Nelsonic Industries is an American electronics manufacturing and development company that operated from Long Island City, Queens , New York City in the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s when it was acquired by the watch-manufacturer, M.Z. Berger. Nelsonic produced numerous toy-themed wristwatches, often targeting younger audiences with likenesses of characters from popular franchises such as Barbie , the Ghostbusters , and Mario . Nelsonic became notable during the early mid-1980s for being the first electronics company in the United States to produce game-watches (multi-purpose electronic devices capable of functioning as both a time-piece and as a typically electronic game). For a period subsequent to its purchase by M.Z. Berger, Nelsonic operated as a subsidiary division of its parent company and game-watches were produced that bore the Nelsonic mark. This practice ended as M.Z. Berger shifted focus to more traditional and higher-end timepieces. Today the original Nelsonic Game Watch line has entered the secondary market and individual Game Watches have become highly sought-after collectibles that often fetch high prices on eBay and other online auction websites.
118-515: Throughout its existence, Nelsonic produced pop-culture-themed wrist-watches for children and young adults. The chronograph digital watches, typically made of molded plastic, invariably featured an alarm and utilized LCD screens to display the time for their wearers. In time the company began manufacturing multi-purpose units that used the LCD screen to combine time display functions with simple video game functions. These simple video games were variations on
236-412: A native resolution , and it should (ideally) be matched to the video card resolution. Each pixel is made up of triads , with the number of these triads determining the native resolution. On older, historically available, CRT monitors the resolution was possibly adjustable (still lower than what modern monitor achieve), while on some such monitors (or TV sets) the beam sweep rate was fixed, resulting in
354-411: A pixel (abbreviated px ), pel , or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image , or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device . In most digital display devices , pixels are the smallest element that can be manipulated through software. Each pixel is a sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations of
472-454: A refresh operation. Active-matrix addressed displays look brighter and sharper than passive-matrix addressed displays of the same size, and generally have quicker response times, producing much better images. Sharp produces bistable reflective LCDs with a 1-bit SRAM cell per pixel that only requires small amounts of power to maintain an image. Segment LCDs can also have color by using Field Sequential Color (FSC LCD). This kind of displays have
590-545: A regular two-dimensional grid . By using this arrangement, many common operations can be implemented by uniformly applying the same operation to each pixel independently. Other arrangements of pixels are possible, with some sampling patterns even changing the shape (or kernel ) of each pixel across the image. For this reason, care must be taken when acquiring an image on one device and displaying it on another, or when converting image data from one pixel format to another. For example: Computer monitors (and TV sets) generally have
708-551: A "pixel" may refer to a fixed length rather than a true pixel on the screen to accommodate different pixel densities . A typical definition, such as in CSS , is that a "physical" pixel is 1 ⁄ 96 inch (0.26 mm). Doing so makes sure a given element will display as the same size no matter what screen resolution views it. There may, however, be some further adjustments between a "physical" pixel and an on-screen logical pixel. As screens are viewed at difference distances (consider
826-631: A 14-inch, active-matrix, full-color, full-motion TFT-LCD. This led to Japan launching an LCD industry, which developed large-size LCDs, including TFT computer monitors and LCD televisions. Epson developed the 3LCD projection technology in the 1980s, and licensed it for use in projectors in 1988. Epson's VPJ-700, released in January 1989, was the world's first compact , full-color LCD projector . In 1990, under different titles, inventors conceived electro optical effects as alternatives to twisted nematic field effect LCDs (TN- and STN- LCDs). One approach
944-493: A Gen 8.5 mother glass, significantly reducing waste. The thickness of the mother glass also increases with each generation, so larger mother glass sizes are better suited for larger displays. An LCD module (LCM) is a ready-to-use LCD with a backlight. Thus, a factory that makes LCD modules does not necessarily make LCDs, it may only assemble them into the modules. LCD glass substrates are made by companies such as AGC Inc. , Corning Inc. , and Nippon Electric Glass . The origin and
1062-572: A TN device in the voltage-on state is far less dependent on variations in the device thickness than that in the voltage-off state. Because of this, TN displays with low information content and no backlighting are usually operated between crossed polarizers such that they appear bright with no voltage (the eye is much more sensitive to variations in the dark state than the bright state). As most of 2010-era LCDs are used in television sets, monitors and smartphones, they have high-resolution matrix arrays of pixels to display arbitrary images using backlighting with
1180-455: A blue polarizer, or birefringence which gives them their distinctive appearance. STN LCDs have to be continuously refreshed by alternating pulsed voltages of one polarity during one frame and pulses of opposite polarity during the next frame. Individual pixels are addressed by the corresponding row and column circuits. This type of display is called passive-matrix addressed , because the pixel must retain its state between refreshes without
1298-553: A brighter backlight and consuming more power, making this type of display less desirable for notebook computers. Panasonic Himeji G8.5 was using an enhanced version of IPS, also LGD in Korea, then currently the world biggest LCD panel manufacture BOE in China is also IPS/FFS mode TV panel. Super-IPS was later introduced after in-plane switching with even better response times and color reproduction. Pixel In digital imaging ,
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#17327869507211416-419: A dark background. When no image is displayed, different arrangements are used. For this purpose, TN LCDs are operated between parallel polarizers, whereas IPS LCDs feature crossed polarizers. In many applications IPS LCDs have replaced TN LCDs, particularly in smartphones . Both the liquid crystal material and the alignment layer material contain ionic compounds . If an electric field of one particular polarity
1534-414: A digital clock) are all examples of devices with these displays. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made from a matrix of small pixels , while other displays have larger elements. LCDs can either be normally on (positive) or off (negative), depending on the polarizer arrangement. For example, a character positive LCD with a backlight has black lettering on a background that
1652-480: A display device, or pixels in a digital camera (photosensor elements). This list is not exhaustive and, depending on context, synonyms include pel, sample, byte, bit, dot, and spot. Pixels can be used as a unit of measure such as: 2400 pixels per inch, 640 pixels per line, or spaced 10 pixels apart. The measures " dots per inch " (dpi) and " pixels per inch " (ppi) are sometimes used interchangeably, but have distinct meanings, especially for printer devices, where dpi
1770-466: A distance. In some displays, such as LCD, LED, and plasma displays, these single-color regions are separately addressable elements, which have come to be known as subpixels , mostly RGB colors. For example, LCDs typically divide each pixel vertically into three subpixels. When the square pixel is divided into three subpixels, each subpixel is necessarily rectangular. In display industry terminology, subpixels are often referred to as pixels , as they are
1888-646: A few used plasma displays ) and the original Nintendo Game Boy until the mid-1990s, when color active-matrix became standard on all laptops. The commercially unsuccessful Macintosh Portable (released in 1989) was one of the first to use an active-matrix display (though still monochrome). Passive-matrix LCDs are still used in the 2010s for applications less demanding than laptop computers and TVs, such as inexpensive calculators. In particular, these are used on portable devices where less information content needs to be displayed, lowest power consumption (no backlight ) and low cost are desired or readability in direct sunlight
2006-460: A finely ground powdered pigment, with particles being just 40 nanometers across. The black resist is the first to be applied; this will create a black grid (known in the industry as a black matrix) that will separate red, green and blue subpixels from one another, increasing contrast ratios and preventing light from leaking from one subpixel onto other surrounding subpixels. After the black resist has been dried in an oven and exposed to UV light through
2124-450: A fixed native resolution . What it is depends on the monitor, and size. See below for historical exceptions. Computers can use pixels to display an image, often an abstract image that represents a GUI . The resolution of this image is called the display resolution and is determined by the video card of the computer. Flat-panel monitors (and TV sets), e.g. OLED or LCD monitors, or E-ink , also use pixels to display an image, and have
2242-426: A fixed native resolution. Most CRT monitors do not have a fixed beam sweep rate, meaning they do not have a native resolution at all – instead they have a set of resolutions that are equally well supported. To produce the sharpest images possible on an flat-panel, e.g. OLED or LCD, the user must ensure the display resolution of the computer matches the native resolution of the monitor. The pixel scale used in astronomy
2360-415: A glass substrate to form the cell circuitry to operate the panel. It is usually not possible to use soldering techniques to directly connect the panel to a separate copper-etched circuit board. Instead, interfacing is accomplished using anisotropic conductive film or, for lower densities, elastomeric connectors . Monochrome and later color passive-matrix LCDs were standard in most early laptops (although
2478-514: A grid with vertical wires across the whole screen on one side of the screen and horizontal wires across the whole screen on the other side of the screen. To this grid each pixel has a positive connection on one side and a negative connection on the other side. So the total amount of wires needed for a 1080p display is 3 x 1920 going vertically and 1080 going horizontally for a total of 6840 wires horizontally and vertically. That's three for red, green and blue and 1920 columns of pixels for each color for
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#17327869507212596-412: A high speed passive segment LCD panel with an RGB backlight. The backlight quickly changes color, making it appear white to the naked eye. The LCD panel is synchronized with the backlight. For example, to make a segment appear red, the segment is only turned ON when the backlight is red, and to make a segment appear magenta, the segment is turned ON when the backlight is blue, and it continues to be ON while
2714-449: A layer of molecules aligned between two transparent electrodes , often made of indium tin oxide (ITO) and two polarizing filters (parallel and perpendicular polarizers), the axes of transmission of which are (in most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. Without the liquid crystal between the polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter would be blocked by the second (crossed) polarizer. Before an electric field
2832-624: A leading position in the wristwatch market, like Seiko and its first 6-digit TN-LCD quartz wristwatch, and Casio 's 'Casiotron'. Color LCDs based on Guest-Host interaction were invented by a team at RCA in 1968. A particular type of such a color LCD was developed by Japan's Sharp Corporation in the 1970s, receiving patents for their inventions, such as a patent by Shinji Kato and Takaaki Miyazaki in May 1975, and then improved by Fumiaki Funada and Masataka Matsuura in December 1975. TFT LCDs similar to
2950-468: A matrix consisting of electrically connected rows on one side of the LC layer and columns on the other side, which makes it possible to address each pixel at the intersections. The general method of matrix addressing consists of sequentially addressing one side of the matrix, for example by selecting the rows one-by-one and applying the picture information on the other side at the columns row-by-row. For details on
3068-457: A measured intensity level. In most digital cameras, the sensor array is covered with a patterned color filter mosaic having red, green, and blue regions in the Bayer filter arrangement so that each sensor element can record the intensity of a single primary color of light. The camera interpolates the color information of neighboring sensor elements, through a process called demosaicing , to create
3186-409: A mini-LED backlight and quantum dot sheets. LCDs with quantum dot enhancement film or quantum dot color filters were introduced from 2015 to 2018. Quantum dots receive blue light from a backlight and convert it to light that allows LCD panels to offer better color reproduction. Quantum dot color filters are manufactured using photoresists containing quantum dots instead of colored pigments, and
3304-474: A phone, a computer display, and a TV), the desired length (a "reference pixel") is scaled relative to a reference viewing distance (28 inches (71 cm) in CSS). In addition, as true screen pixel densities are rarely multiples of 96 dpi, some rounding is often applied so that a logical pixel is an integer amount of actual pixels. Doing so avoids render artifacts. The final "pixel" obtained after these two steps becomes
3422-473: A photomask, the unexposed areas are washed away, creating a black grid. Then the same process is repeated with the remaining resists. This fills the holes in the black grid with their corresponding colored resists. Black matrices made in the 1980s and 1990s when most color LCD production was for laptop computers, are made of Chromium due to its high opacity, but due to environmental concerns, manufacturers shifted to black colored photoresist with carbon pigment as
3540-449: A plane parallel to the glass substrates. In this method, the electrical field is applied through opposite electrodes on the same glass substrate, so that the liquid crystals can be reoriented (switched) essentially in the same plane, although fringe fields inhibit a homogeneous reorientation. This requires two transistors for each pixel instead of the single transistor needed for a standard thin-film transistor (TFT) display. The IPS technology
3658-464: A reflective display. The common implementations of LCD backlight technology are: Today, most LCD screens are being designed with an LED backlight instead of the traditional CCFL backlight, while that backlight is dynamically controlled with the video information (dynamic backlight control). The combination with the dynamic backlight control, invented by Philips researchers Douglas Stanton, Martinus Stroomer and Adrianus de Vaan, simultaneously increases
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3776-526: A sharper threshold of the contrast-vs-voltage characteristic than the original TN LCDs. This is important, because pixels are subjected to partial voltages even while not selected. Crosstalk between activated and non-activated pixels has to be handled properly by keeping the RMS voltage of non-activated pixels below the threshold voltage as discovered by Peter J. Wild in 1972, while activated pixels are subjected to voltages above threshold (the voltages according to
3894-434: A significant role in this growth, including as a result of their investments in LCD manufacturers via state-owned investment companies. China had previously imported significant amounts of LCDs, and the growth of its LCD industry decreased prices for other consumer products that use LCDs and led to growth in other sectors like mobile phones. LCDs do not produce light on their own, so they require external light to produce
4012-401: A single mother glass size and as a result, different manufacturers would use slightly different glass sizes for the same generation. Some manufacturers have adopted Gen 8.6 mother glass sheets which are only slightly larger than Gen 8.5, allowing for more 50- and 58-inch LCDs to be made per mother glass, specially 58-inch LCDs, in which case 6 can be produced on a Gen 8.6 mother glass vs only 3 on
4130-588: A total number of 640 × 480 = 307,200 pixels, or 0.3 megapixels. The pixels, or color samples, that form a digitized image (such as a JPEG file used on a web page) may or may not be in one-to-one correspondence with screen pixels, depending on how a computer displays an image. In computing, an image composed of pixels is known as a bitmapped image or a raster image . The word raster originates from television scanning patterns, and has been widely used to describe similar halftone printing and storage techniques. For convenience, pixels are normally arranged in
4248-641: A total of 5760 wires going vertically and 1080 rows of wires going horizontally. For a panel that is 28.8 inches (73 centimeters) wide, that means a wire density of 200 wires per inch along the horizontal edge. The LCD panel is powered by LCD drivers that are carefully matched up with the edge of the LCD panel at the factory level. The drivers may be installed using several methods, the most common of which are COG (Chip-On-Glass) and TAB ( Tape-automated bonding ) These same principles apply also for smartphone screens that are much smaller than TV screens. LCD panels typically use thinly-coated metallic conductive pathways on
4366-531: A video speed-drive scheme that solved the slow response time of STN-LCDs, enabling high-resolution, high-quality, and smooth-moving video images on STN-LCDs. In 1985, Philips inventors Theodorus Welzen and Adrianus de Vaan solved the problem of driving high-resolution STN-LCDs using low-voltage (CMOS-based) drive electronics, allowing the application of high-quality (high resolution and video speed) LCD panels in battery-operated portable products like notebook computers and mobile phones. In 1985, Philips acquired 100% of
4484-416: A visible image. In a transmissive type of LCD, the light source is provided at the back of the glass stack and is called a backlight . Active-matrix LCDs are almost always backlit. Passive LCDs may be backlit but many are reflective as they use a reflective surface or film at the back of the glass stack to utilize ambient light. Transflective LCDs combine the features of a backlit transmissive display and
4602-496: A voltage to a DSM display switches the initially clear transparent liquid crystal layer into a milky turbid state. DSM displays could be operated in transmissive and in reflective mode but they required a considerable current to flow for their operation. George H. Heilmeier was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and credited with the invention of LCDs. Heilmeier's work is an IEEE Milestone . In
4720-554: Is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but instead use a backlight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome . LCDs are available to display arbitrary images (as in a general-purpose computer display) or fixed images with low information content, which can be displayed or hidden: preset words, digits, and seven-segment displays (as in
4838-409: Is a measure of the printer's density of dot (e.g. ink droplet) placement. For example, a high-quality photographic image may be printed with 600 ppi on a 1200 dpi inkjet printer. Even higher dpi numbers, such as the 4800 dpi quoted by printer manufacturers since 2002, do not mean much in terms of achievable resolution . The more pixels used to represent an image, the closer the result can resemble
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4956-663: Is applied for a long period of time, this ionic material is attracted to the surfaces and degrades the device performance. This is avoided either by applying an alternating current or by reversing the polarity of the electric field as the device is addressed (the response of the liquid crystal layer is identical, regardless of the polarity of the applied field). Displays for a small number of individual digits or fixed symbols (as in digital watches and pocket calculators ) can be implemented with independent electrodes for each segment. In contrast, full alphanumeric or variable graphics displays are usually implemented with pixels arranged as
5074-407: Is applied to a TN liquid crystal cell, polarized light passes through the 90-degrees twisted LC layer. In proportion to the voltage applied, the liquid crystals untwist changing the polarization and blocking the light's path. By properly adjusting the level of the voltage almost any gray level or transmission can be achieved. In-plane switching is an LCD technology that aligns the liquid crystals in
5192-422: Is applied, the orientation of the liquid-crystal molecules is determined by the alignment at the surfaces of electrodes. In a twisted nematic (TN) device, the surface alignment directions at the two electrodes are perpendicular to each other, and so the molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist. This induces the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and the device appears gray. If
5310-403: Is available: this means that each 24-bit pixel has an extra 8 bits to describe its opacity (for purposes of combining with another image). Many display and image-acquisition systems are not capable of displaying or sensing the different color channels at the same site. Therefore, the pixel grid is divided into single-color regions that contribute to the displayed or sensed color when viewed at
5428-475: Is based on an electro-hydrodynamic instability forming what are now called "Williams domains" inside the liquid crystal. Building on early MOSFETs , Paul K. Weimer at RCA developed the thin-film transistor (TFT) in 1962. It was a type of MOSFET distinct from the standard bulk MOSFET. In 1964, George H. Heilmeier , who was working at the RCA laboratories on the effect discovered by Richard Williams, achieved
5546-463: Is needed. Displays having a passive-matrix structure use super-twisted nematic STN (invented by Brown Boveri Research Center, Baden, Switzerland, in 1983; scientific details were published ) or double-layer STN (DSTN) technology (the latter of which addresses a color-shifting problem with the former), and color-STN (CSTN), in which color is added by using an internal color filter. STN LCDs have been optimized for passive-matrix addressing. They exhibit
5664-430: Is often used instead of pixel . For example, IBM used it in their Technical Reference for the original PC . Pixilation , spelled with a second i , is an unrelated filmmaking technique that dates to the beginnings of cinema, in which live actors are posed frame by frame and photographed to create stop-motion animation. An archaic British word meaning "possession by spirits ( pixies )", the term has been used to describe
5782-461: Is sometimes used), while in yet other contexts (like MRI) it may refer to a set of component intensities for a spatial position. Software on early consumer computers was necessarily rendered at a low resolution, with large pixels visible to the naked eye; graphics made under these limitations may be called pixel art , especially in reference to video games. Modern computers and displays, however, can easily render orders of magnitude more pixels than
5900-630: Is the angular distance between two objects on the sky that fall one pixel apart on the detector (CCD or infrared chip). The scale s measured in radians is the ratio of the pixel spacing p and focal length f of the preceding optics, s = p / f . (The focal length is the product of the focal ratio by the diameter of the associated lens or mirror.) Because s is usually expressed in units of arcseconds per pixel, because 1 radian equals (180/π) × 3600 ≈ 206,265 arcseconds, and because focal lengths are often given in millimeters and pixel sizes in micrometers which yields another factor of 1,000,
6018-845: Is the color of the backlight, and a character negative LCD has a black background with the letters being of the same color as the backlight. LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including LCD televisions , computer monitors , instrument panels , aircraft cockpit displays , and indoor and outdoor signage. Small LCD screens are common in LCD projectors and portable consumer devices such as digital cameras , watches , calculators , and mobile telephones , including smartphones . LCD screens have replaced heavy, bulky and less energy-efficient cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays in nearly all applications. LCDs are not subject to screen burn-in like on CRTs. However, LCDs are still susceptible to image persistence . Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of
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#17327869507216136-465: Is used in everything from televisions, computer monitors, and even wearable devices, especially almost all LCD smartphone panels are IPS/FFS mode. IPS displays belong to the LCD panel family screen types. The other two types are VA and TN. Before LG Enhanced IPS was introduced in 2001 by Hitachi as 17" monitor in Market, the additional transistors resulted in blocking more transmission area, thus requiring
6254-423: Is written to the display, the display may be cut from the power while retaining readable images. This has the advantage that such ebooks may be operated for long periods of time powered by only a small battery. High- resolution color displays, such as modern LCD computer monitors and televisions, use an active-matrix structure. A matrix of thin-film transistors (TFTs) is added to the electrodes in contact with
6372-527: The super-twisted nematic (STN) structure for passive matrix -addressed LCDs. H. Amstutz et al. were listed as inventors in the corresponding patent applications filed in Switzerland on July 7, 1983, and October 28, 1983. Patents were granted in Switzerland CH 665491, Europe EP 0131216, U.S. patent 4,634,229 and many more countries. In 1980, Brown Boveri started a 50/50 joint venture with
6490-695: The Consumer Electronics Show . Having caught the popular attention and with goodwill at a high-point, Nelsonic was able to obtain licensing from several big-name video game companies such as Sega , Nintendo , Midway Games , and Mylstar Electronics. With roots in the toy market, Nelsonic was also able to obtain similar licenses to produce LCD versions of popular electronic toys like Milton Bradley 's Simon as well as to produce original LCD games for non-game toy franchises like Barbie , G.I. Joe , and Power Rangers and even for film and TV franchises such as Ghostbusters . So well-known became
6608-546: The Engineering and Technology History Wiki . In 1888, Friedrich Reinitzer (1858–1927) discovered the liquid crystalline nature of cholesterol extracted from carrots (that is, two melting points and generation of colors) and published his findings. In 1904, Otto Lehmann published his work "Flüssige Kristalle" (Liquid Crystals). In 1911, Charles Mauguin first experimented with liquid crystals confined between plates in thin layers. In 1922, Georges Friedel described
6726-579: The Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM lens mounted on a Nikon D800 has the highest measured P-MPix. However, with a value of 23 MP, it still wipes off more than one-third of the D800's 36.3 MP sensor. In August 2019, Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 8 Pro as the world's first smartphone with 64 MP camera. On December 12, 2019 Samsung released Samsung A71 that also has a 64 MP camera. In late 2019, Xiaomi announced
6844-710: The Wayback Machine ) with Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt (then working for the Central Research Laboratories) listed as inventors. Hoffmann-La Roche licensed the invention to Swiss manufacturer Brown, Boveri & Cie , its joint venture partner at that time, which produced TN displays for wristwatches and other applications during the 1970s for the international markets including the Japanese electronics industry, which soon produced
6962-502: The "Alt & Pleshko" drive scheme). Driving such STN displays according to the Alt & Pleshko drive scheme require very high line addressing voltages. Welzen and de Vaan invented an alternative drive scheme (a non "Alt & Pleshko" drive scheme) requiring much lower voltages, such that the STN display could be driven using low voltage CMOS technologies. White-on-blue LCDs are STN and can use
7080-410: The "anchor" to which all other absolute measurements (e.g. the "centimeter") are based on. Worked example, with a 30-inch (76 cm) 2160p TV placed 56 inches (140 cm) away from the viewer: A browser will then choose to use the 1.721× pixel size, or round to a 2× ratio. A megapixel ( MP ) is a million pixels; the term is used not only for the number of pixels in an image but also to express
7198-436: The "total" pixel count. The number of pixels is sometimes quoted as the "resolution" of a photo. This measure of resolution can be calculated by multiplying the width and height of a sensor in pixels. Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, either charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, consisting of a large number of single sensor elements, each of which records
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#17327869507217316-485: The CRT-based sets, leading to a worldwide energy saving of 600 TWh (2017), equal to 10% of the electricity consumption of all households worldwide or equal to 2 times the energy production of all solar cells in the world. A standard television receiver screen, a modern LCD panel, has over six million pixels, and they are all individually powered by a wire network embedded in the screen. The fine wires, or pathways, form
7434-463: The Dutch Philips company, called Videlec. Philips had the required know-how to design and build integrated circuits for the control of large LCD panels. In addition, Philips had better access to markets for electronic components and intended to use LCDs in new product generations of hi-fi, video equipment and telephones. In 1984, Philips researchers Theodorus Welzen and Adrianus de Vaan invented
7552-409: The LC layer. Each pixel has its own dedicated transistor , allowing each column line to access one pixel. When a row line is selected, all of the column lines are connected to a row of pixels and voltages corresponding to the picture information are driven onto all of the column lines. The row line is then deactivated and the next row line is selected. All of the row lines are selected in sequence during
7670-539: The LCD industry. These six companies were fined 1.3 billion dollars by the United States, 650 million Euro by the European Union, and 350 million RMB by China's National Development and Reform Commission . In 2007 the image quality of LCD televisions surpassed the image quality of cathode-ray-tube-based (CRT) TVs. In the fourth quarter of 2007, LCD televisions surpassed CRT TVs in worldwide sales for
7788-470: The Nelsonic brand that it was even able to license its own original games (such as the Nelsonic version of the public-domain blackjack which was licensed to Caesars Palace ). As time progressed, Nelsonic experimented with higher-end products such as metal watches and increasingly complex game-watch designs. In 1990 the watch-making giant, M.Z. Berger, made a large bid and was able to successfully purchase
7906-622: The Nelsonic mark is still in use for traditional watches and is not used in connection with game-watches. It is still a subsidiary of M.Z. Berger and as recently as 2007 it was listed by the AAFES as garnering over $ 1.9 million in sales. Below is a list of units sold by Nelsonic as part of their Game Watch line. Also included are game-watches sold under the term "Wrist Game" (e.g. Ghost Busters ), "Action Watch Game" (e.g. Barbie ), and "Gamewatch Boy" (e.g. Super Mario Race ). XGP Liquid crystal display A liquid-crystal display ( LCD )
8024-753: The Videlec AG company based in Switzerland. Afterwards, Philips moved the Videlec production lines to the Netherlands. Years later, Philips successfully produced and marketed complete modules (consisting of the LCD screen, microphone, speakers etc.) in high-volume production for the booming mobile phone industry. The first color LCD televisions were developed as handheld televisions in Japan. In 1980, Hattori Seiko 's R&D group began development on color LCD pocket televisions. In 1982, Seiko Epson released
8142-401: The addressing method of these bistable displays is rather complex, a reason why these displays did not make it to the market. That changed when in the 2010 "zero-power" (bistable) LCDs became available. Potentially, passive-matrix addressing can be used with devices if their write/erase characteristics are suitable, which was the case for ebooks which need to show still pictures only. After a page
8260-678: The allocation of the primary colors (green has twice as many elements as red or blue in the Bayer arrangement). DxO Labs invented the Perceptual MegaPixel (P-MPix) to measure the sharpness that a camera produces when paired to a particular lens – as opposed to the MP a manufacturer states for a camera product, which is based only on the camera's sensor. The new P-MPix claims to be a more accurate and relevant value for photographers to consider when weighing up camera sharpness. As of mid-2013,
8378-433: The animation process since the early 1950s; various animators, including Norman McLaren and Grant Munro , are credited with popularizing it. A pixel is generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image . However, the definition is highly context-sensitive. For example, there can be " printed pixels " in a page, or pixels carried by electronic signals, or represented by digital values, or pixels on
8496-407: The applied voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in the center of the layer are almost completely untwisted and the polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized perpendicular to the second filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel will appear black. By controlling the voltage applied across
8614-410: The backlight becomes red, and it turns OFF when the backlight becomes green. To make a segment appear black, the segment is always turned ON. An FSC LCD divides a color image into 3 images (one Red, one Green and one Blue) and it displays them in order. Due to persistence of vision , the 3 monochromatic images appear as one color image. An FSC LCD needs an LCD panel with a refresh rate of 180 Hz, and
8732-529: The basic addressable elements in a viewpoint of hardware, and hence pixel circuits rather than subpixel circuits is used. Most digital camera image sensors use single-color sensor regions, for example using the Bayer filter pattern, and in the camera industry these are known as pixels just like in the display industry, not subpixels . For systems with subpixels, two different approaches can be taken: This latter approach, referred to as subpixel rendering , uses knowledge of pixel geometry to manipulate
8850-622: The benefit of a steady electrical charge. As the number of pixels (and, correspondingly, columns and rows) increases, this type of display becomes less feasible. Slow response times and poor contrast are typical of passive-matrix addressed LCDs with too many pixels and driven according to the "Alt & Pleshko" drive scheme. Welzen and de Vaan also invented a non RMS drive scheme enabling to drive STN displays with video rates and enabling to show smooth moving video images on an STN display. Citizen, among others, licensed these patents and successfully introduced several STN based LCD pocket televisions on
8968-408: The black matrix material. Another color-generation method used in early color PDAs and some calculators was done by varying the voltage in a Super-twisted nematic LCD, where the variable twist between tighter-spaced plates causes a varying double refraction birefringence , thus changing the hue. They were typically restricted to 3 colors per pixel: orange, green, and blue. The optical effect of
9086-643: The company. For a period of nearly a decade after this acquisition, M.Z. Berger continued to use Nelsonic as a subsidiary branch and to employ the Nelsonic mark in the release of game-watches and the production of new re-releases of popular models from the 1980s and early 1990s. By the end of the 1990s, however, public interest had waned (quite possibly due to the rise in popularity of more advanced handheld video game consoles and, eventually, of other portable computing devices, such as PDAs and smartphones ) and this practice came to an end as M.Z. Berger shifted markets to target higher end consumers more exclusively. Today
9204-703: The complex history of liquid-crystal displays from the perspective of an insider during the early days were described by Joseph A. Castellano in Liquid Gold: The Story of Liquid Crystal Displays and the Creation of an Industry . Another report on the origins and history of LCD from a different perspective until 1991 has been published by Hiroshi Kawamoto, available at the IEEE History Center. A description of Swiss contributions to LCD developments, written by Peter J. Wild , can be found at
9322-521: The depth is normally the sum of the bits allocated to each of the red, green, and blue components. Highcolor , usually meaning 16 bpp, normally has five bits for red and blue each, and six bits for green, as the human eye is more sensitive to errors in green than in the other two primary colors. For applications involving transparency, the 16 bits may be divided into five bits each of red, green, and blue, with one bit left for transparency. A 24-bit depth allows 8 bits per component. On some systems, 32-bit depth
9440-457: The dominant LCD designs through 2006. In the late 1990s, the LCD industry began shifting away from Japan, towards South Korea and Taiwan , and later on towards China. In this period, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Korean manufacturers were the dominant firms in LCD manufacturing. From 2001 to 2006, Samsung and five other major companies held 53 meetings in Taiwan and South Korea to fix prices in
9558-412: The driving circuitry from the borders of the display to in between the pixels, allowing for narrow bezels. In 2016, Panasonic developed IPS LCDs with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, rivaling OLEDs. This technology was later put into mass production as dual layer, dual panel or LMCL (Light Modulating Cell Layer) LCDs. The technology uses 2 liquid crystal layers instead of one, and may be used along with
9676-413: The dynamic range of the display system (also marketed as HDR , high dynamic range television or FLAD , full-area local area dimming ). The LCD backlight systems are made highly efficient by applying optical films such as prismatic structure (prism sheet) to gain the light into the desired viewer directions and reflective polarizing films that recycle the polarized light that was formerly absorbed by
9794-480: The final image. These sensor elements are often called "pixels", even though they only record one channel (only red or green or blue) of the final color image. Thus, two of the three color channels for each sensor must be interpolated and a so-called N-megapixel camera that produces an N-megapixel image provides only one-third of the information that an image of the same size could get from a scanner. Thus, certain color contrasts may look fuzzier than others, depending on
9912-596: The first LCD television, the Epson TV Watch, a wristwatch equipped with a small active-matrix LCD television. Sharp Corporation introduced dot matrix TN-LCD in 1983. In 1984, Epson released the ET-10, the first full-color, pocket LCD television. The same year, Citizen Watch , introduced the Citizen Pocket TV, a 2.7-inch color LCD TV, with the first commercial TFT LCD . In 1988, Sharp demonstrated
10030-452: The first camera phone with 108 MP 1/1.33-inch across sensor. The sensor is larger than most of bridge camera with 1/2.3-inch across sensor. One new method to add megapixels has been introduced in a Micro Four Thirds System camera, which only uses a 16 MP sensor but can produce a 64 MP RAW (40 MP JPEG) image by making two exposures, shifting the sensor by a half pixel between them. Using a tripod to take level multi-shots within an instance,
10148-459: The first digital quartz wristwatches with TN-LCDs and numerous other products. James Fergason , while working with Sardari Arora and Alfred Saupe at Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute , filed an identical patent in the United States on April 22, 1971. In 1971, the company of Fergason, ILIXCO (now LXD Incorporated ), produced LCDs based on the TN-effect, which soon superseded
10266-511: The first flat active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AM LCD) in 1974, and then Brody coined the term "active matrix" in 1975. In 1972 North American Rockwell Microelectronics Corp introduced the use of DSM LCDs for calculators for marketing by Lloyds Electronics Inc, though these required an internal light source for illumination. Sharp Corporation followed with DSM LCDs for pocket-sized calculators in 1973 and then mass-produced TN LCDs for watches in 1975. Other Japanese companies soon took
10384-413: The first major English language publication Molecular Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals was published by Dr. George W. Gray . In 1962, Richard Williams of RCA found that liquid crystals had some interesting electro-optic characteristics and he realized an electro-optical effect by generating stripe patterns in a thin layer of liquid crystal material by the application of a voltage. This effect
10502-409: The first polarizer of the LCD (invented by Philips researchers Adrianus de Vaan and Paulus Schaareman), generally achieved using so called DBEF films manufactured and supplied by 3M. Improved versions of the prism sheet have a wavy rather than a prismatic structure, and introduce waves laterally into the structure of the sheet while also varying the height of the waves, directing even more light towards
10620-476: The first time. LCD TVs were projected to account 50% of the 200 million TVs to be shipped globally in 2006, according to Displaybank . In October 2011, Toshiba announced 2560 × 1600 pixels on a 6.1-inch (155 mm) LCD panel, suitable for use in a tablet computer , especially for Chinese character display. The 2010s also saw the wide adoption of TGP (Tracking Gate-line in Pixel), which moves
10738-427: The formula is often quoted as s = 206 p / f . The number of distinct colors that can be represented by a pixel depends on the number of bits per pixel (bpp). A 1 bpp image uses 1 bit for each pixel, so each pixel can be either on or off. Each additional bit doubles the number of colors available, so a 2 bpp image can have 4 colors, and a 3 bpp image can have 8 colors: For color depths of 15 or more bits per pixel,
10856-478: The inventors worked, assigns these patents to Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, a supplier of LC substances. In 1992, shortly thereafter, engineers at Hitachi work out various practical details of the IPS technology to interconnect the thin-film transistor array as a matrix and to avoid undesirable stray fields in between pixels. The first wall-mountable LCD TV was introduced by Sharp Corporation in 1992. Hitachi also improved
10974-587: The late 1960s, pioneering work on liquid crystals was undertaken by the UK's Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern , England. The team at RRE supported ongoing work by George William Gray and his team at the University of Hull who ultimately discovered the cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals, which had correct stability and temperature properties for application in LCDs. The idea of a TFT -based liquid-crystal display (LCD)
11092-705: The light of the backlight uniformly, while a mirror is placed behind the light guide plate to direct all light forwards. The prism sheet with its diffuser sheets are placed on top of the light guide plate. The DBEF polarizers consist of a large stack of uniaxial oriented birefringent films that reflect the former absorbed polarization mode of the light. DBEF polarizers using uniaxial oriented polymerized liquid crystals (birefringent polymers or birefringent glue) were invented in 1989 by Philips researchers Dirk Broer, Adrianus de Vaan and Joerg Brambring. The combination of such reflective polarizers, and LED dynamic backlight control make today's LCD televisions far more efficient than
11210-451: The liquid crystal layer in each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying amounts thus constituting different levels of gray. The chemical formula of the liquid crystals used in LCDs may vary. Formulas may be patented. An example is a mixture of 2-(4-alkoxyphenyl)-5-alkylpyrimidine with cyanobiphenyl, patented by Merck and Sharp Corporation . The patent that covered that specific mixture has expired. Most color LCD systems use
11328-468: The market. Bistable LCDs do not require continuous refreshing. Rewriting is only required for picture information changes. In 1984 HA van Sprang and AJSM de Vaan invented an STN type display that could be operated in a bistable mode, enabling extremely high resolution images up to 4000 lines or more using only low voltages. Since a pixel may be either in an on-state or in an off state at the moment new information needs to be written to that particular pixel,
11446-401: The number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays . For example, a camera that makes a 2048 × 1536 pixel image (3,145,728 finished image pixels) typically uses a few extra rows and columns of sensor elements and is commonly said to have "3.2 megapixels" or "3.4 megapixels", depending on whether the number reported is the "effective" or
11564-462: The original. The intensity of each pixel is variable. In color imaging systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue , or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black . In some contexts (such as descriptions of camera sensors ), pixel refers to a single scalar element of a multi-component representation (called a photosite in the camera sensor context, although sensel ' sensor element '
11682-429: The original. The number of pixels in an image is sometimes called the resolution, though resolution has a more specific definition. Pixel counts can be expressed as a single number, as in a "three-megapixel" digital camera, which has a nominal three million pixels, or as a pair of numbers, as in a "640 by 480 display", which has 640 pixels from side to side and 480 from top to bottom (as in a VGA display) and therefore has
11800-476: The poor-quality DSM types due to improvements of lower operating voltages and lower power consumption. Tetsuro Hama and Izuhiko Nishimura of Seiko received a US patent dated February 1971, for an electronic wristwatch incorporating a TN-LCD. In 1972, the first wristwatch with TN-LCD was launched on the market: The Gruen Teletime which was a four digit display watch. In 1972, the concept of the active-matrix thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid-crystal display panel
11918-561: The prototypes developed by a Westinghouse team in 1972 were patented in 1976 by a team at Sharp consisting of Fumiaki Funada, Masataka Matsuura, and Tomio Wada, then improved in 1977 by a Sharp team consisting of Kohei Kishi, Hirosaku Nonomura, Keiichiro Shimizu, and Tomio Wada. However, these TFT-LCDs were not yet ready for use in products, as problems with the materials for the TFTs were not yet solved. In 1983, researchers at Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) Research Center, Switzerland , invented
12036-456: The quantum dots can have a special structure to improve their application onto the color filter. Quantum dot color filters offer superior light transmission over quantum dot enhancement films. In the 2020s, China became the largest manufacturer of LCDs and Chinese firms had a 40% share of the global market. Chinese firms that developed into world industry leaders included BOE Technology , TCL-CSOT, TIANMA, and Visionox. Local governments had
12154-535: The response time is reduced to just 5 milliseconds when compared with normal STN LCD panels which have a response time of 16 milliseconds. FSC LCDs contain a Chip-On-Glass driver IC can also be used with a capacitive touchscreen. This technique can also be applied in displays meant to show images, as it can offer higher light transmission and thus potential for reduced power consumption in the backlight due to omission of color filters in LCDs. Samsung introduced UFB (Ultra Fine & Bright) displays back in 2002, utilized
12272-508: The same technique, with color filters used to generate red, green, and blue subpixels. The LCD color filters are made with a photolithography process on large glass sheets that are later glued with other glass sheets containing a thin-film transistor (TFT) array, spacers and liquid crystal, creating several color LCDs that are then cut from one another and laminated with polarizer sheets. Red, green, blue and black colored photoresists (resists) are used to create color filters. All resists contain
12390-413: The screen and reducing aliasing or moiré between the structure of the prism sheet and the subpixels of the LCD. A wavy structure is easier to mass-produce than a prismatic one using conventional diamond machine tools, which are used to make the rollers used to imprint the wavy structure into plastic sheets, thus producing prism sheets. A diffuser sheet is placed on both sides of the prism sheet to distribute
12508-574: The structure and properties of liquid crystals and classified them in three types (nematics, smectics and cholesterics). In 1927, Vsevolod Frederiks devised the electrically switched light valve, called the Fréedericksz transition , the essential effect of all LCD technology. In 1936, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph company patented the first practical application of the technology, "The Liquid Crystal Light Valve" . In 1962,
12626-524: The super-birefringent effect. It has the luminance, color gamut, and most of the contrast of a TFT-LCD, but only consumes as much power as an STN display, according to Samsung. It was being used in a variety of Samsung cellular-telephone models produced until late 2006, when Samsung stopped producing UFB displays. UFB displays were also used in certain models of LG mobile phones. Twisted nematic displays contain liquid crystals that twist and untwist at varying degrees to allow light to pass through. When no voltage
12744-400: The switching of colors by field-induced realignment of dichroic dyes in a homeotropically oriented liquid crystal. Practical problems with this new electro-optical effect made Heilmeier continue to work on scattering effects in liquid crystals and finally the achievement of the first operational liquid-crystal display based on what he called the dynamic scattering mode (DSM). Application of
12862-497: The theme of the calculator watch , and the patent covering the Game Watch line is in fact classified as an "electronic calculator watch structure." The company's first game watch was called Space Attacker. Becoming the first electronics manufacturer in the United States to produce game-watches, Nelsonic earned a large share in this specialized market and was able to earn the attention of large video game companies at events such as
12980-453: The three colored subpixels separately, producing an increase in the apparent resolution of color displays. While CRT displays use red-green-blue-masked phosphor areas, dictated by a mesh grid called the shadow mask, it would require a difficult calibration step to be aligned with the displayed pixel raster, and so CRTs do not use subpixel rendering. The concept of subpixels is related to samples . In graphic, web design, and user interfaces,
13098-625: The various matrix addressing schemes see passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs . LCDs are manufactured in cleanrooms borrowing techniques from semiconductor manufacturing and using large sheets of glass whose size has increased over time. Several displays are manufactured at the same time, and then cut from the sheet of glass, also known as the mother glass or LCD glass substrate. The increase in size allows more displays or larger displays to be made, just like with increasing wafer sizes in semiconductor manufacturing. The glass sizes are as follows: Until Gen 8, manufacturers would not agree on
13216-499: The viewing angle dependence further by optimizing the shape of the electrodes ( Super IPS ). NEC and Hitachi become early manufacturers of active-matrix addressed LCDs based on the IPS technology. This is a milestone for implementing large-screen LCDs having acceptable visual performance for flat-panel computer monitors and television screens. In 1996, Samsung developed the optical patterning technique that enables multi-domain LCD. Multi-domain and In Plane Switching subsequently remain
13334-673: The word pictures , in reference to movies. By 1938, "pix" was being used in reference to still pictures by photojournalists. The word "pixel" was first published in 1965 by Frederic C. Billingsley of JPL , to describe the picture elements of scanned images from space probes to the Moon and Mars. Billingsley had learned the word from Keith E. McFarland, at the Link Division of General Precision in Palo Alto , who in turn said he did not know where it originated. McFarland said simply it
13452-717: Was "in use at the time" ( c. 1963 ). The concept of a "picture element" dates to the earliest days of television, for example as " Bildpunkt " (the German word for pixel , literally 'picture point') in the 1888 German patent of Paul Nipkow . According to various etymologies, the earliest publication of the term picture element itself was in Wireless World magazine in 1927, though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911. Some authors explain pixel as picture cell, as early as 1972. In graphics and in image and video processing, pel
13570-441: Was conceived by Bernard Lechner of RCA Laboratories in 1968. Lechner, F.J. Marlowe, E.O. Nester and J. Tults demonstrated the concept in 1968 with an 18x2 matrix dynamic scattering mode (DSM) LCD that used standard discrete MOSFETs . On December 4, 1970, the twisted nematic field effect (TN) in liquid crystals was filed for patent by Hoffmann-LaRoche in Switzerland, ( Swiss patent No. 532 261 Archived March 9, 2021, at
13688-489: Was previously possible, necessitating the use of large measurements like the megapixel (one million pixels). The word pixel is a combination of pix (from "pictures", shortened to "pics") and el (for " element "); similar formations with ' el' include the words voxel ' volume pixel ' , and texel ' texture pixel ' . The word pix appeared in Variety magazine headlines in 1932, as an abbreviation for
13806-510: Was prototyped in the United States by T. Peter Brody 's team at Westinghouse , in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . In 1973, Brody, J. A. Asars and G. D. Dixon at Westinghouse Research Laboratories demonstrated the first thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD). As of 2013 , all modern high-resolution and high-quality electronic visual display devices use TFT-based active matrix displays. Brody and Fang-Chen Luo demonstrated
13924-557: Was to use interdigital electrodes on one glass substrate only to produce an electric field essentially parallel to the glass substrates. To take full advantage of the properties of this In Plane Switching (IPS) technology further work was needed. After thorough analysis, details of advantageous embodiments are filed in Germany by Guenter Baur et al. and patented in various countries. The Fraunhofer Institute ISE in Freiburg, where
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