display technology other than pixels (and films)

[rituraj]

Not saying that there is a need or anything, but can or will there be any other technology than pixels? The photographic films before pixels had a continuous 'chemical matrix' (not sure if that is the proper word) but after tech has gone digital, displays have gone digital and thus pixels came into existence. But can there exist any other technology that can display images as a continuous one without blurring the edges like photographic films?

I guess one method could be that the display has to implement some algorithm which can turn the image elements into some mathematical functions and then show the colours with some chemical transformation of the display matrix rather than showing with pixels.

Yes, there are serious challenges like rigorous real time computation needed at the time of capturing of images and then real time computation required while displaying the same.

Is there any chance this can happen anytime? Or do I sound too ridiculous?

 

[cbrunny]

there still needs to be a differential from one "colour area" to another. Jamming pixels increasingly close together will basically accomplish what you're suggesting, I believe.

 

[Murloc]

Mathematically, there's nothing special about a function that gives you a continous image instead of a grill. Just pick any continous 3D function f(x,y) and interpret z = f(x,y) as a color, by using a color scale that gives you the color from the real number.

But in reality, it will never be continous, because you have to calculate the values with a computer, so it all has to be discrete, you can't have real continuity. But you can have so many pixels that it's not a problem. Then the limiting factor would be that molecules or groups of molecules positioned in a matrix are still pixels. There's no point to get there though, the human eye has limits.

 

[rituraj]

Yeah.. got it. So even if they do implement mathematical functions they need to put discrete values to plot a graph and it's those damn pixels again even if they are smaller to the molecular level. That means whoever started the idea of pixels thought it through that this system is perfectly upgradable as technology advances and we can get almost continuous.

yeah why put extra load on cpu and gpu... Thanks for enlightening.

this is why I love AT forums. One always gets an answer that makes sense.


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[IronWing]

Oscilloscope traces (pre-digital) are pretty close to your idea. They are still limited by beam width and the size of the phosphors.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

It's not really true anyway that photographic film is continuous -- the images are formed from grains of silver halide, which while very small, are discrete.

As others have said, as soon as you are in the realm of digital computation, there's really no going back. There were (and still are) analog computers, but they work in a completely different way from the digital devices we know and love.

 

[bryanl]

Vector displays, as used in CRT oscilloscopes, the old Asteroids video game, and 1950s SAGE air defense computers:

 

[SecurityTheatre]

Vector displays, as used in CRT oscilloscopes, the old Asteroids video game, and 1950s SAGE air defense computers:

The "pixels" of a phosphor screen from an oscilloscope are pretty similar to that of film.

Phosphor is just a crystalline, in a similar way to the silver halide.

(This is an electron micrograph of an actual oscilloscope screen)

The resolution of this type of vector screen is also limited by the beam width (and therefore by the wavelength of the light and the precision of the magnetic elements directing it)

I think LCD/LED pixels are a pretty swell idea in comparison to their chemical counterparts (silver halide film, electron-gun phosphor screens, etc)