Field of dreams: Ballparks unveil tech upgrades

By Kyle Stack, WIRED

MLB clubs made tech-centric improvements to their ballparks, like Fenway Park, in advance of the 2011 season.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Fenway Park has rhree new scoreboards beyond right-center field for the 2011 season
• Great American Ball Park has a new cell-tower system to access apps like MLB's At Bat

(WIRED) -- Professional sports teams are attempting at a furious rate to lure fans away from the comfort of their couches to live games. And sweet technological upgrades to their home venues become a bigger selling point every year.

Roughly a dozen Major League Baseball clubs followed that strategy by making tech-centric improvements to their ballparks in advance of the 2011 season, which kicks off Thursday. Notable upgrades include ballpark-wide Wi-Fi access (Chicago White Sox) and LED high-definition ribbon boards (Arizona Diamondbacks). Here's a deeper look at nine other teams that have made similar significant upgrades.

Houston Astros -- Minute Maid Park

The Astros join the Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins as the only MLB teams to feature a scoreboard with a 1080i display format. "Fans are watching games on high-definition [television], so when they come out to the ballpark we want things to be in high-definition, as well," Kirby Kander, the Astros' senior director of creative services, told Wired.com. Where once stood a 26-by-45-foot scoreboard in right field, there's now a 54-by-124-foot Daktronics behemoth that ranks as the fourth-largest scoreboard in the majors.

The 2.66-million pixel scoreboard was part of a $13 million project which included a 24-by-40-foot video board stationed in left field and 1,185 linear feet of ribbon boards spanning from one foul pole to the other. A state-of-the-art, two-level control room comprising 1,500 square feet was built at the suite level in left field to manage the new 'boards.

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Boston Red Sox -- Fenway Park

A 10-year, $285 million plan to modify 99-year-old Fenway Park concluded this off-season with $40 million in construction upgrades, the most prominent of which are three new scoreboards beyond right-center field. ANC Sports Enterprises teamed with Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision Systems to install three video screens: a 38-by-100-foot scoreboard in right-center field that replaces a 23-by-30-foot structure installed in 1976 (but the famous John Hancock sign will still tower over the new 'board), a 17-by-100-foot video screen in center field, and a 16-by-30-foot video board in right field.

The primary scoreboard has the ability to display side graphics, as the old scoreboard did, or move to full-screen video to capture live action. The side 'boards will incorporate game info such as player stats, pitch speed and type, box scores, promotions, announcements and other types of messages

Philadelphia Phillies -- Citizens Bank Park

Phillies fans will get to watch live game action on a new 76-by-97-foot LED high-def scoreboard in left field. The old scoreboard, which was installed for Citizen Bank Park's 2004 debut, has been relocated to the Phils' spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida. The team partnered with Daktronics and Sony Electronics' System Solutions Group on the new 84,000-square-foot 'board, whose 2.9 million pixels dwarfs the former scoreboard's 459,000-pixel display.

Fans get to view one of the clearest scoreboards in the world. Its HD-15 display and 1,512 lines of resolution surpass that of the standard for 1080p HD video boards, and its LED technology allows it to show up to 144 quadrillion shades of color.

Citizens Bank Park's in-house video departments were also improved from standard to HD, including the video-coaching facility. Mark DiNardo, the Phillies' director of broadcasting and video services, told Wired.com the upgrade will most benefit the scouting and self-analysis performed by the team's coaches and players. "They voiced a concern to upgrade," DiNardo said, "and our management heard that concern."

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Cincinnati Reds -- Great American Ball Park

The ability for fans to view information at high speed on their mobile devices headlines the pair of tech changes at the Reds' Great American Ball Park. The incorporation of a multi-tent cell-tower system with approximately 120 antennas will permit fans to access apps like MLB's latest At Bat rev on 3G or 4G networks through their iPhones, BlackBerries, iPads and Android devices. The app allows fans to view pitch-by-pitch tracking, real-time box scores and stats and searchable video highlights through a multitude of mobile service carriers, including ballpark sponsor AT&T. Reds IT director Brian Keys told Wired.com that roughly 1,500 to 3,000 fans demand high-speed mobile access at any given moment in the stadium, which seats more than 42,000 fans. "We're trying to get the fans more stats, videos, replays and information to their smart devices," Keys said.

Sixty luxury suites have also been outfitted with 46-inch Sony TVs and 25-inch Sony Vaio flat-panel PCs with Blu-ray functionality. Suite attendees can use the PCs to choose their preference of five camera angles on MLB.TV and view any league game, including typically blacked-out contests in Cincinnati, and reroute them to the high-def TVs.

Milwaukee Brewers -- Miller Park

The primary aspect of the Brewers' three-pronged tech upgrade for Miller Park is a 5,940-square foot scoreboard in center field. At 54 by 110 feet, the Daktronics 'board boasts true 1080i display containing more than 2.35 million pixels, compared to the 134,000 pixels produced by the dual 10-year-old scoreboards it replaces.

"The technology to support the [old scoreboards] was changing, and we were running out of spare parts for them," Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger told Wired.com. For example, the new scoreboard, unlike the ones it replaced, doesn't require air conditioning to cool it down. According to the Brewers, that will translate into a 50 percent to 65 percent reduction in energy consumption.

The Miller Park upgrades, which cost almost $11 million, also include a refashioned audio system that'll make it easier for the control room to manage the volume, bass and treble in different areas of the stadium.

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Seattle Mariners -- Safeco Field

A new LED scoreboard in right field and LED ribbon boards stretching from the the press box to the foul poles along the first- and third-base lines will enable the Mariners to present customized game and sponsor information to their patrons. All three Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision boards will have their video powered by ANC Sports' VisionSoft display. The system allows for a presentation of statistical and game information tailored strictly to Safeco Field. Sponsors can also customize their messages to appear on the boards on a game, series, homestand or season-long basis.

The 6-by-160-foot scoreboard above right field's Outfield Reserve seats will complement the ANC-installed out-of-town scoreboard in left field, implemented before last season. The 734 linear feet of ribbon boards permit the Mariners to show in-game information such as pitch count, type and speed; play-by-play from the prior three batters; animation and graphics; and messages from sponsors and the team's community relations department.

Minnesota Twins -- Target Field

Though Target Field only debuted last season, the team spent more than $5 million on improvements for the stadium's sophomore campaign. Leading the way is a Daktronics HD-15 LED scoreboard in right field, clocking in at 28 feet by 50 feet and providing 552 x 984 resolution. The new scoreboard mostly accommodates fans sitting in left field, who often complained of having to crank their heads to view live game video and statistical info on the scoreboard towering over them. This off-season, Twins owner Carl Pohlad made the move to address all the grumbling. "The Pohlad family said we'll just put up another [scoreboard], which is pretty cool," Twins VP of technology John Avenson told Wired.com.

A new 100-foot tall, LED-illuminated tower adjacent to the right field scoreboard will display situational graphic material and supplementary head-shot content, such as autographs, head-to-toe player pictures and player names and numbers. Also manufactured by Daktronics, each of the tower's four sides will incorporate more than 4,300 LED strips. An improved ballpark-wide Wi-Fi system with more than 200 access points will be operated by MLB Advanced Media, providing fans with information about the game, and ballpark, and even a concession-stand finder.

Tampa Bay Rays -- Tropicana Field

The Rays will play on a more durable and aesthetically pleasing surface at Tropicana Field, thanks to AstroTurf, the official synthetic turf of MLB. The company's GameDay Grass 3D60H model, installed during a three-week period this spring, contains a Horseshoe fiber which (literally) stands up to repeated use. The fiber's omega, or "C", dual-column design imparts mechanical memory to the fiber, so that it pops up even after repeated trampling by cleats and baseballs. Using 60 ounces of fiber per square yard ensures the surface's long-term durability.

The fiber's design also reflects light, which has a two-fold effect: It reduces surface temperatures by up to 18 percent and cuts down on the sheen produced by ballpark lights. The Rays' Andrew Heydt said the old artificial surface would produce a "glazing effect" when the dome's interior lights were turned on. That's no longer the case, as the improved look and performance of the Trop's turf almost mirrors the promise the future holds for Evan Longoria, David Price and the perennially upstart Rays.

Texas Rangers -- Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

New video boards in right and center field at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington use Daktronics' newest 15-millimeter LED technology. The 42-by-120-foot scoreboard above the Home Run Porch in right field and the 25-by-29-foot scoreboard in center field have the versatility to run as single displays or be separated into multiple windows to display various game info.

A newly installed IPTV system from Daktronics also allows all existing ribbon and field-level video boards and more than 800 Sony LCD monitors throughout the stadium to receive game information on up to 10 high-def channels. Real-time scores, statistics and even in-game menu pricing changes can be sent to any board or monitor on any IPTV channel. An upgraded control room and a revamped audio system round out the improvements made for last season's American League champs.

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Copyright 2010 Wired.com.

The Touchscape Multi-Touch Coffee Table Makes Coffee Fun

By Nayla Khan

Advertisement

We all know that a lot can happen over coffee. But now it is time to change the phrase a little. A lot can now happen over the coffee table. In fact the table can give discussions a guide and get actively involved in conversations. No, the table is not going to do the talking but it can help you in a number of ways. Thanks to the brand new concept of the Multi-Touch Coffee Table from Touchscape.

The concept of the touch screen is pretty well-known now. This very technology has been incorporated into the coffee table. The Multi-Touch Coffee Table has a 47 inch high definition LCD screen incorporated onto its surface. You might have seen something like these being used in movies but it won’t be long before you could run your fingers on one such screen in your very own living room.



This patented MT technology bearing coffee table screen boasts of having an HD 1920 X 1080p resolution. It is capable of tracking as many touches as can be fit on the screen. It has been powered by a Quad Core Processor and the surface configuration can be a Windows 7 touch input device similar to the Microsoft Surface. It can also serve TUIO touch events to be used with SUSHI or multitouch SDK. The unique experience of this table enables you to enjoy applications with your fingertips. Moving around on screen or browsing through photographs was never so easy before.

The processor is ably supported by a 4 GB memory while there is scope for storing a whopping 180 GB. That would take many coffee mugs to discuss all that data. It efficiently supports Bluetooth, Wi Fi, USB and Ethernet. Keeping with the times it is well ready to take on the 3G era in communication.

The ambient light sensor is able to adjust display based on the background lighting conditions. The self monitoring system keeps a watch on the performance by regularly checking for updates which keeps the system moving.



Since it is a coffee table it should be capable enough to support coffee mugs and this it can do with all expertise. The LCD display has features like being scratch resistant, wipe-clean top, and in the worst case replaceable.

Once you have invited guests over for coffee on the Multi-Touch table you are sure to have them visiting again. And you are going to be a beaming host to all.

If you think this is great, you are yet to go through articles on iPhone 4 Table Design and Dining Pool Table.
Via: Born Rich

Human LCD : Close Up Video ( SOUTH KOREA )

Winscape - something out of Back to the Future 2

ryanhoagland — April 13, 2010 — Introduction to the Winscape. See http://www.rationalcraft.co... for more details.

Cool Unbreakable LCD Video Screen

From: http://www.break.com/

Cool Unbreakable LCD Video Screen - Watch more Funny Videos

Finally, we have the technology to fold up our video devices like paper and put them in our wallets, where they belong.

LG Display Reveals News-Worthy, Flexible E-Paper

• Source: Korea IT Times  •

LG Display revealed its new flexible e-paper display.

LG Display Co., Ltd., a leading innovator of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) technology, announced it has developed the 19-inch flexible e-paper – the world’s largest.
The 19-inch wide (250×400mm) flexible e-paper is almost as big as a page of A3-sized newspaper. Approximately eight times larger than e-books of 6-inch class, the product is optimized for an e-newspaper and able to convey the feeling of reading an actual newspaper. Additionally, as the product measures 0.3 millimeters thin, the e-paper weighs just 130 grams despite its 19-inch size.
LG Display arranged TFT on metal foil rather than glass substrate, allowing the e-paper display to recover its original shape after being bent. The use of a metal foil substrate makes the e-paper both flexible and durable while maintaining excellent display qualities. In particular, LG Display applied ‘GIP (Gate-in-Panel)’ technology which integrates the gate driver IC onto the panel. This improves flexibility by removing driver-ICs which are attached to the side of panel and hinder the bending of the display.


E-paper is being hailed as a promising new form of public display for offering various advantages compared to conventional LCD or PDP displays. E-paper faces fewer spatial constraints because of its ultra-thin and lightweight form, and reduced maintenance costs due to significantly lower power consumption. Furthermore, e-paper’s flexibility and bendiness enable a wider choice of applications like advertising signs as it can be easily wrapped around pillars and other locations.
CTO and Executive Vice President of LG Display, Dr. In Jae Chung said, “Our development of the world’s largest flexile display has opened up a new market in the next-generation display sector of e-paper. As the e-paper market is growing at a rapid pace, LG Display will continue to deliver new value to customers and the market through industry-leading technologies and differentiated products.”
Meanwhile LG Display plans to launch mass production of an 11.5-inch flexible e-paper display in the first half of 2010. According to market researcher DisplaySearch, the e-book market will grow from approximately USD370 million in 2009 to USD1.73 billion in 2011 and to USD1.73 billion in 2015.

Coca-Cola Greens Lights and Power for Iconic SF Billboard

By Leslie Guevarra

From http://www.greenerbuildings.com/

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Coca-Cola's glittering billboard, a fixture in downtown San Francisco for more than 70 years, has been replaced with a state-of-the-art LED display that's 80 percent more energy efficient while retaining the classic look of the world-renown logo.

The company also is offsetting 100 percent of the electricity used by the billboard through purchase of Green-e certified Renewable Energy Certificates for wind energy from Sterling Planet.

Coca-Cola and the YESCO, the Salt Lake City, firm that engineered, manufactured and installed the retrofit, showed off their handiwork today.

Standing 112 feet above Bryant Street atop a three-story building in San Francisco's South of Market area, the billboard has been a landmark for drivers going to and from the Bay Bridge since 1937 -- the year after the bridge that connects San Francisco to Oakland opened.

The Spencerian script of the logo with its glowing background in a shade known as Coca-Cola Red was originally illuminated with neon. It alternately twinkled and shone for the better part of seven decades, but in recent years began showing its age.

Seventy-feet long and 30 feet high, the new sign is about the same size as its predecessor, but the look at night is crisper and the colors seem more vibrant.

That's largely due to advancements in lighting technology, according to the project partners.
The lumen output of the new sign is similar to that of the old one, said Jeff L. Krantz, an account executive at YESCO.
Krantz and Coca-Cola Energy Efficiency Manage Richard Crowther stressed that while the technology is new, the traditional design has been preserved.

That was the directive from the community as well as the company, they said.

"It was very important to everyone involved in the project to replicate that classic look and feel," said Krantz.

The work to remove the original lighting system and reface the billboard with 4,800 CFLs for the white lettering and strip LEDs for the background started November 30, and the new sign was in place and lit by Christmas Eve, said YESCO project manager Danny Hunsaker.

With eight - to 10-man crews working day and night on the installation project, the billboard was dark for only four days, Hunsaker added.

Ninety percent of the metals and wiring from the original sign were recycled, and disposal of neon and other materials that could not be recycled were handled according to regulatory guidelines, Coca-Cola said.

The company greened its giant sign in Times Square last year. The retrofitting of company signs is part of Coca-Cola's ongoing drive to embed its environmental stewardship credo in all its operations.

The global firm had a big presence at the climate conference in Copenhagen, where CEO Muhtar Kent spent time with GreenBiz.com Senior Contributor Marc Gunther to talk about the company's latest efforts.

Those include its development of the PlantBottle, a container made from recyclable PET plastic, 30 percent of which is sourced from Brazilian sugar cane and molasses, and the company's recently announced commitment to replace all its vending machines using hydrofluorocarbons with coolers that employ more environmentally friendly refrigerants by 2015.

There's also a major campaign to reduce energy use at facilities including those of Coke-product bottlers around the world, said Crowther.

In California, for example, Coca-Cola Enterprises -- the production, distribution and marketing firm that serves as the leading bottler of Coca-Cola products -- is slashing its electricity consumption by 5.6 million kilowatt-hours a year as a result of an energy efficiency overhaul of lighting systems at 24 facilities in the state.

The various initiatives all stem from Coca-Cola's ultimate goal of growing its business without increasing its carbon footprint, Crowther said.

More information on Coca-Cola's sustainability work is available at www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship.

Images courtesy of the Coca-Cola Company.

Will Sports Fans Watch Games on ESPN in 3-D?

By Sean Gregory

From: http://www.time.com/

Ken Reid / Workbook Stock / Getty

Grab your glasses, plop down on your couch, and watch the soccer ball fly out of your screen: ESPN is going 3-D. On Tuesday the popular sports network announced that it is launching the first-ever 3-D television channel. (Discovery Communications, Sony and IMAX also outlined plans to launch a 24/7 3-D television network in 2011.) For the channel's first year, ESPN, which is owned by Disney, has pledged to show at least 85 sporting events in 3-D, starting with the South Africa–Mexico World Cup match on June 11. The network also plans to broadcast additional World Cup matches, the Summer X Games and college basketball and football games in 3-D. At this point, ESPN is committing to the network for one year. "As we surveyed the landscape of the marketplace over the past four or five months, it became apparent to us that there was going to be this virtual tsunami of 3-D television sets hitting the marketplace," says Sean Bratches, ESPN's executive president for sales and marketing, who has played a major role in the network's 3-D initiative. "There's probably no better genre than sports for 3-D." (See the top 10 TV series of 2009.)
Over the past few years, when you asked any tech geek who works in sports about the future, you'd hear a familiar refrain: 3-D, 3-D, 3-D. Now, it appears the extra dimension is finally here. Analysts expect a slew of 3-D-related products to be released at the Consumer Electronics Show, which starts Jan. 7. ESPN has already experimented with 3-D production — the network showed the September USC–Ohio State football game in 3-D in select movie theaters.
What will the network look like? ESPN 3-D will have its designated space on the dial. However, when a live 3-D event is not playing, which will be most of the time for now, the channel will be dark. You'll need to buy a 3-D-capable television set, get a set-top box from your cable or satellite provider and, yes, grab a pair of glasses. "There will be varying degrees of glasses," says Bratches. "You can buy glasses for 50 cents that look like you're sitting next to Jake and Elwood Blues, or you can buy a very high-end designer pair. They all do very different things." Be careful: certain glasses only work with certain 3-D sets, so grill the guy at Best Buy. (Watch a video about how 3-D movies are made.)
According to Bratches, the in-home 3-D experience will take you dangerously close to the action. "When we did the USC–Ohio State game, one of the most interesting things we saw was when they ran a play to the side of the field where the 3-D cameras were," he says. "The people in the front row [of the theater] literally stood up. They thought they were going to get hit." Sports broadcasts in 3-D will require additional cameras at different angles from those in the 2-D production. "The camera at the center court line, 47 rows up, looking at the basketball game going back and forth doesn't provide a lot of value," Bratches says. For basketball games, you'll want to see a 3-D camera behind the basket: Duck, here comes Kobe flying at me. ESPN even plans to use different announcers for the 3-D broadcasts, so that they can emphasize the unique angles.
Though ESPN is still Disney's cash cow, the 3-D channel will carry significant risks. In addition to added production costs, there's a more crucial issue facing ESPN: whether people are ready to fork over big bucks to upgrade their television sets, just for a few good games. Yes, consumers can expect more 3-D content to be rolled out over the next few months. But will there be enough to justify what could be a $4,000 purchase, in a sticky economy, by the time ESPN 3-D launches? Plus, will the consumers who have already dropped a few thousand bucks on an HD set in recent years be ready to upgrade again so soon? (See questions and answers about retirement.)
Bratches says he heard the same skeptical questions when ESPN first entered the HD game. "If you look back at the HD experience, we had a similar amount of content that we're offering now in 3-D," he says. "But viewers saw the future, bought into the vision and invested, and now the deployment of HD sets is significant. We feel very good about where we are." And come June, ESPN will show sports fans where they are going. Look out for the flying soccer balls

TVs are getting brighter, thinner -- and cheaper

Irvine's Vizio Inc. is getting ready to release its LED-backlit TV for $1,500 less than its competitors' sets.

By: David Colker

From: http://articles.latimes.com/

The future of television could be sitting in an Irvine laboratory.

To illuminate images, these sets use light-emitting diodes behind the screen, resulting in TVs that can be far thinner, brighter and more eco-friendly than other flat-panel models.


LED-backlit TVs -- an evolution of the standard LCD set -- have been on the market since 2004. But the sets in this lab have something that could catapult the technology into the mainstream.

A far lower price.

This lab is deep inside the headquarters of Vizio Inc., the discount electronics company that became the biggest supplier of LCD TVs in North America through its aggressive pricing. When it lowers prices, other manufacturers often have to follow, even if they don't go quite so low.

"When Vizio announces its prices," said consumer electronics analyst Richard Doherty, "people in the rest of the industry don't go home early that night."

This year, LED-backlit televisions have accounted for less than 3% of world TV shipments from manufacturers, according to market researcher DisplaySearch. That's because they so recently came on the scene and usually cost double or more compared with standard LCD sets.

Vizio's first LED-backlit set, which will hit the market in about a month, will be a 55-inch model priced at a relative bargain price of about $2,000. Other manufacturers have LED-backlit sets in that size for about $3,500.

The adoption of big-screen LED-backlit sets, however, probably will be slowed by economic hard times.
"Right now the sweet spot is 32-inch televisions, which can be found for $500," DisplaySearch analyst Paul Gagnon said.

In the long run, the research group is bullish on LED-backlit TVs. In a report issued Wednesday, DisplaySearch predicted that by 2014, shipments of LED-backlit sets would surpass standard LCDs.

"The future is LED, there is no doubt about it," said Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies Corp., which sells optimization software for video displays.

The television manufacturing industry could use the shot in the arm that a new technology can provide.

"When the industry went from analog to digital and from tube to flat-panel, it drove a lot of growth because it was very exciting," Gagnon said. "That's what the industry needs, something to drive excitement."

LED-backlit TVs can put on a dramatic show, even when just sitting there. Samsung's 46-inch model is only 1.2-inches thick, giving it a startlingly thin profile.

The colors an LED-backlit TV displays can be turned up brighter, making the sets stand out in a store.
But not all experts agree that the flashiness of LED-backlit sets are worth the extra money.

"Right now," Soneira said, "I think it's a marketing gimmick."

The LEDs use less energy and, perhaps most important, don't contain mercury like the florescent bulbs that light up standard LCD TVs.

The eco-advantages are a key to the future of LED-backlit TVs, Soneira said.

"The government hates mercury," he said.

There are two basic types of LED-backlighting -- multicolored (sometimes called RGB for red, green, blue) and white.

The multicolored setup allows for more vivid colors on the screen. "It's more true to life," Doherty said.

It also is much more expensive. Sony has a 46-inch model that sells for about $4,000.

The industry is concentrating on white-light models, which also produce bright colors. LG, Samsung and Toshiba have TVs using that technology on the market, and Sharp and Vizio sets are coming soon.

There are two other variations on LED-backlit TVs -- direct and edgelit -- that determine the thickness of the sets.

Direct has the LEDs spread across the entire back of the screen. This type of illumination gives better image quality, experts say, but the sets end up nearly as thick as standard LCDs.

The edgelit models group the LEDs on the edges, allowing the sets to be very thin. But quality can suffer, at least slightly.

Thinness could be a big selling point. "People will have their friends over to impress them," Soneira said.

In fact, he thinks a lot of the aspects of LED-backlit TVs are just for showing off, not for producing a truly accurate image.

Soneira said that most people couldn't tell the difference between a perfectly adjusted LCD set with fluorescent backlighting and one that uses LEDs.

But without LEDs, you wouldn't be joining the future.

"With a standard LCD TV," he said, "there are no bragging rights."

--

david.colker@latimes.com

How to Clean Your LCD or Plasma TV

• By: Dena Cassella
  
• From: http://www.digitaltrends.com/how-to/how-to-clean-your-lcd-or-plasma-tv/
  

Have a dusty LCD or plasma TV screen? Check out our 6 easy steps on how to clean your LCD or plasma TV screen..

Some HDTV manufacturers will suggest using LCD/plasma cleaners, but these are often expense and unnecessary. In fact, the main ingredient in most “professional” cleaning solutions on the market is water. We suggest making your own simple solution with half water and half isopropyl alcohol. This is probably the cheapest solution you can come by, and it works great—very mild, and harmless. The main reason you would need to clean your HDTV screen, whether plasma or LCD, is to getrid of smudges and fingerprints. Be mindful of your HDTV’s LCD or plasma screen: Try not to touch them that often because the less you have to wash them, the longer they’ll last. Here are our 6 easy steps to cleaning your LCD or plasma TV screen.

What You’ll Need

• 
• Two clean, soft, lint-free cloth
• Distilled water
• Isopropyl alcohol
• Measuring cup

6 Easy Steps to Clean a LCD or Plasma TV

1. Turn TV off and let it cool off. Ensure that your TV has been off long enough that it doesn’t feel warm to the touch. Turn it off and let it cool down before proceeding with cleaning the screen.

2. Dust the screen. Wipe your screen with part of the soft, lint-free cloth to remove dust. If there are no visible smudges after dusting, stop here.

3. Make a mild mixture. There are a lot for cleaning solutions out there, but most HDTV manufacturers say that they best and cheapest cleaning solution for your LCD or plasma screen is to make your own equal-part mixture of isopropyl alcohol and distilled water. Using a measuring cup, make a solution with equal parts of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol.

4. Dip and wipe. Dip the clean end of the same cloth into the solution. Squeeze it to ring out the excess solution—you want the cloth damp, not wet. Then wipe the damp cloth over the LCD or plasma screen very gently.

5. Q-tip the Edges. Dip one end of the Q-tip in your mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water, then press it against the inside of the container holding the cleaning solution to squeeze excess moisture out of the cottony tip. Drag the damp end of the Q-tip along the outside edge of the LCD or plasma screen gently.

6. Dry with second clean, soft cloth. Use the second clean cloth to dry your LCD or plasma screen. Don’t leave any moisture on your screen, especially before turning the TV back on.

Tips

• The less you have to clean your screen, the longer it will last—so be careful with touching your screen
• Always use a clean cloth—tiny hard particles can get trapped in cloth fibers and could scratch your LCD or plasma screen
• Get the cloth damp, not wet, just damp
• Don’t use Windex or other glass cleaners! These contain ammonia and WILL hurt your LCD screen.
• Do not use paper towels

Future TV screens seen in coffee stains

by Anil Ananthaswamy

THE rings left behind by spilled coffee have inspired a new way to make ultrathin coatings for LCD and plasma flat-screens.

In LCDs, transparent conductive coatings are used to form an electrode on the surface of the screen, while in plasma TVs they provide a shield that prevents electromagnetic fields from straying. The traditional techniques for making such coatings include sputtering a fine layer of indium tin oxide onto the surface. ITO is highly conductive and transparent to visible light, but the process is expensive, requiring clean rooms and vacuum chambers.

Ivan Vakarelski at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences in Singapore realised that coffee stains could point the way to a cheaper alternative. Spill coffee and the evaporating liquid drives coffee particles to the edges of the spill - which ultimately produces the circular stain. The coffee granules are being "assembled" by the varying evaporation and convection rates in the fluid. Vakarelski and his colleagues figured that if they could mimic the process in a controlled fashion, they could create a pattern of granules of other materials to form a nanoscale conductive coating.

Instead of coffee, they started with a suspension of gold particles, each about 20 nanometres across. The suspension was left to dry on a glass plate covered with closely packed latex microspheres, each about 50 to 100 micrometres in diameter.

By adding suitable surfactants and lowering the temperature to 4 °C, the team was able to control the evaporation and convection rates, causing the gold particles to move to the base of the latex balls where they settled to form rings and bridges. Once the liquid had evaporated, they were left with a network of connected gold nanoparticles (Physical Review Letters, vol 102, p 058303).

"Our gold network is finer than spider's silk and is also conductive," says Vakarelski. He reckons that gold nanonets could make even better conductors than ITO coatings.
The team has made coatings a few square centimetres in size in the laboratory and aim to increase this tenfold. Unlike many new technologies, the nanonet process will be easy to scale up, says Vakarelski.

The work has "considerable merit", says Jennifer Lewis at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an expert on the self-assembly of nanoparticles. "A key advantage of their approach is that the resulting networks are semi-transparent and their density can be tuned by varying the size of the [latex-microsphere] template."

Hands flailing wildly with Toshiba Spatial Motion Interface

by Richard Lawler

Given a year to work on its gesture control technology, Toshiba has upgraded from the simple implementation of 2008 to a new 3D interface that rotates and zooms photos and videos with a flick of the arm. Useful? We're not completely sold. Still ridiculous to use, or watch someone else try? Of course, video's after the break.

Lenovo's new ThinkPad has 2 LCD screens

by Amy Vernon

We've all done it — had two tabs or screens open, wishing we could have two screens on our laptop so we didn't have to keep switching back and forth between windows. Enter Lenovo Group Ltd. The company's next ThinkPad laptop is more of a "desktop replacement" than ever. ThinkPad W700ds (a follow-on to the standard W700 model we evaluated for you here) will have a 17-inch main screen and a 10.6-inch secondary. The former is a bit larger than the a mainstream 15.4" laptop and the latter about the same size as the average netbook today.

It's far heavier than the norm, too — 11 pounds — and will be a bit pricier than we've come to expect from laptops — starting $3,600 when it goes up for sale in January. But check out its specs, according to ComputerWorld:

The souped-up "mobile workstation," as Lenovo calls it, also comes with customers' choice of quad-core Intel Core 2 processors and Nvidia Quadro mobile graphics CPU with as many as 128 cores. It also comes with as much as 8GB of DDR3 memory and a pair of hard drive/solid-state drive bays for up to 960GB of storage.

And know how you always reach for the separate numeric keyboard when you sit down with your laptop, then curse its non-existence? This one has it.

More tidbits:
• The secondary screen can be tiled up to 30 degrees.
• The main screen is rated at 400 nits of brightness.
• The ThinkPad has dual fans and dual heat-reduction systems.
• The whole thing measures 16 by 12 inches and is 2.1 inches thick.

Ford SmartGauge LCD Instrument Panel Brings Futuristic Look, Green Leaves To 2010 Hybrids

UPDATE: We got a first-hand look at the new SmartGauge — here's our a video of the gauge in use!

Ford's making no small secret of their upcoming 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid (not the just-revealed 2010 Ford Fusion), but it may be the stellar high-tech SmartGauge LCD instrument panels feature that makes these cars stand out in the crowd. Billed as a way for drivers to maximize fuel economy, SmartGauge with "EcoGuide" uses an all-digital, LCD screen instrument cluster with lively animations to prompt drivers on good driving habits by displaying a heavily stylized greenery for good behavior. The gauges can be customized to display whatever real time data the driver wishes to see. Shades of the 80's era digital dashes aside, this looks impossibly nifty and we can't wait to take a closer look later today. Hit the jump for the press release and the cool video of the screen changing and updating before your very eyes.

Ford SmartGauge Rendered

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Ford Makes It Easy To Look Green...And High Tech!

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FORD’S SmartGauge with EcoGuide Coaches Drivers to MAXIMIZE FUEL EFFICIENCY On New FUSION Hybrid

DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 29, 2008 – Pushing a vehicle to the limit takes on a new meaning in the new 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids, thanks to Ford’s SmartGauge with EcoGuide – an innovative new instrument cluster that provides real-time information to help drivers maximum fuel efficiency.

“SmartGauge with EcoGuide gives the customer real-world feedback to make the most of their hybrids,” said Gil Portalatin, Hybrid Applications Manager. “Unique to Ford and Mercury hybrid sedans, this instrument cluster acts as a good ‘coach,’ engaging drivers real-time to help them achieve maximum fuel economy.”
Ford collaborated with IDEO and Smart Design, two world leaders in helping consumers connect with technology, to develop the instrument cluster. Job One was properly integrating the driver with the cluster’s science and technology.

“The main question hybrid drivers had was, ‘How do I know I'm getting the most out of my hybrid?’ ” said Jeff Greenberg, Ford senior technical leader. “We needed to create a system that better communicates with drivers and gives them the tools to maximize fuel efficiency. That’s what SmartGauge with EcoGuide does.”

The driver is immediately engaged by the SmartGauge displays, on either side of the center-mounted analog speedometer, with a special greeting that combines illumination and graphics.

EcoGuide then uses a multi-layered approach to coach the driver to maximum fuel efficiency. A tutorial mode built into the display that helps the driver learn about the instrument cluster and the hybrid in a whimsical way that does not overpower.

For instance, drivers can choose one of four data screens to choose the information level displayed during their drives. They are:
Inform: Fuel level and battery charge status
Enlighten: Adds electric vehicle mode indicator and tachometer
Engage: Adds engine output power and battery output power
Empower: Adds power to wheels, engine pull-up threshold and accessory power consumption

All levels can show instant fuel economy, fuel economy history, odometer, engine coolant temperature, what gear the car is in and trip data (trip fuel economy, time-elapsed fuel economy and miles to empty). The engine coolant temperature indicator turns green when engine conditions are warm enough to allow engine pull-down.

At the core of the instrument cluster’s design was an understanding that the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) experience evolves and deepens over time and the technology needed to reflect that.

The four levels of information can be customized to fit each driver’s needs or situation. If cruising on the highway, for instance, only basic information may be desired. Once a driver moves off the highway into a city, additional information to optimize fuel economy may be desired and can be easily accessed.

Long-term fuel efficiency can be displayed in two ways – either as a traditional chart or using an innovative display that shows “growing leaves and vines” on the right side of the cluster. The more efficient a customer is, the more lush and beautiful the leaves and vines, creating a visual reward for the driver’s efforts.

Additionally, the real-time system feedback allows drivers to assess or modify their driving habits to achieve maximum fuel economy. A shutdown screen reviews important information from the latest trip, including fuel economy performance and comparative data from previous days.

Extensive customer research was completed to ensure the instrument cluster is as driver-friendly as possible. Prototype testing was done in Ford’s Virtual Text Track Experiment (VIRTTEX) simulator, the industry’s largest driver distraction laboratory operated by an automaker. Test drivers were able to safely interact with the new technology as engineers gathered data and helped refine SmartGauge, aiding drivers in making informed decisions without being distracting or overwhelming.

“When you’re driving, you have a second or so to look at your display,” Greenberg said. “A dense display isn’t going to work. SmartGauge with EcoGuide is designed to minimize distraction caused by multiple displays. We did a lot of work to eliminate extraneous movement and create a smooth, fluid display.”

The instantaneous fuel economy gauge, for example, can be shown or hidden at each of the EcoGuide levels to suit the needs of individual drivers. “We did a lot of research and modified our designs along the way to make SmartGauge with EcoGuide unobtrusive, using subtle cues to relay information,” Greenberg said.

The brainstorming sessions with the IDEO team proved invaluable. “We received more than 100 ideas about information to display – that was our input to our studies with VIRTTEX,” he added. “In VIRTTEX, for example, we learned that you can’t overlay multiple levels of information. One of our design goals then became to geographically separate the information so it can be better understood while driving.”

Four Hybrids
The Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids join the already successful Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids – the most fuel-efficient SUVs on the planet. With the addition of the two new hybrid sedans, Ford will double its annual hybrid volume and be the largest domestic producer of full hybrid vehicles in North America.

The Fusion and Milan Hybrids will be built at Ford’s Hermosillo (Mexico) Stamping and Assembly Plant and a will arrive in dealer showrooms in the first quarter of 2009.

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About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 229,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company’s core and affiliated automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo and Mazda. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.