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Upcoming Flexible Displays Roll Out the Power of Touch

August 27th, 2009

In the “coming soon” category of “gee-whiz” devices, few things create as much buzz or excitement as flexible, touch-sensitive displays that mimic the traits of paper. Corporate and university research teams have already developed working units that are leading to even further advances that consumers will see in new generations of portable devices.

E Ink of Cambridge, MA, is already supplying displays for the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader that are readable in direct sunlight and consume much less power than the plasma screens or LCD panels that CRE rents. Of course, they are much smaller and are in a different market segment than these. The company’s design has a layer of “microcapsules” loaded with black and white particles smaller than one micrometer, thus creating a low-power but high-reflectivity screen.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to have displays that are flexible and touch-sensitive. Rumors suggest that the first such electronic paper products will launch sometime in late 2009 or early 2010 with roll-out displays using E Ink’s technology and produced by a Dutch firm. Still, the developers at E Ink and other firms have to overcome a number of challenges to add touch sensing to these kinds of screens. The methods used in existing touch screens require a rigid surface, such as seen on tablet PCs and high-end smartphones. There are two major technologies at work here, resistive touch and capacitive touch.

The Nintendo DS game console uses the former technology, resistive touch, which relies on two separate “conducting layers” being forced together at specific touch points. If these layers were to flex, there would a big problem with false inputs. Early on, researchers at the Flexible Display Center (FDC) of Arizona State University, co-developer of E Ink’s new display approach, realized the limitations of resistive technology as far as touch-sensitivity goes. The air gap between the layers has to be maintained, making flexibility problematic.

The capacitive touch screens used in Apple’s iPhone use transparent, conductive film manufactured from indium tin oxide (ITO). This is a superior technology that is used in the CyberTouch Orion LCD monitor that CRE rents. A brittle and ceramic-like material, ITO is wholly incapable of doing what roll-up, folding and flexing displays will require. Even touch screens using other technologies, ones that detect light changes or screen vibrations, are not up to this futuristic task, since those types of signals can become distorted.

The answer? For now, it appears to be something called “inductive touch-screen technology,” although there are still some challenges to overcome. This technology requires the use of a magnetized stylus to create “fields” on a sensing layer in the rear portion of the display. The problem is that most flexible displays use stainless-steel backplanes to allow flexibility while retaining the rigidity needed to prevent damage, and those backplanes interfere with the electromagnetic fields at the heart of the inductive touch technology.

The FDC team has proposed an alternative material for the backplane, a thin-film DuPont plastic called polyethylene napthalate (PEN). Already used by thin-film transistor manufacturers, it would provide sufficient support for a display while letting the inductive touch layers work. This approach should not degrade the image quality since the sensing will be accomplished behind the display, an essential consideration as E Ink technology uses ambient light reflection instead of energy-eating backlights.

Flexible Displays Prototypes are currently going through rigorous testing and military applications will likely be the first for these new displays. The tough battlefield scenarios where such portable displays would be deployed require that the screens do not shatter, meaning the glass backplanes in touch- and non-touch-sensitive consumer monitors like the Apple Cinema Displays are completely out of the question. Once the military gets their lightweight displays that are both rugged and low-powered, the rest of us will start seeing the real fruits of this amazing research, with capabilities and sensitivity far beyond the first consumer products trickling into the marketplace.

Hollywood Early Adopters Push the Digital Envelope

August 25th, 2009

Just about everyone except government bureaucrats has learned that decentralizing operations, facing stiff competition and staying up to speed with new technology makes you more efficient. Being more efficient in business, of course, leads to profitability, which translates to “staying in business.” CRE stays in business, of course, by helping other people get their own business done faster and better. Whether it’s setting you up with a Mackie 16 Channel mixer for your annual meeting, or producing that entire corporate event for you, we’re here with solutions.

Hollywood, being a pretty cutthroat business environment, is always seeking the better, faster, more efficient and effective solutions. In fact, the town is a veritable living laboratory of experimentation and progress. From the biggest board rooms to the lowest-rent lofts, the entertainment industry is full of technology early adopters, “idea people” and non-stop dreamers leveraging the newest tech to make the latest Shrek. Plenty of production pros rent Kona-card video-editing workstations from CRE when they need some extra muscle for a big project, while marketing mavens use our Audience Response Systems for focus groups and film feedback.

Below you will meet three people who are in the Movie Biz Tech Vanguard, which we would consider abbreviating MBTV except that Monsignor Bonner TV, a club at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, PA, already has that acronym. Anyway, let’s meet a few members of the Hollywood tech elite.

Steven Soderbergh, Director

Since dropping out of college and making sex, lies and videotape, Steven Soderbergh has won awards while establishing himself as one of film’s frontline innovators. In 2005—eons ago in “tech time”—he shot Bubble, a murder mystery, on high-definition digital video and released it to theaters, TV and on DVD simultaneously. That wasn’t the only slap at standard industry practice, as he also eschewed professional actors and used locals from the Ohio-West Virginia border where the movie was made. Soderbergh is hooked up in myriad working relationships and supports tons of freelancers, who can rent the computers they need from CRE when he doubles their workloads with a single call.

Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group

No one used to think of the big, old-line film studios as being early adopters, but one studio has been out front in recognizing the huge upside of DVDs and other digital delights. It’s Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Pictures Logo Now that the DVD cash cow is drying up, Warner has chosen Kevin Tsujihara to lead it into the next Land of Milk and Money. Tsujihara was promoted in 2007 to head video on demand, wireless, online operations, games, antipiracy initiatives and other leading-edge matters. Now president of all home entertainment operations, Tsujihara is mixing it up big-time by using state-of-the-art in-house digital departments as well as small specialty firms like GroundZero FX.

Robert Rodriguez, Director

Hollywood has really taken to Robert Rodriguez’s “new movie math.” For his first film in 1993, El Mariachi, he took $7,000, added a digital camera and came up with a total of over two million bucks in box office. Since then, he has made Desperado, the Spy Kids trilogy and Sin City, as well as the two-part Grindhouse with his pal, Quentin Tarantino. His cumulative box office over about 16 years totals $600 million or so. A real digital dynamo, Robert Rodriguez Rodriguez lives in Austin, TX, relies on broadband to stay in touch with creative folks around the country (including “the suits” in Tinseltown) and has helped convince Tarantino, once a “celluloid purist,” of the wonders of digital technology. Rodriguez is a known Mac Pro user, and is rumored to be working on a prequel to Sin City, shooting all the characters against a blue screen and then creating the sets afterwards with his crew of digital magicians and a copy of Apple’s Final Cut Pro.

Besides these high-profile professionals, there are thousands of artists, writers, designers, animators and even accountants using digital technology to keep the movie biz humming. If you’re an entertainment industry pro, and you need some extra processing power for your latest gig, complete the quick one-click rental quote form from CRE, call us toll-free at (877) 266-7725 or send an e-mail for a quick, comprehensive response.

Summer Meets Fall At September Trade Shows

August 13th, 2009

ASIS International

ASIS International 55th Annual Seminar and Exhibits

More than 22,000 members of the global community of security management professionals are expected at the ASIS International 55th Annual Seminar and Exhibits (ASIS 2009). The event will be held September 21-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA and is widely acknowledged as the security industry’s most influential event.

ASIS 2009 brings together security, corporate, research and government professionals from 90+ nations, while a comprehensive educational program offers the chance to hone current skills and develop new ones at some 175 sessions. The exhibits area will feature over 281,000 sq. ft. of today’s (and tomorrow’s) security technology, best practices and innovations. Approximately 850 companies will be on hand, demonstrating both evolutionary and revolutionary products, practices and services.

If your firm will be on the ASIS 2009 exhibits floor, or leading a seminar session, a first-rate plasma screen rental from CRE will help you stand out from the crowd. You might consider multiplying the effectiveness of your convention staff by deploying a Friendlyway interactive touchscreen kiosk rental, nicely outfitted with your company colors, logo or other brand ID.

This year’s lineup of speakers is particularly impressive. Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor and Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration, will be a keynote speaker, along with actor, lawyer, author and cultural gadfly Ben Stein. Stein will speak on Tuesday, the 22nd, at 8 a.m., while Rice will impart her extraordinary insights in current global affairs during her keynote address on Wednesday, the 23rd, also at 8 a.m.

The first general session on the 24th will convene an illustrious panel of chief security officers from different industries, moderated by Steve Chupa, CPP, Johnson & Johnson corporate director of security. The panelists will proffer possible solutions to the age-old but still relevant question, “What keeps you awake at night?”

At the second general session, internationally renowned ethicist and consultant to government and the Fortune 500, Michael Josephson, will lead a lively discussion on the ethical and compliance-related issues now being addressed by security professionals. Later on the final day of ASIS 2009, political satirist and best-selling author P.J. O’Rourke, called “the funniest writer in America” by Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal, will bid the attendees farewell at the closing luncheon.

2009 Interbike International Bicycle Expo

Interbike, the leading bicycle industry “B2B” event management firm, once again brings together top retailers, manufacturers, media and industry advocates to the 2009 Interbike International Bicycle Expo. Three information-packed days of product demos, exhibits, meetings, seminars and celebrations—September 23-25—will take place at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. Interbike Expo has over 1,100 cycling-related brands and nearly 23,000 total attendees every year.

Interbike Expo, as the international “trade fair” for bicycles and bicycle components, will feature top manufacturers of mass-market products, OEM producers, custom builders and makers of specialized, top-quality brands. Attendees run the gamut from import/export firms, manufacturers and service providers to suppliers of bicycle parts and related components, other affiliated professionals and the general public.

If you have a booth at Interbike Expo, consider adding a plasma screen rental or high-definition LCD touchscreen monitor as a “virtual greeter.” It has the brains to offer true interactivity to your booth visitors, and the brawn to run flawless videos if you want to present product demos or other multimedia presentations. If you are one of several employees staffing your booth, you might want to rent a couple of laptops or tablet PCs from CRE to stay in touch with the built-in Wi-Fi and take notes—customer information, seminar topics, competitors’ product lines, etc.

Interbike Expo is strongly promoting its “early online registration” this year, as it saves both organizers and attendees time and money and guarantees access to the premier bicycle industry event of 2009. Retailers and distributors of finished, brand-name goods registering before August 19 will receive free Interbike Expo credentials by mail. Online registration is also available for exhibitors and media.

How Projectors Handle HD Content

August 11th, 2009

As a two-part article recently explained, there are still some important differences between “business” projectors and those intended for “home theater” use. However, some manufacturers are experimenting with product designs that join the best features of each type into a single device. Perhaps one of the last areas of divergence is the native (or “physical”) pixel count, which affects two very important specifications: (1) the resolution and (2) the aspect ratio.

Simply put, “resolution” is the number of pixels that are packed into the physical dimensions of a projected image or monitor, and “aspect ratio” is the relationship between width and height. A four-foot by three-foot image has an aspect ratio of 4:3, standard for TVs from their introduction until just a short time ago. Now, a projection screen at that ratio could display an image of 800 x 600 resolution, or there could be more pixels packed in for a higher resolution and sharper image in the same dimensions, like a pixel count of 1200 x 900. Both have the same 4:3 aspect ratio, both fit on the 48-inch by 36-inch screen, but the latter has the higher resolution. Of course, CRE rents various sizes of Fast Fold Da-Lite screens to fit all situations.

Wide, wide world

The standard SVGA (800 x 600) and XGA (1024 x 768) business projectors have a native, or built-in, aspect ratio of 4:3, as well, so the image corresponds to a standard computer screen or “regular” television. Widescreen content, such as DVDs and HDTV programming, has an aspect ratio of 16:9. The best way to handle the widescreen format is to use a projector with a native widescreen resolution, which today is more likely to be a home theater projector (although not for long). This is the only way you can avoid the image stretching, letterboxing, image cropping, or other aspect ratio adjustment techniques that make 16:9 content fit on a 4:3 screen.

Most of the basic business projectors are SVGA and are not up to the task of displaying HD images from your satellite, computer, cable tuner or other HD input. They simply do not have sufficient resolution to do the job right. The two primary HD resolution formats today are 720p and 1080i (1280 x 720 pixels and 1920 x 1080, respectively). An SVGA projector with its resolution of 800 x 600 pixels cannot display either of these formats without downscaling.

Working it out

Even DVD content, which at 852 x 480 has a lower resolution than HDTV, is a bit much for the entry-level SVGA projectors to do a good job. XGA, as its numbers indicate, has sufficient resolution to handle DVDs and can get quite close, needing only narrow top and bottom letterbox bands, to displaying 720p, as well. With just an XGA projector, screen and a laptop rental from CRE, you have a mobile presentation system that can handle a meeting or conference then head home for a DVD movie night with the family.

Widescreen projectors for home and business come in both WVGA and WXGA. Choosing a lower-cost WVGA (854 x 480) projector will save you some money and cover all the bases if you will be watching only DVD movies. For displaying HDTV content, a WXGA (1280 x 800) projector is required. This pixel array will enable you to display any and all HDTV content up to 720p with no rescaling. You will even be able to view 1080i or 1080p material on the more-capable WXGA projectors, but the projected image will need compression so that the 1920 x 1080 pixels in a 1080i or 1080p HDTV image can be scaled into the native pixel array of the WXGA projector.

Ask the experts

Remember, image resolution is only one of many important factors in assessing your projector. Color balance, brightness (lumens), edge-to-edge clarity and other specifications may be even more important at times. Business projectors are becoming more media-savvy all the time, just as business people are becoming as sophisticated as the audiophile and videophile consumers that have driven the advancements in home theater technology.

New business projectors will be debuting in the coming year from leading manufacturers, models that promise to bedazzle and amaze an audience of engineers or CEOs the way that home theater projectors wow the family with Harry Potter movies. Whether you contact one of our expert Account Executives now or later—by e-mail, phone or rental quote request—you will get state-of-the-art advice and equipment for your meeting, conference or presentation needs.

Tele-Immersion: Videoconferencing on Holographic Steroids

August 6th, 2009

Let’s take an imaginary look at the office of the future, perhaps even the near future. Forget picking up a phone. You will simply tell your computer, “Phone home,” and one of your office walls will flicker to life when your spouse, child or genetically engineered SmartDog answers. On their end they will enjoy the same, totally immersive experience. That’s “tele-immersion,” a Brave New World-ish technology that can bring two or more distant locations into one simulated setting. It could put a big dent in business travel, no question about it.

Even today, you can rent a nice plasma display from CRE, add some software to a sufficiently powerful computer, hook up your webcam and have a pretty impressive videoconference. Tele-immersion, however, is a new kind of communication that goes way beyond videoconferencing. If you’ve used a webcam for a videoconference then you know that it is far from a perfect form of communication, with hardware limitations, software glitches and network delays that can create “jerky” video. In addition, walking out of view of your single camera will cause you to disappear from the other person’s view.

In a tele-immersion scenario, not only can’t you disappear from view (unless you leave the room), the person you are speaking with can look around your office simply by viewing their display screen from various angles. It’s pretty much like looking through a window. The most advanced holographic environments will require computers many thousands of times faster and more powerful than even the Mac Pro “personal supercomputer” that CRE rents. This is why today’s systems are hugely expensive, build-to-order propositions, or installed at tele-immersive “studios” where you would book time for holding your teleconference.

Videoconferencing of the Future

Yet there are working systems online today. Cisco’s “On-Stage” TelePresence Experience captures holographic meetings for broadcast over IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision), so TVs or PCs with wireless or wired broadband connections can join in. Cisco says there are over 150 rooms, in almost 30 countries, now capable of high-definition videoconferencing. Today’s computer/Internet kiosks, like the Friendlyway Interactive rental available from CRE, will quite likely evolve into service platforms where customers can interact with real people, in real time.

Perhaps five years from now, telepresence will no longer be restricted to special locations or costly devices. Cisco engineers and tech pundits alike are predicting that homes, offices and hotels will be on the holographic conferencing bandwagon—they just can’t say exactly when. Another firm, however, thinks it is onto a better way already. DVE (Digital Video Enterprises) has designed its Tele-Immersive Room with industry standards that allow other, older videoconferencing systems to participate in the “DVE experience.”

DVE is assisting Christie Digital Systems with the integration of its technology into Christie’s Mirage HD3 units, among the most impressive projectors in the world. The Mirage HD3 leverages 1080p DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology to deliver an incredible 120 frames per second of lifelike, high-definition, flicker-free, active stereo imagery.

Before following the usual technology “trickle down” route to the enterprise level, 3D holographic teleconferencing will likely be used at large conventions, media events and conferences. After that—again, no one knows when or cares to predict with any specificity—the tele-immersive experience will come to the average person’s office or home. Your friends could walk into your living room, virtually speaking, and talk to you the same way that Princess Leia did with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. The possibilities of this futuristically realistic technology are limited only by the imagination, and there seems to be plenty of that still left in the world judging by what Cisco, DVE and others are doing.

Your PowerPoint PhD Curriculum Starts With Presentations 101

August 4th, 2009

Tips to Enhance Your Presentation For many professionals, making an effective presentation is a real challenge, and the many tools that have been developed to make presentations easier—particularly PowerPoint and its Mac counterpart, Keynote—haven’t solved the underlying problems. “Desktop publishing” programs didn’t create great newsletter designers in the 1980s, FrontPage didn’t birth great web developers in the 1990s and no razzmatazz software will make you a slick presenter now.

Still, you don’t have to burden your audiences with 94 slides filled with bullets, sub-bullets and big chunks of illegible text. Just learn some important basics about presentations in general and PowerPoint/Keynote in particular. You will soon stand out from the innumerable “presentation pros” who don’t give the slightest nod to basic layout, typography, color schemes or design fundamentals.

The presentation tips, tricks, techniques and tools are divided into three sections: (1) Planning & Preparation, (2) Layout & Copy and (3) In the Spotlight.

(1) Planning & Preparation

Get the right hardware for showing off your software. For a department meeting you may decide to rent a LCD monitor, giving you 40 inches of crisp, clear imagery that everyone in your office can see.
For a larger meeting or small conference session, CRE recommends a projector rental to clearly convey your message. You will need to consider lighting, line of sight and a few other aesthetic factors for maximum effectiveness.
For a large event you may need CRE’s comprehensive general session rentals package. Besides a projector and screen, you may need a sound system, cordless pointer and other technology (like the audience response system rentals for polling your audience) to ensure success. CRE’s experts can help you with equipment placement, lighting, seating arrangements and so forth.

(2) Layout & Copy

Your slides should all be based on a single “template.” You can find these online for free, design one yourself or modify one of the templates that came with your software.
Don’t overdo your slide template with unnecessary visual “bling.” Your template’s job is to frame your content, not distract from it. A solid, unobtrusive background with contrasting text and your company logo in the corner will probably do it. Use your template consistently, in this presentation and in the future.
Remember this math: 1 slide = 1 point. If you are making two key points at a certain point, then you need two slides. This may be a big change for you, but it is very important.
The title should be 36 points and on one line. Use 24 to 32 points for bullet lines. Keep it simple, too—don’t mix typefaces, colors, point sizes or bullet types.
Limit each slide to a maximum of six bullets, preferably fewer, and use a single line of copy per bullet. Eschew sub-bullets entirely, if possible.
Animation, whether Flash or something else, can be a nice touch, but “less is more” applies here in spades. Animation is cool, but often distracting, even irritating.
Mix up the graphics. Use a chart, then for the next graphic use an illustration, then a photo and so on. The audience needs a break from repetitive slides of bulleted text.
Keep your copywriting short, informative and free of “presentation clichés”. Avoid being verbose or repetitive. You want to seem knowledgeable and focused, not longwinded and vague.
Bullets are better as phrases than complete sentences (no matter what’s underlined in green by MS-Word’s grammar checker). Omit final periods and unnecessary words. Example: “We need to forecast the most likely wholesale and retail prices in the future” becomes “Forecast likely wholesale/retail prices.”

(3) In the Spotlight

You will do better if you know your audience. If you don’t, then you need to know something about them. The amount of technical detail you’d give to engineers would certainly exceed what you would share with marketing managers.
A first-rate cordless presenter, like the Logitech model that CRE rents, does triple duty as a cordless optical mouse, a laser pointer for accentuating key points and an LCD timer that vibrates at five and two minutes remaining.
Do not read the slide copy to the audience. This point cannot be stressed enough. Include the key word(s) of the topic as you speak to the slide’s point. Reading the slides shows that you are unprepared, lacking in confidence or not the expert the audience expected.
Finally, be natural, upbeat and even a bit quirky—in a nice way, of course. Be the presenter that people thank afterward and want to see again.

Presentations can be stressful, awkward and scary—and that’s just for the audience! Seriously, presenters face myriad challenges. CRE’s Account Executives have the expertise to navigate these choppy waters so you can make all the right moves. Fill out the CRE web form for a one-click quote, call us toll-free at (877) 266-7725 or send an e-mail for a response within 4 hours.