Screen design
From OLPC
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Contents |
[edit] Introduction
Even though the OLPC contains a great deal of innovative design in its screen, there are still ideas for making it better or different.
The LCD panel is the most innovative part of the machine, primarily in that it is truly novel. Mary Lou Jepsen, who has huge experience in the design and manufacture of displays, has come up with ideas that would reduce the manufacturing cost of the LCD by $50, which is huge. On the credit side, it can be manufactured without requiring fundamental new processes in the fab lines. As she puts it at every opportunity, though, no innovation in displays has ever shipped on time, and until the first one of these is fabbed and back where we can look at it, we don’t know if it will work for sure or when the machines will ship.
It should be usable in two modes: 1200 x 900 resolution monochrome (grayscale), sunlight readable, which is essential as many schools are out of doors and conventional LCD’s generally don’t work well in strong light, and a back-lit color mode, at 1/3 resolution in one dimension (we use the pixels for different colors in that case).
Note that in many locations in the world, the backlight will be the first artificial illumination many families will have (besides a fire). How people will use these systems will fascinate us all.
[edit] Idea List
[edit] Organic Polymer Electronics
Use OPE screens to make the OLPC biodegradable.
[edit] Electronic Ink Display
Sony has built an e-book reader called Libre around an electronic paper display made by E-INK. They offer Linux-based development kit for about $3000. This technology will drop in price as it reaches mass production.
[edit] Support USB Video Out
Support the devices that implement a video card in a USB connected box. These generally use the SiS chipset, which is supported by Linux, and at least one developer has gotten such a device running. This could be used for a screen projector. This probably doesn't need any hardware mods to the OLPC, just the drivers installed and tested.
Some references to existing USB video drivers are:
- http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsisusbvga.shtml
- http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/X11R7.0/doc/html/sisusb.4.html
- http://www.altlinux.com/index.php?module=sisyphus&package=xorg-x11-drv-sisusb
- http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/AddVGAAdapter
[edit] OnScreen Keyboard
As suggested in Case_design#Slate_form_factor, would dramatically reduce mechanical parts and global costs. --S112 03:44 16 August 2006 (EST)
- Any use of the screen as keyboard or mouse (touchscreen) will cause the screen to become quite damaged with scratches. AlbertCahalan 00:35, 8 March 2007 (EST)
- How scratchable is the screen? Specifically, if a screen ruler utility is available, objects will be placed on the screen for measurement. How much of a problem is this? MitchellNCharity 13:28, 2 June 2007 (EDT)
