Smart LCDs with Swiveling Crystals Promise Better Viewing at All Angles

Almost all LCDs demand you to put them straight in front of you for that crystal-clear viewing experience, a slight change in angle results in a distorted or a blurred image. Swiveling screens are a bit better, but are not a complete panacea. However, some Taiwanese researchers have rightly sensed and cracked the bug by making the crystals in the screen adjust automatically to give you a clear picture no matter from where you are viewing it.

The secret behind this unique maneuver of the display is a miniature camera that tracks the position of the viewer and feeds the location to the software, which further controls the liquid crystals within the display to produce the best possible image.

The brightness of each pixel in an LCD is controlled by alternating the angle of the liquid crystals held between two polarizing elements. By using these crystals as a valve, the amount of light entering and leaving them can be controlled.

These researchers hope that their display can be used in laptops, computers and even handheld devices like a cell phone. Initial trials of the screen have been promising and researchers are now working on simpler, infrared sensors that track a user by the position of their eyes. If this research comes out to be as fruitful as the initial one then we can very soon expect to have a laptop display that can be viewed from various angles and that too without paying much for the technique.

The future prospects of flash memory are bright, but soon things might change if industry specialists don’t think of better options. Till date NAND Flash or the type of memory you all get in digital cameras and MP3 players has already shown its... (Continue)

New York City now is greener than everyone expects it to be. The city now has 20% more trees than a decade ago. The 2005-2006 tree census was a result of the hard work of over a thousand volunteers who toiled the city counting trees. The results speak for themselves, over 100,000 more trees were found shading city pavements than there were a decade ago.

Evidently the residents have bought into the plausible stats of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. According to department’s analysis, every dollar spent on planting a tree fetches five greenbacks in return. How so? Well, the energy savings from natural air cooling and insulation are more than enough to justify the returns. Add to that reduction in carbon dioxide, and an appreciation in the property prices in the vicinity, and the returns become even more evident.

The city’s administration has not yet completed their project and wants to see another million trees planted in the next decade. If we go on counting every single tree present in New York the number would be a healthy 5.2 million or a 24% canopy cover. To make the future plans a success $250 million have been allocated towards the City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s long term plan to have 1 million new trees planted by 2017.

Hat’s off to you New York!

Via: Tree Hugger

The City of San Francisco has accepted three models for the city’s new and tallest skyscraper that will become the city’s new transit terminal. The terminal will be the end of a proposed high-speed rail line from L.A.

All three designs are more than 400 meters tall, have a wind turbine atop, and are earthquake proof. But here, we are looking for answers to the question - Does incorporating a wind turbine in this tower get it classified in the “Green” list? These towers will require huge amount of steel and other building material so how can the structure be called green. Moreover, the tower will be so huge that the buildings and parks around this “Mega Structure” will be completely devoid of light. It would be interesting to see how the authorities tackle the problem as the amount of energy the tower will save by generating a percentage of its own electricity requirements will be much less than what other buildings will use when the tower cuts out natural light entering these buildings.

Another concern is what if a high-intensity earthquake strikes the city and the tower cannot stand tall to the massive force of nature…? You all can very well guess what the consequences of such a disaster will be.

These designs will now be voted upon and then the selected architect would be going back to the drawing board to plan out a much detailed design. No question, the tower will be a highlight in San Francisco’s skyline, but how green it will be, is yet to be seen.