800x600, and a wide field of view, that is highly portable and compatible, Everything else is crap (shutter glasses, red/blue, autostereoscopic, vert/hor. pol). The best product by far that I've seen under development is http://www.tdvisionsystems.com/ and this is going to be amazing.
Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
This is an electronic switchable version of the privacy screens that some folks use on their laptops. You can switch it on to dramatically narrow the viewing angle (and also have fun showing peeping toms a different picture) or switch it off when there's no fear of privacy invasion.
Due to the neat feature of being able to display a second image to the peeker, I can imagine a number of images that would work well to tell them to look elsewhere...
The dual view screen on the other hand makes a lot of sense for car navigation systems. One view can be the map that shows to the driver, while the passenger can watch TV.
SerratedX @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
A lot of offices and schools use covers that work similar to this. Where you can't see the personal information on the screen unless you are right in front of it. Seems like they are just wanting to get rid of that like 1/4" piece of plastic. Also could be used in the classroom, so students can start taking tests on them and not have to worry about cheating... or somthing like that...
Samuel Lago @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
You don't have to worry about the guy behind you, have you tried reading a laptop from a distance, its hardly legiable.
Garth @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
I thought LCDs progressed to the point where you COULD have angled viewing. This seems reminiscent of the old TFTs to me. Paying extra for less functionality. Hmm...
Cullen @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
garth, this is not less functionality, this is more. you would likely only buy this if you needed it, in which case the features are a good thing. you are not smart or clever.
Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
The dual view is advertising in Japan as a TV for families - kids playing TV game from one angle and the parents watching news from another. I actually think it is pretty neat.
SR @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
Why is it that the people that post these updates always have to show their ignorance by questioning the utility of new developments?
yongfook @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
This idea was borne out of commuting, simple as that. The same technology is available (and is very popular) for mobile phones in Japan simply because people use their phones so much on the train and at rush hour in close proximity whilst sitting down, you don't want people next to you reading whatever sordid messages you are sending the hag you met last night at that hole in the wall izakaya in Shinjuku.
For phones it comes in the form of a sticker that you place over the screen and viewing from any angle other than directly in front of the phone makes whatever is on the screen go completely white.
I guess this computer is aimed at the same type of market - it's that kind of tiny size that is suited to working on a commute
172.22.23.100 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
i think this dual view is a good thing because it would be very handy for me because i travle alot
chris26 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM
This is a fantastic product, though I dont know how useful it is for Laptops. Im thinking more about larger displays and public ad space...
Here is another engadget article reporting same thing:
http://displays.engadget.com/entry/1234000267046362/
(some uni grad student project. I wonder if its the same techology)
How sensitive is the offset from one view to the other? Im sure its configurable.
a few weeks ago I was at crobar for Paul van Dyke and above the bar they had these plasma displays. but bust it, they were 3D images but without the glasses... you sould just be watching the screen and it would look like these cars/rockets/balls were coming out of the screen.
(Think Back To The Future 2 with the Jaws billboard, except the image stayed within the frame of the screen).
Pretty impressive effect...
esp if you think of the state most of the kids were in.
Seeing the looks on their face the first time they noticed it was pretty funny...
"OMFG... AM I REALLY SEEING THIS RIGHT NOW?!?!?!"
I guess they are able to configure the offset to just a few inches (space between the eye) so each eye gets its own image...
or maybe its a different technology all togheter.
anyone else see this kind of display before?