After all these years using and programming computers with the RGB color scheme, the geniuses at Sharp toss in another color. What will the computing world do?
Here is the Sharp commercial starring George Takei, just in case you haven’t yet seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hSnAxvRdmY
Oh, my! Indeed!
It states the obvious quite well in the commercial: “You have to see it to see it.” How can you appreciate an RGBY monitor when all you have to look at is an RGB monitor?
Well, naturally, the yellow goes nowhere. In fact, while the monitor/TV might be a brilliant invention and bring visual imagery to a new level, what’s the point if nothing you have takes advantage of that extra Y pixel?
To get the most from an RGBY monitor wouldn’t you need an RGBY source? That is, a digital camera or software that generates something for the Y pixel to do.
Right now, everything in computer graphics deals with RGB. Last Monday I wrote about how HTML is coded to handle the three pixel values, red, green, and blue. So if you send the HTML code #FFFF00 to a monitor you get a yellow something. And you’ll get the same yellow something on an RGBY monitor even though that Y pixel stays dark.
Of course, the Sharp Quattron monitor may interpolate a yellow signal and fire up that actual yellow pixel. That would look better to the human eye than seeing the red and green pixels glowing, which also looks yellow but might not be as hot and sweet as a yellow pixel glowing yellow. Who knows?
You have to see it to see it.
Yeah, I know.
Then again, the computer hardware world may go nuts and in 5 or 7 years we may see nothing but RGBY monitors out there.
Call them rugby monitors.
If so, then HTML coders and computer programmers will have to put up with a new color coding scheme. Instead of #FFFF00 to get yellow you’ll be writing #000000FF to get yellow.
Or write #FFFF00FF to get super yellow!
By the way, adding 256 more values for the various shades of yellow on an RGBY monitor means that the monitors will be capable of producing over four billion individual colors.
Until then, I’m eager to see the Sharp Quattron in action. Then I’ll just have to wait until the update the graphics programming technology to throw some more yellow into the mix. Should be fun.
Four billion colours… oh, goody. The human eye doesn’t all the colours when your monitor is on 32 bit, let alone mine (I’m red\green colour deficient so some colours look similar or different to how you might see them), I fail to see how this will benefit anyone.
Comment by Douglas — March 31, 2010 @ 4:12 am
Well, you gotta see it to see it. My guess is that the images are just brighter. In fact, I would even bet that there is no direct programming of the Y pixel, and that it’s all interpolated by the firmware. Maybe I’ll saunter up to the video store today and see whether they have a Quattron on display or not…
Comment by admin — March 31, 2010 @ 7:52 am
So really, the extra Y pixel won’t be too noticeable until the entire media industry converts too? If this is the case I probably won’t even bother buying one for another couple years when the rest of the industry has had time to make the same innovation.
Comment by gamerguy473 — March 31, 2010 @ 8:18 am
They could go nuts with this. Look how the movie industry is going bananas over 3D this-and-that. If the Y pixel takes off, I agree with you gamerguy473: WAIT. Eventually prices will come down and the technology will be widespread.
Comment by admin — March 31, 2010 @ 9:03 am
If I did get one right away, Pretty much all I would do on it is play Xbox and watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 (best show ever)
Comment by gamerguy473 — March 31, 2010 @ 11:53 am