IFA 2012: Thoughts and Opinions (part 2)

Continuing with my IFA 2012 review (you can read part 1 here), we move from the sleek and incredibly thin OLED TVs to monitors and touch displays.

One of the really cool monitors on display was the EA93 21:9 widescreen monitor. This is a beautiful truly movie-like monitor, offering 2560 horizontal pixels. A monitor like this will be specially handy for movie and video editors and sound editors, although may be too much for regular use. You can check a more detailed review on the best monitors by Trusted Reviews.

Quick video on Samsung’s 3-Screen-Array displaying synchronized video

Samsung was also displaying a gorgeous array of three portrait oriented really thin screens playing a synchronized video, which I could easily image on retail and out-of-home spaces, like flagships.


Regarding touch screen technologies and devices I was a little disappointed. While the progress on touch displays for tablets was actually quite good, interactive touch screen technologies still falls below expectations. Although I can’t give much details on the devices I tried, most touch monitor displays still feel sluggish and feel hard on your fingers. The exception to this was a Sharp 80’’ PN-E802B with an Overlay Touch Panel. The responsiveness was impressive and it felt good to touch it without minimal friction.

Quick video showcasing the Samsung’s SUR40 with output on a horizontal 4-screen-array

From all touch displays on the show, the Samsung’s SUR40 PixelSense (formerly known as the Surface 2 Table) is still the best multi-touch, multi-user device on the market. Although PixelSense is not targeted to consumers, it is always an attractive and engaging device. Retail spaces have a lot of potential for the PixelSense tables. However, developing compelling applications is a .NET expertise that is hard and expensive to invest on, apart from the high price of the device itself. Nonetheless, I always enjoy to see the tables on display since I have worked with Surface since the early versions.

To finish this second part of my IFA 2012 review, I want to share a really cool prototype that I had the chance to see and test for myself. Haier had a still-in-development prototype of a brain controller display. The prototype uses a small headset with sensors that is capable of measure the different brain waves generated and then transmit them to an app that process them and display the results on screen. While testing the prototype, the goal is to concentrate on something being displayed on the screen. If the person is able to concentrate really hard, the ball on the screen starts to levitate, giving you the feeling that you are actually moving the ball with your mind. Although is still a work in progress, this has tremendous potential. Imagine how disabled people could you a device like this to control the TV or their computer!
The third, and last part of the post is to finalize with tablets, laptops and ultrabooks plus my conclusions on IFA 2012. Make sure to check it out!