An OLED monitor can produce incredibly good image quality. They are far superior to most of the other panel types, so why do we not see that on gaming monitors at this point? There are two main reasons for that. The first is degradation of the cells and the second one is burning. Now the first reason is that of degradation of the pixels or cells. When you have the OLED display on for a very long time after several thousand hours or so they start to degrade and the different sub-pixels, the red green or blue, each of them degrades at different rates. The blue sub-pixel degrades even faster. Read our review of Dell UP3017Q .
You’re going to have a color cast after just a few thousand hours of using the monitor which is a big problem for computer monitors because obviously, you have them on for much longer than say a TV. So computer screens are usually on all day whereas a TV, you know, typically they’re not on as often, you usually turn them off. An accurate color representation is more important for a PC monitor because it is often used professionally. If it’s degrading and has a color cast like a blue color cast, that’s going to be awful because then the whole point of buying an expensive reference monitors is so you can have that correct color. There are a couple of OLEDs out right now, but they are very expensive. So they’re only meant for entirely professional use, really high-end, and at this point IPS is still the way to go for correct colors.
The second reason we don’t see OLED monitors is burning
As you probably know a lot of CRT monitors previously and Plasma TVs, those sort of panels get burning and so do OLEDS. If you have the same image on the screen for a very long time as a screen saver or something like that, it’s going to burn onto the monitor. At this point, it’s not something you see anymore so if someone went out and bought a monitor that has burned their going to be upset with it. And the reason we won’t see it on TVs is that a TV doesn’t show the same image in different parts of the screen for a very long. Whereas on a computer monitor, it’s going to show, for example, the taskbar, the little close window X at the right top for as long as the monitor is on. This problem has to be solved before OLEDs can become widely available to the public. I’m hoping they come up with some solutions for these because OLED monitors seem very promising. They have unmatched contrast ratios compared to any other panel type. They can get a 100% black because they just turn off the pixel. Whereas with a LED backlight, that backlight is always on so you’ll get a fantastic contrast. And OLED pixels have a way higher potential for very fast refresh times up to around 1,000 hertz. I’m sure we’ll get to that point and OLED I think is going to be the way to go.
How Oled displays can improve our experience in the future
There is not a whole lot in the tech world that screams COOL quite like a transparent display whether we are talking Robert Downey Jr.’s warnings about his imminent destruction in this Iron Man suit mask, the Rebel Base on Hoth or Tom Cruise whipping through evidence in Minority Report. There has been no shortage of sci-fi writers and dreamers who love the idea of working on a bright screen. So like anything in Star Trek they are a reality now. But how do they work? Well, the underlying technology that makes clear displays possible has been around for quite some time.
How Oled displays work
Any flat panel LCD features a layer of pixels, the supporting color filters, and the electronics required to power them and it is all see through or you would never see the backlight through it. In fact, transparent LCDs were notably shown off by Samsung in its smart window which works like a regular window in your home but can display the weather, email, travel information, and other useful stuff, and can even act as a digital Venetian blind when you wanna dark in the room. But this concept only works because the sun provides backlighting during the day, at night it needs to be lit from an artificial source powered by a solar battery or something. That is why transparent screens made from OLEDs are where a lot of the current excitement is because they generate their light from an electric current due to their chemistry. So they do not need to be attached to a bulky backlight which not only means you can use them in dark environments, but they can also be made super thin and flexible, perfect for a transparent display. OLEDs can even be screen printed onto a plastic base or laid as a thin film making it a super versatile technology.
Well, I say it is super versatile, but what can we use this stuff for? Well, how about heads-up displays or HUDs in both aircraft and cars. The current solutions use projectors with poor viewing angles. A transparent display HUD could not only provide much better image quality but make important information like speed and remaining fuel viewable no matter where the pilot or driver is looking. It even uses augmented reality to overlay the names of streets or landmarks onto a windshield, or even help with safety information like overlaying the view from a blind spot camera. Or what about this, imagine if you had a transparent smartphone display that could work on both sides.
How could the technology be used
FUJITSU has been working on just that thing allowing users to grip an on-screen object from both sides of the phone. Speaking of smartphones, researchers at Corning had developed a way to embed tiny sensors right in the surface of a glass display that can keep tabs on things like health information or the ambient temperature without the need for additional hardware. And there are plenty of ways for transparent screens to enhance your shopping experience. This is one of the big ones that the manufacturers are pushing for. So one example here is for an iPad, a pair of Nike’s or whatever else is on sale to be kept inside a glass display that dabbles as a bright screen displaying pricing information, product features, and other interactive elements. A shopper can use it while still being able to look at the product itself and as a security device. And if you are not in the market for expensive sneakers we should be seeing this technology find its way into much more affordable options like vending machines to tell you how many calories are in that bag of chips that you are eyeing over there. There are a few kinks to be worked out like increasing the lifespan of OLEDs and improving on the current 70% or so transparency of the showcase technology that exist today, so it does not look like you are looking at whatever it is through a dirty window. But when that happens, I mean, man, that sky is the limit. I am not much of a fashionista, but there is going to be some fantastic wearable technology when this stuff hits the mainstream.
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