Liquid Crystal Displays: Tue Prominent Canoidate For Multimedia Displays

Since the later half of 1 9 8 0 s . a word of MULTIMEDIA has been frequently utilized in our electronics industry. llowever as i t has been under development stage even now. concept of the word has not also been clear enoughlr. Then. in this lecture I would like to use the word which is defined as follows: MULTIMEDIA is the property of handling several types of representation-media which are text(numerics and characters). graphics. images a n d s o u n d s p r e s e n t e d at t h e s a m e t i m e (synchronously). S o . in the MULTIMEDIA it is meaningful that each medium can be pick-uped independently and also be processed with effective interrelationships among them. Of cource. f o r realizing such works it is a major premise to exist a fundamental technology of an unified digital processing technology. what we call a computor system. Anyway, what is a merit f o r us utilizing a MULTIMEDIA system? The answer is substantiality o f functions of an interfacc between man and the machine as the information processor: computor. In another word, it would like to be called as a realizing a true user-friendly t o o l which aimes to play a role of a communication from man to man using with several familiar representations including conversations, gestures. written characters and others with a reality and without a scnce of incongruity as an out-put of the computor. Display devices are the m o s t important hardwares f o r the out-put in the MULTIMEDIA system because they use a visual sensation o f the highest information transfer-ability,more than 85%. in human sensations which are visual. auditory, olfactory. gustatory. and cutaneous sensations. In addition. the display devices should have a good compatibility with a digital processing and enough safety for an operation. In this lecture, the prospects of the operational principle, the current statous, and the future trends o f the liquid crystal display(LCD) technologies which have both a excellent compatibility with L S I s and high performances competing with CRTs as the prominent candidate for the MULTIMEDIA displays are presented.