Display technologies

An LCDis made of two glass plates with a liquid crystal material between them. The crystals block the light in different quantities to create the image. Active-matrix LCDsuse TFT (thin film transistor)technology, in which each pixel has its own switch. The amount of light the LCD monitor produces is called brightness or luminance, measured in cd/m²(candela per square metre).

A CRTmonitor is similar to a traditional TV set. It contains millions of tiny red. green and blue phosphor dots that glow when struck by an electron beam that travels across the screen and create a visible image.

PCs can be connected to video projectors,which project the image onto a large screen. They are used for presentations and home theatre applications.

In a plasma screen,images are created by a plasma discharge which contains noble (non harmful) gases. Plasma TVs allow for larger screens and wide viewing angles, making them ideal for movies.

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)are thin-film LED displays that don't require a backlight to function. The material emits light when stimulated by an electrical current, which is known as electroluminescence. They consume less energy, produce brighter colours and are flexible - i.e. they can be bent and rolled up when they're not being used.

3. Choosing the right display device:

Listen to five customers in a computer shop describing their display device needs. Which device (a-e) would you recommend to each person? In pairs, discuss your choices and give reasons for them.

Speaker 1 Speaker 4

Speaker 2 Speaker 5 __________________________

Speaker 3

Dell UltraSharp LCD monitor

Widescreen 24" flat panel

Resolution: 1920x1200

Colour support: 16.7 million

Multiple video inputs, flash- card slots and USB ports

NEC MultiSyn LCD Monitor

Screen size: 17"

Resolution: 1280x1024 (SXGA)

Aspect ratio: 5:4 Brightness: 400 cd/m²

Cambridge- Hitachi interactive whiteboard

Allows interaction with a projected computer image

Board size: 78"

Connected to the PC via USB

Pointing device: cordless pen

Pioneer 50" Plasma TV

Resolution: 1280x768 (XGA)

Blu-ray Disc recorder

5.1 surround sound system (Five audio channels plus one subwoofer)

Portable projector

DIP (Digital Light Processing) technology

Resolution: 1024x768

Projection screen

4. In pairs, discuss which of the display devices you would most like to own. Give reasons for your choice.

5. Choosing a printer. Answer the question:

1) How many types of printers can you think of? Make a list.

6. Read the text and complete the table below.

There are many different types of printer. These include dot-matrix, inkjet, mono laser, anddye sublimation printers. Basically, you get what you pay for. The more you pay, the better the printer.

Dot-matrix printers are the cheapest kind of printer, but their print quality is low and they are slow and noisy. They're cheap to run.

Inkjet printersare the cheapest, but their print quality is not as good as the other two types of printer. They are expensive to run compared to mono laser printers, but are able to print in colour. Inkjets are the noisiest of the three types of printer.

Mono laserprinters are more expensive than inkjet printers but give you a better quality of black and white output. They cannot print in colour, but are the fastest type of printer and cost the least to run.

Dye sublimationprinters are the most expensive type of printer, but their print quality is extremely high. They are quiet in operation, but are relatively slow and very expensive to run.

Notes: dye sublimation - термосублимационная технология

7. Fill in the gaps in this comparison of printers.

There are three different types of printer: (матричный) …, (струйный)…, (лазерный)… . (Матричные) … printers are the (cheap)… kind of printer. Their print quality is (low)… and they are (slow) … . The running costs are (cheap)… .

(Струйные) … printers are (expensive) … than (матричные)… , but you get (good) … quality and (quiet) … operation than the former. However they are (expensive) … to run.

(Лазерные) printers give the (good) … quality of output. They print (fast) … than either of the other two printers and it costs (little) … to run than an (струйный) … . Unfortunately, they cost twice as (much) … as an (струйный).