Are there such “driving forces” that over time might guide and encourage the progress of developments in the display industry? 

Over 25 years ago, I formulated what I thought such driving forces would be for the foreseeable future – at least 10 years out.   So perhaps it’s time to take a look and see how we did.

At the time, I identified four fundamental driving forces:

            Compute Power
            Image Processing Software
            Communications Bandwidth
            Location Independent Communications

Compute Power has continued to increase much as everyone anticipated, but perhaps in a different direction than expected 25 years ago.  Processing speed has not made any dramatic leaps in recent years, but we are now using our computers for data and image storage more than anyone imagined.  So rather than raw processing speed, we are now relying on our computers to store all of our knowledge and high-resolution images.  These images of course need high quality displays and that has turned out to be a major driving force for display size, resolution, and color accuracy. 

Image Processing Software has likewise had an effect that parallels that of compute power and storage.  We are all using images to a degree that previously could not have happened.  Not only are we sending images to each other but we are using them more and more in commerce and in work environments.   The ability to capture, store, and manipulate images has led to the need for high-quality displays of all sizes. 

In order to share the images we now have in our computers, in our digital cameras, and captured in our cell phones, we have seen the evolution of ever growing Communications Bandwidth so that these images can be transmitted and shared with family, friends, and colleagues

The final fundamental driving force of Location Independent Communications is perhaps the one that has grown the most and has been the most surprising in how widely our society has not only accepted such technology but the new and sometimes peculiar behaviors that go with it.  Looking ahead 25 years ago, it would not have been possible to predict just how overwhelming the impact of cell phones, tablet computers, and laptop computers would be on allowing us to communicate from almost any location and to send nearly unlimited amounts of data to others. 

These four fundamentals have indeed been important driving forces in how display products have evolved.  For example, the need for small displays with high-resolution is the direct consequence of text messages and other data being transmitted to and from hand-held devices.   As another obvious example, the large high-resolution flat-panel TVs we now enjoy are the consequence of transmission standards and image processing software that allow high-quality images to be sent to our homes. 

Perhaps the question to ask now is whether we have exhausted these fundamentals and whether new ones are needed to guide us over the next decade and beyond.  My conclusion is that these four will continue to guide the display industry over the next decade as well.  We have made great progress over the last 25 years but are not anywhere near exhausting what can be done.  We’re in the midst of these developments and not near an endpoint.  Over the next 10 years we will see robust progress in display technology to keep up with progress in image processing and image communications.  We can expect to see even larger and higher resolution displays for television and more capable displays for the “wearable” and location-independent electronics applications.

Should you wish to share your thoughts on this topic or others you may contact me directly from this site, by telephone at 425-898-9117, or by e-mail at silzars@attglobal.net.