We’ve been seeing a lot of
e-ink passing through here lately, especially noteworthy was href="http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=e-ink">Citizen’s recent e-ink LCD. But we have a feeling it’s going to be a
little while before anyone tops Fujitsu‘s bezel-tastic QVGA
color LCD e-ink display, which holds color images steady in perpetuity without power. It’s hard to tell how good the
color representation is, what with that blaring flash, but the applications of color e-ink are enormous, especially as
the displays get larger (and smaller) — and Fujitsu does claim to have sheet paper-size prototypes.

Mitsubishi's got some new heads in Japan today. More or less run of the mill 4:3 aspect ratio heads, but the four Diamondcrysta 17-inch (RDT1713S, RDT1713V) and 19-inchers (RDT197S, RDT197V) do have an impressive pixel response as fast as 2ms, 300 and 400cd/m2 brightness (depending on the model), 1000:1 contrast ratio, and DVI. No stated price or intention to export, but when it comes to monitors like these, you've already got plenty of options on the market.

[Via Impress]

Citizen has developed something it's calling the "memory liquid crystal," a new passive matrix LCD that can retain an image even when powered off. According to Citizen, the display's inorganic membrane, combined with an angled orientation, keeps the crystals frozen in position without power having to be maintained. The five-volt, non-backlit display isn't going to take the place of your LCD TV anytime soon, but is planned for use in point-of-sale applications, watches and cellphone auxiliary displays.

We love 3D, who doesn't? We'll stop at nothing to get that third dimension, you know? We put up with anaglyphs, crazy glasses, polarized glass, but ColorLink's ColorComb eyepieces (yeah yeah yeah) have an angle on the Z-axis we've never seen taken before (no no no). Their new stereoscopic 3D headgear uses those already-on-the-market six-color LED backlit LCDs to simulate 3D, and can also be used like Sharp's dual-angled screens to enforce privacy or display multiple virtual-optical screens. They also had a 17-inch SXGA 3D monitor they announced, but we aren't yet clear whether that uses the same backlit LED panels necessary for taking advantage of their ColorComb. We know, we know, wearable 3D anything will never be the same as the taunting help me Obi Wan we've been chasing for nearly 30 years, but for now we'll takes what we can gets.

[Via Let's Go Digital]

We're a little confused, since yesterday the word was that Samsung had teamed up with Iljin Display for packing a projector into their phones, but we guess they need to have their bases covered. Samsung has just been granted a patent they submitted in 2004 for a virtual input interface, a bit similar to that virtual keyboard from iTech. It involves a phone-based projector, an "electronic pen," a "position detector" and some handwriting recognition stuff. Yeah, we know, real technical stuff, but it sounds like yet another vain attempt to create a better way to input text and other info into a mobile phone. Can't fault them for trying, but let's hope the mind-reading efforts are well under way.

[Via Unwired View]

Although we're pretty sure that many of you wouldn't agree with Newnham Research CEO Michael Ledzion's assertion that "connecting a graphics card to a PC is hard, and expensive," you might still be interested in his company's technology for connecting multiple displays to a PC through a standard USB connection, which will debut in a Kensington laptop dock in June. The Cambridge, England-based startup is able to achieve this rather amazing feat through a hardware rendering engine call NIVO, which can either be built directly into a monitor or incorporated into other peripherals, and which uses proprietary compression algorithms to deliver video up to 1280 x 1024 at 75Hz. As you could probably guess, this technology isn't designed for gaming -- the company suggests using it to display "largely static images" -- although it's supposedly capable of HD playback, which is something we'd definitely like to see firsthand.

[Via Extreme Tech]

If you're looking for a way to consolidate your messages without having to sit in front of a computer or pick up a phone, this prototype messaging system from Korea might do the trick. It apparently displays text, voice and video messages on a wall, and includes smart cards that can be used to send canned responses. Of course, it's probably part of some "smart home of the future" demo, which means it'll never be produced in Korea or anywhere else.

We're used to a lot of companies calling their products the world's largest, smallest, first or most expensive, and most of the time, we're able to deflate the hype at least a little. But in the case of the newly unveiled display at Miami's Dolphin Stadium, we may just have to hand it to them: the 720p display is a whopping 137 feet wide by 50 feet across, making its diagonal dimensions 1,750 inches. So, when stadium officials boast that it's the world's largest HD display, we really don't think we can argue with them (though we do take issue with their removal of the "s" -- but that's another story). Sort of makes those 103-inchers we were just drooling over seem kind of tiny. Then again, we're not quite sure where we could put a 1,750-incher if we actually had a chance to get one for ourselves, so a 103 will do us just fine, thanks.

Looks like Mitsubishi has been pretty busy lately, since they've just announced eleven new LCD and DLP HDTVs, with all but two of them sporting 1080p resolutions. The crowd of displays is headlined by a pair of 73-inch DLP sets, which both feature a host of marketing speak from Mitsubishi like Tru1080p (don't worry, it's 1080p for reals), TurboLight 180 (which claims to boost brightness by 10%), and the fairly meaningless NetCommand and ClearThought which manage connectivity. The WD-73732 and WD-73831 both include dual HDMI inputs, along with a FireWire port, CableCARD slot, and multi-format card readers. Rounding out the DLP displays are 52, 57 and 65-inch 1080p displays, which feature a new 6-Primary Color System that mixes cyan, magenta and yellow in with the usual RGB in order to create a supposedly brighter and more color accurate picture. Mitsubishi has some love for their LCD line as well, with two 37-inch (LT-37131 and LT-37132) and two 46-inch 1080p displays (LT-46131 and LT-46231), featuring similar connectivity to the DLP line but replacing CableCARD with DVI-I. Finally, we have the 52-inch and 62-inch 1280 x 720p LCDs, the WD-52531 and WD-62531, which claim 20 percent more brightness than last year's models, along with dual HDMI ports and Push720p tech to take care of analog and 1080i signals. Until we get a good pic of these, we're picturing Mitsubishi's laz0r projection set that they still have in the works. No word on pricing or availability for any of the models.

It might not seem very cutting edge to get a "new" display from LG a year and a half after its Korean debut, but we suppose we should be used to it by now. LG is just now releasing their 71-inch, 1080p MW-71PY10 plasma display in the states, which features a 1200:1 contrast ratio, along with plenty of HDMI, DVI, and component inputs. To celebrate the launch, LG hosted red carpet events at Ken Cranes Home Entertainment in LA and Sixth Avenue Electronics a bit north of NYC. With celebrity guests like Stacy Keibler (of "Dancing with the Stars"), it sounded a bit too high falutin for our taste. But so does the 71-inch display, which rings up at an incredibly hefty $28k. Now where did we put that credit card...

[Via New Launches]

Today's oddly named gadget from Japan is brought to you by the letter "o" and his drunken twin, the number zero. Actually, we can't really explain to you the thought that went into the "Wooo9000" moniker for Hitachi's new display lineup, but we can give you a rundown on specs while we wait for the other signs of the apocalypse to come. The line includes four plasma displays at 37 and 42-inches, half with a built-in HDD and half without, all of which claim to be "1080" displays. We're guessing 1080 refers to 1080i support, but the specs aren't clear. The 37-inch HDD version includes a 250GB drive, while the 42-incher goes for 500GB. In the LCD end there are two 32-inch displays, each at a 1366 x 768 resolution, with one sporting a 250GB HDD. There's no word when these displays will be available, or at what cost, but we can only hope they're worthy of the prestigious Wooo legacy.

align="right" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/palmtxbandw.jpg" alt="" />Could your next Treo sport
a black-and-white screen? Well, of course not all the time, but MobileRead has dug up a patent filed by the PDA and
smartphone manufacturer that would throttle a device’s screen down from Palm IIIc-style backlit color to Palm V-style
monochrome when battery power drops below a certain threshold. While the idea doesn’t seem all that innovative, Palm’s
"unique" take on this switcheroo would have the device prompt users to drop the color, and then automagically
reinstate it when some of that sweet, sweet juice was added. It’s great to see that Palm is trying to squeeze every last
drop out of their products — the screen switch could alleviate power consumption by as much as 75% — but we’d prefer
them to focus that zeal on other areas, like, say, allowing our Treos to actually make a phone call when the battery is
still 25% full.

The
new 2007WFP 20-incher from Dell has
already made it to Dell’s support site, so the specs are nothing new, but the display is now for sale in their online
store, just in case mere availability was all that was holding back. The 1680 x 1050 widescreen LCD display goes for a
fairly reasonable $529, and still has that 800:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness, and 16ms response time we
mentioned last time.

[Thanks, Ehsan]

Looks like Fraunhofer's researchers aren't the only Germans able to get in on the transparent OLED thing. It appears some researchers at the Technical University of Braunschweig are claiming to have developed a technique for embedding OLED pixels on layers of transparent TFTs, creating see-through displays that could be manufactured cheaply with flexible plastics capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. Apparently the transparent displays, which were up to (and over) twice the brightness of today's displays, should be ready to rock in two years -- just in time for us to renovate the Department Of Precrime set we use act out Minority Report in during our lunch hour. Is it now?