Chrysler recalling 142,000 pickups, SUVs

Chrysler is recalling more than 142,000 pickup trucks and SUVs worldwide because of software glitches that could affect instrument cluster lighting and braking systems.

Amazon takes on iPad with larger Kindle Fire (Update 3)

Amazon unveiled four new Kindle Fire tablet computers on Thursday, including ones with larger color screens, as the online retailer steps up competition with Apple ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Colored solar cells could make display screens more efficient

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new kind of screen pixel doubles as a solar cell and could boost the energy efficiency of cell phones and e-readers. The technology could also potentially be used in larger displays to make energy-harvesting ...

NXP Introduces Advanced 3DTV Processor

NXP Semiconductors today announced the availability of the PNX5130, the industry's first video co-processor enabling 3DTV, frame-rate conversion (FRC) and local backlight dimming in a single chip. By eliminating the need ...

Sony optimistic on 3-D TVs, in-house display

(AP) -- A third to a half of the Sony Corp. TV sets sold annually will be packed with 3-D features by the year ending March 2013, a senior executive said Thursday.

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Backlight

A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). As LCDs do not produce light themselves (unlike for example Cathode ray tube (CRT) displays), they need illumination (ambient light or a special light source) to produce a visible image. Backlights illuminate the LCD from the side or back of the display panel, unlike frontlights, which are placed in front of the LCD. Backlights are used in small displays to increase readability in low light conditions, and in computer displays and LCD televisions to produce light in a manner similar to a CRT display.

Simple types of LCD displays are built without an internal light source, requiring external light sources to convey the display image to the user. Modern LCD screens, however, are built with an internal light source. Such LCD screens consist of several layers. The backlight is usually the first layer from the back. But in order to create screen images, a mechanism is needed to regulate the light intensity of the screen's pixels. For this, light valves are used that vary the amount of light reaching the target by blocking its passage in some way. The most common element is a polarizing filter to polarize the light from the source in one of two transverse directions and then passing it through a switching polarizing filter, to block the path of undesirable light.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA