Re: LCD w/touch

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Dave Houston wrote:
> > Has anybody tried this?
> >
> >      http://www.smarthome.com/78550.html

"John, SW Missouri" <jmjones@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> No, but it looks pretty neat and not a back price.

Yes, it looked like a nice, low price point for a more than adequate feature
set.  Obviously they're moving further into geek-like stuff which seems like
a good idea to me.   They can bring greater  negotiating power to bear on
suppliers because of their size compared to some other players.  That might
benefit us in the long run because as Joerg noted, they're aware that there
are magic "low price points" where people are willing to get their feet wet
and buy 10 or more pieces at the same time.

But AFAICT, it's neither color nor backlight, and that's going to really
limit its overall usefulness.  I'm using a Fujitsu 3400 Stylistic tablet PC
for a test of a wall-mounted touch screen interface.  The horsepower behind
that display and built in networking (well, sort of) make it a far different
animal, programming wise, from the new Smarthome screen but it costs twice
as much to buy and must consume far more electricity that the new LCD.

On the other hand, the Stylistic is brightly backlit and full color and can
be used to automate anything that presents a mouse-clickable button on the
screen and as long as I don't bite my fingernails, I can use it quite easily
without a stylus.

It's good that the Smarthome unit comes caseless because mounting the
Fujitsu so that it's 1) easy to remove for servicing, 2) not an eyesore and
3) legible from both standing and sitting has been impossible.  The 3400
does NOT get a pass in that department, but I've always been disappointed at
the loss of angle of view that came with the shift from CRT's to LCD's.  So
it's not the tablet PC's fault as much as it is an issue with (in this case
ten year old) LCD display technology.

The Smarthome LCD looks like it would be easy to flush mount and feather
into wallboard if you decided to submerge it.  I would never mount a tablet
PC like that due to maintenance issues, but a simple display screen would
look really cool well-blended into the surface of the wall.  The ideal LCD
touchscreen would be indistinguishable from painted wallboard or wallpaper
when not in use.  LCD touchscreens, at least in my house, appear to have a
low spouse approval rating.  My wife doesn't even like wall switches with
tiny LEDs, whether they glow with or against the state of the controlled
load.

The PDF file at:

http://www.smarthome.com/manuals/78550.pdf

cautioned against exposure to direct sunlight, so there could be a serious
placement issue in many homes. I hope someone gets their hands on one to
describe the LCD's visual qualities.  That's where the rubber meets the
road.  People have gotten used to highly saturated, low power, contrasty and
bright LCD displays on their cell phones so anything less suffers by
comparison.

I think most people are going to be looking for full-motion capable color
video, though.  I was pleasantly surprised the tablet PC (400MHz Pentium
III) could present FMV with ease.    When enough small consumer video
devices hit the market, the prices for backlit color touch LCD screens
should really drop.  The "DVD 02" marking on the edge of the frame in the
product photo makes me wonder if these screens aren't really overruns from
some consumer device.  I'll keep waiting for commercial LCD TV chip and
screen developments to push the prices even further down.

--
Bobby G.