Display screens are powerful marketing and advertising tools today. If you want to capture your target audience’s attention, consider using digital signage by beaming your message on digital displays.
Display technology has come a long way. Advances in technology have moved us from the bulky cathode ray tube (CRT) displays of the early days to today’s sleek flat panel displays. And the future promises more improvement in display technology!
This blog post explores the key developments in display technology. This discussion can help you choose a suitable display to optimise your advertising campaigns.
Early forms of display technology
The early forms of display technology include:
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
The earliest technology for visualising electronic text and images is the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display, first manufactured in 1922.
It consists of a large vacuum tube and a cathode gun that fires electrons through the tube onto a phosphor-coated screen. As the electrons bombard the screen, the phosphor glows, creating on-screen images.
CRT displays had several limitations. For example, they were bulky, heavy, and consumed too much power. However, CRT displays remained the standard for many decades. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that LCD was developed to overcome CRT’s limitations.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) was a major breakthrough when it was invented in 1968. It offered a thinner, lighter, and more energy-efficient alternative to the bulky, heavy, and power-hungry CRTs.
LCDs manipulate the properties of liquid crystals to control how light passes through them, creating a pattern of bright and dark pixels that form images on the screen.
Current advancements in display technology
Since LCD technology introduced flat panel displays at the beginning of our modern era, technologies that have enhanced display capabilities include:
Light Emitting Diode (LED) Displays
While LCDs require a separate backlight (to illuminate the liquid crystal layer to make images visible on the screen), LED pixels are self-emissive (produce their own light).
This allows for higher brightness and contrast. LED technology allows for thinner displays with higher refresh rates.
Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays
OLED revolutionised display design by providing pixel-level control. In OLED, each pixel is made of an organic carbon-based compound sandwiched between two layers.
When an electric current is applied, the compound emits light, meaning each pixel is individually lit.
Thus, unlike LED which illuminates the whole screen, OLED allows for pixel-level control of brightness. This results in superior contrast and better image quality. OLED also offers faster refresh rates compared to LED displays.
Quantum Dot (QLED) Displays
Quantum dot technology is a current advancement in display technology that improves the overall picture quality of LED-lit LCDs.
Quantum dots are nanoscale semiconductor crystals placed in a layer in front of the LED backlight in LCDs. The light emitted by the LED backlight passes through the crystal. It is converted into pure monochromatic light and then separated into its colour components (red, green, and blue). This allows QLED to render colours more vividly.
In addition to improved colour accuracy, Quantum Dot displays can also handle high brightness while consuming less power (compared to traditional LED displays).
Future trends in display technology
Ongoing research is looking at various new concepts to enhance display capabilities even further. Luna Screens is at the forefront of display technology innovations. We offer solutions that can adapt to these future trends.
Some of these trends include:
MicroLED technology
MicroLED technology is an advanced digital display technology that uses tiny, individual light-emitting diodes (LED) as pixels to create images on a screen.
Since MicroLED displays have individually lit pixels, they offer benefits similar to OLED displays. But they do everything better. For example, the microscopic size of the LED allows for high pixel density, resulting in sharper images.
MicroLED technology also addresses some OLED limitations. For example, it neither suffers screen burn-in nor has an organic material that degrades. So it is more durable. The higher durability of OLED displays is important in retail applications where digital displays require continuous, non-stop usage.
However, the manufacturing process of these microscopic LEDs is still a challenge. As manufacturing processes become more refined, MicroLED displays are expected to become more accessible.
Transparent displays
As the name suggests, transparent displays are see-through displays that offer a whole new level of versatility and functionality.
Transparent displays offer incredibly high contrast ratios, exceptional colour reproduction, and wide viewing angles. They offer faster refresh rates compared to traditional displays, resulting in a more dynamic viewing experience.
They also create a more immersive and interactive experience as their transparent nature enables interaction with the digital content and the physical environment simultaneously.
When used in retail or interactive exhibits, viewers can engage with the content while still seeing the products or exhibits behind the display. As we go into the future, we’ll see more innovative uses for transparent displays.
But to get there, we need to address a few challenges. First, the production process is complex and costly. Researchers are currently exploring new methods and materials.
Foldable displays
In recent years, foldable displays that can be bent without damaging the display have emerged.
Foldable devices are made using OLED technology, offering an excellent contrast ratio for sharp images. However, their main advantage is versatile form factors. They allow users to transform a device with a larger screen into a more compact size for portability (and vice versa).
Some smartphones have already adopted the foldable display technology, but it is still in the early stages of adoption.
Foldable screen technology will grow in the future to create better display materials and hinge mechanisms to enhance the performance and durability of these displays.
More form factors are expected to be developed to increase these screen’s functionalities, and the manufacturing process is expected to improve to make the displays more accessible.
Holographic displays
Holographic display technology is a type of display technology that creates 3D images by recording and reconstructing the light field of an object.
Unlike traditional displays that project 2D images, holographic displays reproduce the visual depth and perspective humans naturally perceive in the real world.
Giving customers an immersive experience can get you ahead of the competition. And that is what holographic displays offer with realistic and engaging 3D images. Retail businesses can use the technology to show customers a 360-degree view of items.
Ongoing research into light field displays promises to improve resolution, colour reproduction, and viewing angles of holographic images to offer experiences beyond what current 3D visualisations provide us.
Conclusion
Display technology started with bulky, heavy, and power-hungry cathode ray tubes. Then, LCD technology ushered in flat panel displays many decades later.
The future promises even more improvements with technologies like transparent, foldable, and holographic displays.
Display technology has many applications, including retail, where businesses use digital screens to engage their target audience.
In this application, you need to pair the display with a digital signage solution like Luna Screens.
Luna Screens offers a user-friendly interface and seamless integration with the latest display technology.
It provides solutions that adapt to future trends, including foldable and holographic displays. It is an excellent choice for businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve in display technology.
