January 7th, 2008
Alienware shows off ultra-ultra-wide curved screen
Photo credit: Engadget
I’ve always had a weakness for big monitors. On my main computer I have 3 19-inchers for a total resolution of 3840×1024. My friend Rick Ross over at DZone has 3 24-inch panels on his desk (5760×1200). And who wouldn’t want one (or more) of the Apple Cinema 30-inch displays (2560×1600 each)? The problem with all these setups, of course, is that they’re flat. The distance from your eye to the center of the screen is shorter than the distance to the corner. This can lead to problems with focusing and eye fatigue.
The solution? Make it curved. Alienware showed off a prototype for a curved display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At 2880×900, the resolution leaves something to be desired for such a large monitor (it’s 3 feet wide), but hopefully this is the start of a new trend. Maybe one day, we’ll even see direct displays that are curved in both dimensions. This should be possible by using more, smaller panels arranged in a grid or hexagonal pattern. Imagine sub-panels that you could snap together to make displays arbitrarily large. Dead pixel? No problem, just replace one of the panels. Now who’s going to build the first one?
Gizmodo has a nice photo gallery here, including a view from the back that looks something like the grill of my mom’s old Dodge Charger R/T. Vrooom!
Ed Burnette is a professional developer and author of several articles and books about computing including Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform, 2nd Edition. For disclosure of Ed's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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