Toshiba's new circular LCDs: because your eyes are round
By Paul Miller 
posted October 18th 2007 8:59AM
posted October 18th 2007 8:59AM
posted October 18th 2007 8:59AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
The Mercedes S-class has a rectangular screen for its speedometer, etc., and it doesn't look as pretty as the rest of the car. I imagine a circular screen could help.
They've had a round one in the E-class since 2003. Or is it just a rectangular one with a frame around it? I don't know, but does it matter if the effect is the same?
This could make for some pretty sweet guage clusters.
I bet its a whole lot cheaper to take a square LCD of the same dimensions and put a circular bezel over it, covering the corners. Probably a lot easier to sort out problems with the video card too. A crescent/banana shaped screen "hanging" over the steering column would be interesting though, and that's not possible with a normal screen.
I'd be pretty certain this is intended more for mobile applications -- watches, phones, PMP/PVPs, etc. Also, it probably really would help with instrument panels as opposed to bezelling it, where you're often trying to cram a lot of parts into a small amount of space these days. (Would be fantastic for motorcycles.) I can really see the military jumping all over this one.
Absolutely - this would be a real boon to the simulator industry as well. We are always trying to fit rectangular screens into round holes for aircraft instrument displays
It all depends on the price of these round screens of course, but I can tell you that a lot of extra engineering goes into trying to fit numerous oversized rectangular displays into a small cockpit display area. It looks fine from the outside with the cut-out round bezels, but is a very tight squeeze under the hood, and a real challenge for the mechanical and electrical engineers. Not to mention the technicians who install the things. Round will be a whole lot better.
Geeks.com had an April fools gag a few years back where they were selling a round LCD monitor.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ROUNDLCD
The artistic uses for such a display are limitless. I can see everything from watches to compact mirrors getting a neato James Bond (or better still, Emma Peel) treatment.
With such a screen my dream of a Neo-Victorian, PDA in a pocket watch could become a reality. Now they just have to do one as a touchscreen.
Diamond Age, here I come. :)
Finally, a solution to the problem of getting square eyes after watching too much TV!
The resolution should be π120^2
When i saw this the fist thing that came to my mind was HMD or head mounted display...
Now if they could only up the res a couple of hundred times, we would be talking some serious virtual reality... oh yeah... i forgot... we still dont have computers that would be capable of handeling that....
Great, we can now build our proposed OPHONE. Teaser view of the reverse of our 2003 industrial design study at owonder.com/ophone. Front view of our conceptual device features a circular display.
I actually think Apple could use this as the centerpiece of their next all-in-one computer - the (wait for it)... iBall.
Tip your waiter, try the veal, etc. etc. etc....
You could make an amazing 'analog' clock out of that
Indeed you could! The external analog clock on my Cingular 3125 would look even slicker.
This will be great for the bathroom while on the john
How about an aircraft VOR/LOC with a real artificial horizon.
actually, my eyes are almond shaped....are those in the works?
As long as your pupils are round, you're still ok.
put a webcam and make it a techie mirror for the ladies?
Circle? Thats clearly a 480 sided polygon.
I could see this being useful in space. It's difficult to know which way to hang your flatscreen, where there is no up! They just need the electronics to match the image to the orientation of the viewer.
True thesawzall, but wouldn't it be much easier to mount the flatscreen on a rotating wall mount? :o)
Maybe so, but a rotating mechanism might get jammed by your crewmate's stray potato chips.
Digital clusters, here we come!
Our eyes are round, but the world is made of rectangles. Screens depicting that world (TVs, in other words) should be of that shape. However, for instrumentation and interface, specifically gauges, circles would definitely come in handy.
Yeahman, checkout my great multi-monitor setup with these whizzy round monitors!
What about the gaps?
Oh wait, circles don't fit together!?
What a crap idea.. Round monitors indeed.
I can't imagine what a pain in the ass it would be to generally program for such a display...Would you specify your positions in polar co-ordinates?
FINALLY! finally we can have all the COOL looking tech you usually see only in scifi movies :p -anyways square displays are soooo 2007
that would make an awesome toilet seat cover.
Speak for yourself, roundeye. My eyes are slanted!!!!
>)
Asian Emoticon
Seriously, can't you tell that this is being produced in colusion with the makeup industry. Simply add this with a small camera into the makeup carrier for woman, and some simple software that make women think their face is blotchier than it is till they put the new makeup on.... bam! Instant profit.
ROLF! but really, since the pointy heads (and ears!Elves!) at toshiba are are also slant eyed (yet more proof of elves!) I guess they will look into it...
oFone! oFone! oFone!!!!
YAAAHHHH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WazA77xcf0A
*heehee*
I would imagine that you wouldn't bother with special round video drivers to complicate it, you would program whatever rectangular resolution box around the shape, and simply use a filter to show where the boundries are. In effect, the cut-off corners would be black video so nothing is displayed in those pixels. This seems like an awful lot of trouble, a bezel would be simpler, but I guess it does save on physical pixels, not to mention power consumption.
Sweet, no more diagonal measurements
It's dumb ideas like this you that's gotten Toshiba invent something as lame (inferior) as the HD-DVD.
Fake portholes in the inboard rooms on cruise ships?