Samsung has been demonstrating smart phone size 3D active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays for a few years now at industry events.  Now Samsung has announced their SCH-W960 mobile phone with 3.2-inch WVGA (400×240 pixels) 3D AMOLED touchscreen display (photo below).

The 3D AMOLED display is autostereoscopic, meaning that no glasses are required, and can be switched between 2D and 3D modes.

In other news, Sharp has announced they will ship a 3D camera module (photo below) intended for mobile devices.  The 3D camera module is capable of capturing high-definition (720px2) 3D video images (1280×720 pixels).

Sharp will start shipping samples in July, 2010, with mass production of the 3D camera modules later in 2010.  So while consumers may have to wait a while for a 3D-camera-packing mobile phone, they shouldn’t have to wait too long.

Yet another emerging theme for smart phone development is inclusion of a gyroscope that will drive the motion capture and tracking capabilities of smart phones to new levels beyond today’s accelerometer equipped models.

Invensense, Inc. has demonstrated 3-axis gyro plus accelerometer-based motion sensing and processing hardware in a smart phone application.  The addition of the Invensense hardware and software to a smart phone enables accurate gestural input and motion processing capabilities in the phone.  For example, drawing a letter “P” in the air by waving the handset starts the photo viewing application on the phone.  The user can scroll through multiple photos by tilting the phone to the left or right to advance back and forth through the photos.  Tilting the phone fore and aft allows the user to zoom in or out on the photo.  The video below from Invensense provides a good illustration of the capabilities of gyro-sensing input in a smart phone application.

Invensense’s motion sensing solutions have already been widely applied for image stabilization in digital cameras and in gaming including the Nintendo Wii MotionPlus controller accessory and seem to be cost effective and ready for additional applications.

The addition of 3D image capture and display, combined with accurate 3D spatial location sensing using a gyro promises to provide smart phone manufacturers with new ways to differentiate their products and should offer consumers and especially gamers new ways to interact with their handheld devices.

An especially compelling example of some recent efforts is exemplified by the work of Chris Harrison and his colleagues at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and at Microsoft Research.  Their work entitled “Skinput: Appropriating the Body as an Input Surface” (Note: PDF file) was recently presented at the CHI 2010 Conference (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems).

The Skinput technology uses a novel array of electro-mechanical sensors worn as an armband to resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand.  In several proof of concept applications the authors demonstrate the use of the Skinput technology as a computer input device.  In one intriguing application, the authors utilize a picoprojector to display user interface areas on the user’s forearm and hand that can then be touched/tapped to initiate commands.  This form of user interface seems pretty far fetched but the authors have done a good job of developing, evaluating and demonstrating applications of the technology.

To obtain a clearer understanding of Skinput, it’s helpful to look over a few pictures.  The photo below from the authors CHI paper shows the wearable, bio-acoustic sensing array armband.

The integration of the picoprojector with the input sensing armband is illustrated in the photo below.  In this application demonstration the picoprojector is used to display input features on the user’s forearm that are then tapped, detected by the armband sensor, and then processed to enter commands to the computing device.

The authors have demonstrated a variety of projected input modalities including the keypad style example shown in the photo below.

The authors provide a good deal of data in their paper concerning the classification accuracy of their Skinput technology for a variety of input gestures.  The classification accuracy obtained was generally relatively good suggesting that this form of input technology may in fact be usable in future mobile devices.

Although the photos above suggest how the Skinput sensor works, how the sensor can be combined with a picoprojector, and how the combination might be applied in a mobile device application, the video below provides a more descriptive and convincing demonstration of the technology.

As the market importance of mobile devices continues to grow and as designers work to incorporate more capable and attractive display and user interface capabilities in mobile devices, rapidly evolving technologies such as Skinput and picoprojectors will likely be brought into widespread application.

The industry standing of display and input technologies is clearly reflected in the program for this year’s Society for Information Display (SID) Display Week which will include a new market focus conference on “The Future of Touch & Interactivity.”  The SID Market Focus Conference Series at Display Week 2010 will take place on May 26th and 27th at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.

I will be at SID Display Week 2010 in Seattle this month and look forward to seeing you there to hear about and discuss the latest technical and business innovations.  If you would like to meet with WRT Associates at Display Week you can call +1-970-219-8800 or drop us an email.  In the display industry that is currently seeing serious growth in market interest and sales of mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad, and emerging products with advanced user interfaces such as Microsoft’s upcoming Project Natal gestural gaming interface, we expect there will be many interesting new developments.

It will likely take longer than my press room reflections permit to properly address this question.  However, my visit to Toshiba’s large display was very revealing of both industry progress and direction.  The photo below sums up the LIGHTFAIR idea of LEDs.

This photo from the Toshiba booth features the wide range of Toshiba A19 (standard Edison base) LED lamps that Toshiba currently produces intriguingly displayed in the form of an A19 LED lamp (complete with the all important ribbed heatsink).

Even more interesting, but with a caveat from the Toshiba representative and his Japanese translating booth brother not to photograph the “prototype device,” was a lamp that was described as a “100 Watt Class” A19 style lamp with 85 lumen/watt efficacy.  This prototype dimmable lamp with a stated output of 1690 lumens, represents a significant achievement in the performance of a A19 replacement style lamp.  This prototype lamp performance should be compared to the 60 W class LED A19 LED lamps rolling out in response to the US Department of Energy’s “L Prize” competition (PDF file) requirements that are summarized as:

• Efficacy of more than 90 lumens per watt, which exceeds the efficiency of all incandescent and most compact fluorescent sources today, which range from 10 to 60 lumens per watt
• Energy consumption of less than 10 watts as compared to a 60 watt incandescent.
• Output of more than 900 lumens, equivalent to a 60 Watt incandescent light bulb
• Lifetime of more than 25,000 hours, which is 25X greater than a typical incandescent bulb
• Color Rendering Index (CRI) greater than 90, which is a high measure of lighting quality
• Color Temperature between 2700 – 3000 Kelvin, which is “warm” white light comparable to that of incandescent sources

However, as I proceeded to interview the Toshiba booth staff, the Toshiba representative turned the interview around and asked me if I thought the replacement lamp market is an important one.  Well, given the wide spread prevalence of LED A19 and other style replacement lamps (including fluorescent-tube-style LED lamps) at LIGHTFAIR 2010, one would likely conclude that the industry believes that replacement lamps are important.

I replied to the Toshiba representative with my view of the current situation.  I pointed out that consumers are currently facing a transition to more efficient lighting but have an investment in existing fixtures (luminaires).  Thus, I told him that while I believe that Edison base and other style replacement lamps will play an important role for the foreseeable future (5, 10 or 15?? years), the real advantage of solid state lighting will arrive when consumers and the lighting industry adopt purpose-designed solid state lighting systems.  Examples of these emerging more optimized lamp systems were also exhibited at LIGHTFAIR.  Two examples were GE’s Infusion™ and Molex’s Helieon™ LED lamp modules.  Integrated solid state lighting solutions such as these will lead to improved lighting cost of ownership propositions in future and will become widespread as these lighting solutions come to market at appropriate initial purchase price points.

Looking forward, consumers and the lighting industry must get from here to there in the years to come.  This is the challenge going forward and as LIGHTFAIR 2010 shows, the lighting industry is rising to the challenge.

WRT Associates will be focusing on the market introduction of new solid state lighting products including light emitting diode (LED), organic LED (OLED) and plasma lighting solutions.  WRT Associates’ background and interests in solid state lighting solutions arise from their longstanding involvement in the LED and OLED industry as well as WRT Associates’ response to our clients’ growing interests in green, sustainable solutions for their products and businesses.

If you will be attending LIGHTFAIR we would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you at LIGHTFAIR and discuss your interests and needs.  If you will not be attending LIGHTFAIR this year, give us a call (+1-970-219-8800) or drop us an email to discuss our findings from the event.  We will be happy to share our insights and analysis in discussing and addressing your needs.

The customary CTIA Wireless keynote addresses held each morning prior to the opening of the exhibit floor were informative and high energy.  Although strong, the keynotes were perhaps not as engaging as April 1, 2008’s address by Richard Branson.  Sir Richard concluded his keynote by inviting audience members who would volunteer for Virgin Galactic’s and Google’s joint project Virgle, to travel to Mars to establish a colony, to join him on-stage.  However, the panel discussion keynote on the third day moderated by CNBC Anchor and Reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera with Avatar Director James Cameron, Aneesh Chopra, Obama administration CTO, U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, made for some eclectic and lively discussion.  Director Cameron remarked that Avatar is the most pirated film ever while Mr. Stone suggested that all one had to do to catch the pirates was to scan internet users for eye patches.

The first day keynotes included an address by J.K. Shin, President, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. during which he emphasized the themes of Screen, Speed and Content.  The choice of display Screen as his first theme became clearer during Samsung’s “Unpacked” press conference immediately following Mr. Shin’s first day keynote.

Given the wide range of portable products and applications exhibited at CTIA, there were a comparably wide range of input and output technologies for display and user interface control.  The exhibit floor space was perhaps a bit smaller than when I last attended in 2008, but there was no shortage of new product announcements.

Many of the announcements involved advanced displays.  These included Samsung’s roll out of their Galaxy S smart phone with a 4 inch “Super” AMOLED display with an integrated capacitive touch screen – clearly aimed as a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

While e-readers were emphasized by only a few exhibitors, Kobo www.kobobooks.com launched new e-reader hardware, the Kobo^TM eReader.  While the Kobo^TM eReader was a relatively conventional E-Ink display based e-reader, the hardware platform is a complement to the family of Kobo eReading service and software offerings that promise to be device neutral, content rich, open and globally based.

On the input device side, Invensense showed their digital 3-axis gyroscope as a partner participant in the Qualcomm booth.  Invensense gyroscope technology is currently employed in a range of consumer electronics products for image stabilization in digital cameras and in the Nintendo Wii game accessory the Wii MotionPlus.  Invensense demonstrated at CTIA a smartphone handset with highly accurate gesture input capability.  Although there were other new display and input device applications at CTIA, one that particularly stood out for its novelty was NTT Docomo’s demonstration of eye-controlled earphones as a new form of user input device.

If you would like to see photos from the show and learn more details about the Mobile Display and User Interface advances that we found at CTIA Wireless 2010, I recommend that you visit Insight Media’s website and subscribe to their Mobile Display Report.

For example, DisplaySearch has reported that LED backlight costs for liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs are falling rapidly and they forecast that a white edge-lit LED backlight unit (BLU) for a 40 inch diagonal television currently costs about $120 and will approach $50 by the end of 2013 as shown below.

At the same time, some observers are predicting a potential LED shortage as LED manufacturers operate at very high utilization levels.  For example, Jagdish Rebello senior director and principal analyst for wireless research at iSuppli recently stated: “It is clear that demand is outstripping supply.  With LED market growth forecasted to rise by double-digit percentages for at least the next three years—including 2010—a drastic undersupply situation could occur this year unless additional capacity is brought online to meet the increased demand.”  iSuppli goes on to point out that LED solutions are finding increasing usage in the general illumination market, addressing the needs of residential, commercial and industrial lighting applications. The general illumination market for LEDs is still in its infancy, but will become mainstream during the next two years.

As we consider these press reports and analyze the effects of market expansion on the building LED and solid state lighting industries we extract several important insights.

First, manufacturers of LED materials, equipment, chips and lamps will respond to higher market demand.  LED backlights in LCD televisions and monitors can provide higher display performance with local area dimming, and yield considerably lower power consumption and mercury free sets.  Investment in efficient solid state lighting will be driven by several factors in addition to better displays, including the phase out of inefficient incandescent lighting and moves to eliminate mercury in lighting products.  These green factors help make solid state lighting one of the few bright spots in the current slow world economy.

Finally, the wider use of LEDs in both displays and general lighting is resulting in important synergies and market opportunities.  A very interesting trend is the synergy developing between LED display backlights and SSL luminaire design.  Lighting designers have begun to realize that thin edge-lit LED panels similar in configuration to display backlights are also attractive for general illumination use in the drop ceiling grid lighting typically seen in commercial and industrial installations.

The rapid price decline in white LED edge-lit backlight panels forecast by DisplaySearch will make similar (though not identical) panels attractive for ceiling lighting applications.  A few companies including Lunera and Go Lighting Technologies are now offering (see Lunera offering below) thin edge-lit LED panels in sizes including 2×2 and 2×4 feet sizes to replace conventional fluorescent tube troffers.

As drop ceiling LED luminaires fall in price and increase in efficiency, they will likely be widely sold as long-lived cost effective replacements.  The diffuse extended-area light characteristics of edge-lit LED panels will offer the advantages that have been closely identified with the emerging Organic LED (OLED) lighting technology.  The OLED industry will be closely watching the success of diffuse LED lighting since the availability of cost effective LED edge-lit panels with diffuse area light source characteristics will likely put a ceiling on the price of similar form factor OLED luminaires.  This situation will put added price pressure on OLED lighting designers and may force OLED lighting development to focus on other OLED product attributes including extreme thinness and flexibility.  No matter the choice of lamp technology, lighting consumers will benefit from less polluting more efficient lighting in future.

As a result of the sustained development efforts on OLED technology, the market for OLED lighting and displays is poised to grow from $615 million in 2008 to more than $6700 million in 2014, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 44%.  The OLED report will be of interest to individuals and businesses that are seeking to update their knowledge of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) and answer questions concerning this important emerging technology.

Consumers are eagerly awaiting televisions and mobile phones with brilliant, and low power consumption, OLED displays.  OLED lighting is just now coming to market offering lighting designers and the lighting industry new lighting efficiency and design freedoms.  The OLED report addresses many key questions concerning the OLED industry, markets and technology:

• What barriers must be overcome to bring affordable products with OLED displays to consumers?
• When will these barriers be surmounted?
• When will OLED lighting begin shipping in lighting applications?
• What are these OLED lighting applications?
• What challenges must OLED lighting and displays overcome to reach market and gain market share from incumbent display and lighting products?
• What alternative lighting and display technologies will compete for market share with OLEDs?
• Who are the players in the OLED industry today and what will the competitive landscape look like in 2014?
• What are current OLED display revenues by product application and how will they grow in future?
• When will OLED lighting reach the billion dollar revenue mark?

IntertechPira’s new report, “The Future of OLED Lighting and Displays,” answers these questions about OLEDs and provides the reader with a thorough overview, status and analysis of the OLED industry and markets.

Take a look at a slide presentation or a webinar introducing the new OLED report.  Let us know your thoughts on the evolution of OLED technology and markets.

The wireless base station can connect up to two audio sources such as an iPod or compact disc player.  The wireless transmitter’s 2.4GHz technology handles up to eight LightSpeakers providing for stereo sound in multiple rooms and the user can set up two separate listening zones. The transmitter or remote will control the sources, zones, lighting levels and volume.  The LED bulb is rated for 40,000 hours of use and Klipsch claims the LightSpeaker reduces lighting expenses by 80 percent, using 10 watts to produce light that’s bright enough to replace up to a 65 watt bulb. (We will try to determine whether actual lumen output of the LightSpeaker is comparable to a 65 watt reflector bulb often used in ceiling cans as we do not expect that the US DOE Caliper program will get around to testing the LightSpeaker in the very near future).  Further adding to the LightSpeaker’s green credentials, Klipsch points out that the LightSpeaker LED bulb contains no mercury as do compact fluorescent lamps.

A basic LightSpeaker system consisting of two LightSpeakers, a transmitter, radio frequency remote, mini jack to RCA plug cable, lenses and trim, retails for $599.  Additional LightSpeakers are available for $249.  Although this may seem pricey, Klispsch makes several points in the graphic below concerning the cost effectiveness of their new product.

Klipsch also point out that installation and set up are quick and easy, and that homeowners can take it with them if they move.

While it’s too early to say if the LightSpeaker will catch on in a big way, it is easy to see that smart companies like Klipsch are exploring products that provide consumers convenient solutions for old problems while offering greener products as well.

In our recent efforts for clients on cleaner, greener displays and solid state lighting, we have found that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods for determining and making comparisons of energy consumption, carbon footprint and environmental impact are quickly becoming the norm.  We expect that LCA methods and reporting will soon be broadly appreciated by consumers and used as the basis for purchase decisions.

The summary of a recent study released by Osram (Note: PDF) comparing the environmental impact of incandescent (denoted GLS), compact fluorescent (CFL) and light emitting diode (LED) light bulbs (lamps) exemplifies this move to the LCA approach.  Osram is a manufacturer of all three bulb types and thus is in good position to perform such an analysis.

The particular lamp models chosen for the analysis were selected to have comparable lumen output and form factor, and color rendering index > 80.  An important distinction between the lamp types was product lifetime that ranged from 1,000 hour (incandescent), 10,000 hour (CFL), to 25,000 hour (LED).  The aim of the Osram LCA was to analyze the environmental impact of an LED lamp over its entire lifetime – from raw materials, to end of life disposal – and to compare that impact to CFL and incandescent lamps.  The overall life cycle impact was analyzed as illustrated below:

The LCA was divided into five stages – raw material production, manufacturing and assembly, transport, use, and end of life.  The life cycle analysis comprised not only resource consumption and primary energy input, but also six environmental impacts including acidification, eutrophication, greenhouse gas emissions, photochemical ozone creation, resource depletion, and toxicity.

Over the entire life cycle of the lamps, including manufacturing, use, and end of life, the Osram study found that for all three lamp types the use phase dominated the manufacturing phase in terms of energy consumption as shown below.

The other six environmental impacts followed roughly the same pattern as primary energy demand for the three lamp types.  The study concludes that less than 2% of the total energy demand is needed for production of the LED lamp, and that the other six environmental impacts for LED lamps were very similar in degree to those of CFL lamps.  Osram claims that the study “has dismissed any concern that production of LEDs particularly (sic) might be very energy intensive.”

The Osram LCA of the three lamp types points out that LED and CFL lamps are comparable today in their overall environmental impact, and that both CFLs and LEDs are superior to incandescent lamps.  Osram also makes the case that LEDs have the potential for further improvements in performance (~2x) as compared to mature incandescent and CFL lamp technologies.  Although proper recycling of lamps was discussed in the summary of the Osram LCA, the toxicity of the mercury (Hg) content of CFL lamps and of mercury releases from coal-fired electricity consumed during all lamp manufacturing and use were not explicitly mentioned in the summary of the Osram LCA.

Taking the results of the Osram LCA at face value, we conclude that efforts in various countries to ban incandescent lamps may indeed lead to significant environmental benefits.  While some lighting consumers still complain of deficiencies in CFL lamps, they clearly yield energy savings that will pay for the somewhat increased cost of CFL lamps.

What is not yet as clear are the economic benefits of LED lighting to the broad range of lighting consumers.  A check on the web reveals that the Osram Parathom 8 W lamp sells for $54.  This is a high cost for lighting consumers to pay for a lamp rated to last 2.5x as long (25,000 hours) as a comparable CFL lamp and having a comparable environmental impact.  In their LCA, Osram points out that future improvements in LED lamp luminous efficacy of perhaps 2x are to be expected.  We also hope to see price reductions that will make LED lighting still more attractive as manufacturing technology improves.

With LED lamp lifetime of 25,000 hours today and perhaps 50,000 hours or more in future, consumers may think differently when purchasing light bulbs.  If LED lamp prices stay relatively high but LED lamps offer long term energy savings that offset their cost, consumers may feel they are making an investment in their future when buying bulbs.  However with high-priced, long-lived bulbs new business models may emerge.  Consumers may wish to trade in used lamps with say 25,000 hours of life remaining.  Or hand down long lived lighting to their descendants.  Perhaps a key upside to the adoption of greener and more energy efficient solid state lighting will emerge as consumers pass down their light bulbs to successive generations that live on a cleaner, sustainable earth.

Now that we have a number of OLED lamps of various shapes and sizes, it will be interesting to see if lighting designers respond with creative yet saleable OLED lighting fixtures.

OSRAM have set out their case for OLED lighting in an interesting slide presentation (Note: PDF).  Included in their presentation are several OLED lighting fixture designs (examples below) that were entries in the 2009 PPML OLED design contest.  The PPML OLED design contest provides a useful glimpse of designers’ ideas on applying OLED lighting.  OSRAM’s presentation includes a slide describing their market development outlook for the OLED market for high end to high volume applications from 2009 through 2016 and beyond.  And this is where it gets interesting.

OLED lighting research and development have been ongoing in Europe, the US, and Asia since early in the present decade.  European lighting firms Philips and OSRAM are working in government sponsored consortia with European universities and supply chain participants (BASF, Merck, Applied Materials, Novaled and others) to commercialize OLED lighting and reach mass production scale.  Corresponding efforts have been ongoing in the US under the auspices of the US Department of Energy’s Solid State Lighting Program.  Japan has a number of firms conducting OLED lighting materials and device development with companies including Lumiotec and Konica Minolta planning to begin mass production of OLED lamps in 2010 and later.  Until recently, the South Korea OLED display leaders Samsung and LG have not appeared to be addressing the OLED lighting market.

This situation is changing.  Samsung Mobile Display in 2009 has begun showing lighting prototypes as shown in the photo below (left) from the May 2009 SID conference.  Moreover, LG Chem has also begun to show OLED lighting panel prototypes (below right) and is reported to have plans to begin OLED lighting mass production in 2010 or 2011.

The competitive landscape for OLED lighting is beginning to take shape.  Multiple European and Asian firms are taking a firmer position on OLED lighting mass production.  The US DOE program has identified the manufacturing issues for OLED lighting mass production in its September 2009 Solid State Lighting Manufacturing Roadmap.

Although some large US headquartered companies including Kodak and GE have substantial OLED lighting related R&D programs, only GE has stated an intention to enter OLED lighting manufacturing.  Looking forward, we see a bright future for efficient solid state lighting.  And we will be looking to the above mentioned industry leaders and their supply chain partners for further progress toward mass production of OLED lighting.