Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A Buyer's Guide to Monitors

By Craig Stephenson

The steady rise in applications for touch-screen monitors has coincided with a constantly improving technology sector. Whether providing portable entertainment or assisting a customer with a transaction, these devices have proven very useful in an increasingly digital society. There are many options available for manufacturing touch-screens, including the recognition of physical contact as a mechanical disruption at a specific point on the surface. The surface can also contain an electric current, thus reacting to the charge difference that occurs during touching. One more example is the use of infrared lights, which can be aimed across the screen to record the area of interference with their signals.

Liquid crystal displays sport a number of benefits, making them a common option in the market for monitors. With two pieces of polarized glass containing the liquid crystals, they have slender, lightweight frames and run on minimal energy. When provided with an electrical current, the screen aligns the crystals so that pictures form depending on their specific arrangements. While LCDs currently enjoy a great deal of popularity, both their contrast and viewing angle properties are below average when compared to other monitors.

Though outdated by some standards, CRT monitors still offer excellent credentials, such as response time, color, and contrast levels on par with more recent technology. They rely on the heated filament of the cathode to produce a ray of electrons, which flows out into a vacuum tube. It passes through the tube and onto the screen, where it excites the colored phosphor pixels and generates images. Despite their consistent quality, cathode ray tube monitors are disadvantaged by their large, heavy frames and high energy consumption.

Plasma display panels are designed to provide the viewer with large, crisp screens. In fact, they can rarely be manufactured at less than 32" in an economic manner. The panel consists of two glass plates, between which there are hundreds of thousands of phosphor-coated cells filled with a mixture of noble gases, which can be charged to form plasma and emit colored light. These displays enjoy excellent response times, high contrast ratios, and wide viewing angles, but they are usually the most expensive commercial option.

With thousands of cathode ray tubes, each assigned to a sub-pixel, SED monitors are able to harness the advantages of the bulkier CRT monitor and place them inside a skinny LCD-like frame with an even lower energy requirement. Scientists are working to lower the high costs that continue to prevent surface-conduction electron-emitter displays from reaching the consumer market.

Organic light-emitting diodes, called OLEDs, require no backlight and extremely little power, allowing for ultra-thin designs. To function, voltage is applied to a film of conductive organic compounds that is printed onto suitable material under the monitor's surface. Due to their reliance on organic matter, OLEDs have somewhat limited lifespans.

When it becomes necessary to juggle multiple programs at the same time, no single monitor, even amongst all the current options, will accomplish the job. In this situation, and with the correct cords and plugs, monitors can be connected together to allow the user side-by-side access to different pieces of information. The arrangement can also be used to display over-sized files or images.

About the Author:

0 comments: