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Monday, 23 June 2014

Sharp Creates Free Form Display: Now Screens Can Have Any Shape

Sharp has just announced a new technology called Free-Form Display.  This brand new tech will have a dramatic impact on our live, whether we know it yet or not.  With Free-Form displays, companies are no longer constrained by a standard format of a rectangle.  A screen can become whatever the designer wants it to be.   With the reduced bezel size to almost zero, screens can be made to fit into any space.



With a standard display, a lot of display circuitry in housed in the bezel of a screen.  This forces manufacturers to use conventional shapes like rectangles. The new solution from Sharp will spread the circuitry that is usually found at the edge across the whole display, thereby allowing both very slim bezels and almost any shape.

Sharp explains:

Conventional displays are rectangular because they require a minimal width for the bezel in order to accommodate the drive circuit, called the gate driver, around the perimeter of the screen’s display area. With the Free-Form Display, the gate driver’s function is dispersed throughout the pixels on the display area. This allows the bezel to be shrunk considerably, and it gives the freedom to design the LCD to match whatever shape the display area of the screen needs to be.

Currently Sharp is showcasing a Free-Form display, which could find its way into cars: a sleek dash screen that needs no cowling above it, but display everything in three simple circular areas. Like I said, the possibilities are almost limitless.  The software for displays is typically designed for rectangular screens, so this new avenue of a Free-Form display brings much to the table.

There is currently no word on where or when we may first see the new panels appear though, as no further information has come to light.

As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

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