Forget schools, forget
lighting, forget easy access to
drinking water... it's that sweet TV goodness that people living off the grid really need. Well, that and
laptops. You're looking at Sharp's 26-inch LCD prototype which uses just a quarter of the power (or a third measured annually) of a conventional CRT with the same screen size. That's low enough to be suitably powered by a Sharp, triple-junction thin-film solar cell module whose surface area is roughly equivalent to that of the LCD screen. Sharp hopes to market the two items as a pair in a bid to "contribute to the environment." Good thing too, 'cause nothing fills a billion empty bellies like an eye-full of boob-candy.
[Via
Impress]
posted Jul 4th 2008 4:50AM
Why can't they create a separate solar module for recharging laptops and gizmos? I think this is a good idea to pair solar power with Television sets, yet using solar power for other purposes is not a bad idea either.
Yeah! Because we all spend most of the time using our laptops in bright sunlight and wouldn't mind lugging around an extra slab of photovoltaics.
they exist but aren't cheap. Google "solar laptop" for hits.
I assume the solar module is different from the TV and you can always keep the solar module in the sunlight while you sit in some shade / car / room while getting the power needed to recharge, some of them have promoted solar chargers which look like a big backpack of some sort, they are hell costly and require like 8 hrs to charge the machine, I guess that would be hell to keep the charger in sunlight for hours just to power it down in 2 or 3 hours.
I think one of these panels would be better served hooked up to charge laptop batteries and USB devices. That would be more interesting to regular folk. But an LCD TV that can be powered by solar panels is a practical thing the media will eat up. Short of heating/cooling and kitchen appliances, TV is next on the short list of things that don't run on batteries yet people really care about.
why being so critic? which of the presented gadgets here would help any starving? this is a good thing!
Forget the starving masses and the solar panel, a TV that uses 'one quarterth' the power makes sense.
Unless it achieves this by... being rubbish.
And, excuse the self-reply, but WTF does 'or 1/3, measured annually' mean? The link offers up this gibberish:
power consumption of about 1 / 3 of the annual power consumption of about 1 / 2 achieved.
Uhuh.
er, 1/4th can also be read "one fourth." But I hear you, updated to make more sense.
Thomas
LCD that uses 1/3rd of CRT? How well does it go against other LCD?
Starving masses? Do you expect any mayor electronic maker to start making food?
it's a lose-lose situation. if the sun is shining you see nothing on your TV, if it's not you see nothing on your TV :(
It better have an ATSC tuner...
As if anyone who needs a solar powered TV could actually RECEIVE an OTA DTV signal (at least without a massive outdoor antenna)...My experience has been that many rural markets are out of luck for DTV and will just have to stick to using DirecTV or DISH. Solar powered DISH DVR anyone?
But... have you watched daytime TV ?
Im taking one of these on my next camping and mountain hiking trip..... looks very practical for the nature nut crowd.
People cannot survive by bread alone. They need information.
Is that Gil Scott-Heron pictured on the screen? Very obscure.
It is, well spotted.
Thomas
Finally, people in 3rd world countries can watch the ant race and snow channels. They're oh-so exciting!