CES: Show exposes incomplete 3-D TV products

EE Times
(01/06/2010 9:38 AM EST)

LAS VEGAS — In order to call a new TV "3-D ready," as many manufacturers here this week at the Consumer Electronics Show claim, what exactly was done to the unit in terms of engineering?

David Naranjo of Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, (center), discusses the company's 3-D adapter for its 3-D-ready DLP projection TV.

It's not a trivial issue for TV system designers, especially when there is no agreement among broadcasters on a single 3-D TV format and Blu-ray has chosen its own 3-D format independent of the pending broadcast format.

David Naranjo, director of product development at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, said the the answer is a 3-D adapter.

At a pre-CES event Tuesday (Jan. 5), Mitsubishi showed off its own 3-D-ready projection TV, based on DLP technolog. It displays 3-D content from a Blu-ray player. Mitsubishi engineers developed a 3-D adapter for the company's projection TV. The board consists of HDMI 1.4 interface, Mitsubishi's homegrown ASIC based on MIPS core, and video signaling circuitry.

The 3-D adapter comes with "enough horsepower to handle 90 percent of all the different 3-D formats out there -- including top-to-bottom and side-by-side formats," Naranjo said.

. Naranjo said Mitsubishi is so far not selling its MIPS-based ASIC to other 3-D TV makers. While the endgame may still be having consumer chip companies such as Broadcom, NXP or Pixelworks develop a single-chip 3-D TV solution in the future, leading TV vendors including Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Sony have had no choice but to develop their own proprietary ASIC in order to design their own 3-D adapter.

Unlike other CE vendors such as Sony, Samsung and JVC, which have announced agreements with RealD, a 3-D technology company, Mitsubishi appears to be holding out on its final decisions for 3-D technology partners and formats -- at least for now.

Mitsubishi declined to comment further on its 3-D TV strategy.

Mitsubishi did stage its own 3-D-ready TV demonstration here using 3-D glasses that bear the RealD logo.

Naranjo said that doesn't mean the company's 3-D-ready TV must always be viewed using RealD's 3-D glasses, which feature polarized lenses. Mitsuboishi's approach is independent of 3-D format, said Naranjo.

"The secret sauce offered by all these different 3-D technology companies, whether RealD, Sensio or others, is in the encoding algorithm which minimizes the artifacts created by two images -- whether they are placed side-by-side or top-and-bottom." As long as the 3-D adapter used inside a TV decodes that format, "you can watch 3-D content by using different 3-D glasses, including those based on battery-powered LCD shutters," said Naranjo.

Mitsubishi's 3-D TV uses a DLP-based projection TV, rather than LCD TV. Max Wasinger, an executive vice president at Mitsubishi, said DLP offers better 3-D image separation than LCD due to its much higher refresh rate. The higher speed "reduces the visual artifacts," said Wasinger. Readying LCD TV for 3-D, "you need a minimum 240-Hz refresh rate," he added.

Hydraulic Turbines: Definition and Basics

Hydraulic Turbines transfer the energy from a flowing fluid to a rotating shaft. Turbine itself means a thing which rotates or spins. To know more about what are Hydraulic Turbines, what is the working principle of Hydraulic Turbines and how are they classified, read on through this article series.

Leonardo da Vinci once said “The power of water has changed more in this world than emperors or kings”. It was very rightly stated by him as in present time Hydropower, the power generated from water, has a major contribution to the world’s total power production. This all was made possible by the development of Hydraulic Turbines which can transfer the energy from flowing water to the shafts of dynamos producing electrical power.

Hydraulic Turbines

Hydraulic Turbines have a row of blades fitted to the rotating shaft or a rotating plate. Flowing liquid, mostly water, when pass through the Hydraulic Turbine it strikes the blades of the turbine and makes the shaft rotate. While flowing through the Hydraulic Turbine the velocity and pressure of the liquid reduce, these result in the development of torque and rotation of the turbine shaft. There are different forms of Hydraulic Turbines in use depending on the operational requirements. For every specific use a particular type of Hydraulic Turbine provides the optimum output.

Classification of Hydraulic Turbines: Based on flow path

Water can pass through the Hydraulic Turbines in different flow paths. Based on the flow path of the liquid Hydraulic Turbines can be categorized into three types.

1. Axial Flow Hydraulic Turbines: This category of Hydraulic Turbines has the flow path of the liquid mainly parallel to the axis of rotation. Kaplan Turbines has liquid flow mainly in axial direction.
2. Radial Flow Hydraulic Turbines: Such Hydraulic Turbines has the liquid flowing mainly in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.
3. Mixed Flow Hydraulic Turbines: For most of the Hydraulic Turbines used there is a significant component of both axial and radial flows. Such types of Hydraulic Turbines are called as Mixed Flow Turbines. Francis Turbine is an example of mixed flow type, in Francis Turbine water enters in radial direction and exits in axial direction.

None of the Hydraulic Turbines are purely axial flow or purely radial flow. There is always a component of radial flow in axial flow turbines and of axial flow in radial flow turbines.

Classification of Hydraulic Turbines: Based on pressure change

One more important criterion for classification of Hydraulic Turbines is whether the pressure of liquid changes or not while it flows through the rotor of the Hydraulic Turbines. Based on the pressure change Hydraulic Turbines can be classified as of two types.

1. Impulse Turbine: The pressure of liquid does not change while flowing through the rotor of the machine. In Impulse Turbines pressure change occur only in the nozzles of the machine. One such example of impulse turbine is Pelton Wheel.
2. Reaction Turbine: The pressure of liquid changes while it flows through the rotor of the machine. The change in fluid velocity and reduction in its pressure causes a reaction on the turbine blades; this is where from the name Reaction Turbine may have been derived. Francis and Kaplan Turbines fall in the category of Reaction Turbines.

SECRET BEHIND FLASH MIND READER

I figured it out.

Before I reveal how I figured it out, and why it works, let's
review the instructions:

"Choose any two digit number, add together both digits
and then subtract the total from your original number.

When you have the final number look it up on the chart
and find the relevant symbol. Concentrate on the symbol
and when you have it clearly in your mind click on the
crystal ball and it will show you the symbol you are
thinking of"



================================================================
STEP 1: Choose any two digit number
----------------------------------------------------------------
There are lots of those! Numbers 10 to 99. And to emphasize
all those choices we get a graphic filled with wingdings:


Dizzying! All those possibilities. All these numbers the computer
has to figure out when reading your mind! How can it do it?
Can it do it? Is it possible that a computer can read my mind?
================================================================


================================================================
STEP 2: add together both digits and then subtract the total
       from your original number.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Oh. Actually it's not going to read the number I thought of. It
wants me to do math first. It's still impressive if it can do it
though, because there are so many possibilities. If I think of
a really hard number that nobody will have thought of, I can
beat this stupid thing and prove it wrong!
================================================================


================================================================
STEP 3: When you have the final number look it up on the chart
and find the relevant symbol. Concentrate on the symbol
and when you have it clearly in your mind click on the
crystal ball and it will show you the symbol you are
thinking of
----------------------------------------------------------------
So you do the math, and the thing works! Aigh! and I chose my
number so carefully!
================================================================




SO HOW DOES IT WORK?
----------------------------------------------------------------
It turns out that for all the possible numbers you can choose,
there are not all that many possible results to the calculation
you are asked to do on the number you choose.

Here's all of the possible numbers, alongside the calculations:
+---------------+-------------------+--------------------+
|    ALL TWO    |    THE DIGITS     |   THE DIGIT TOTAL  |
|     DIGIT     |      ADDED        |     SUBTRACTED     |
|    NUMBERS    |     TOGETHER      |   FROM THE NUMBER  |
+---------------+-------------------+--------------------+
|      10       |    1 + 0 =  1     |    10 -  1 =  9    |
|      11       |    1 + 1 =  2     |    11 -  2 =  9    |
|      12       |    1 + 2 =  3     |    12 -  3 =  9    |
|      13       |    1 + 3 =  4     |    13 -  4 =  9    |
|      14       |    1 + 4 =  5     |    14 -  5 =  9    |
|      15       |    1 + 5 =  6     |    15 -  6 =  9    |
|      16       |    1 + 6 =  7     |    16 -  7 =  9    |
|      17       |    1 + 7 =  8     |    17 -  8 =  9    |
|      18       |    1 + 8 =  9     |    18 -  9 =  9    |
|      19       |    1 + 9 = 10     |    19 - 10 =  9    |
|      20       |    2 + 0 =  2     |    20 -  2 = 18    |
|      21       |    2 + 1 =  3     |    21 -  3 = 18    |
|      22       |    2 + 2 =  4     |    22 -  4 = 18    |
|      23       |    2 + 3 =  5     |    23 -  5 = 18    |
|      24       |    2 + 4 =  6     |    24 -  6 = 18    |
|      25       |    2 + 5 =  7     |    25 -  7 = 18    |
|      26       |    2 + 6 =  8     |    26 -  8 = 18    |
|      27       |    2 + 7 =  9     |    27 -  9 = 18    |
|      28       |    2 + 8 = 10     |    28 - 10 = 18    |
|      29       |    2 + 9 = 11     |    29 - 11 = 18    |
|      30       |    3 + 0 =  3     |    30 -  3 = 27    |
|      31       |    3 + 1 =  4     |    31 -  4 = 27    |
|      32       |    3 + 2 =  5     |    32 -  5 = 27    |
|      33       |    3 + 3 =  6     |    33 -  6 = 27    |
|      34       |    3 + 4 =  7     |    34 -  7 = 27    |
|      35       |    3 + 5 =  8     |    35 -  8 = 27    |
|      36       |    3 + 6 =  9     |    36 -  9 = 27    |
|      37       |    3 + 7 = 10     |    37 - 10 = 27    |
|      38       |    3 + 8 = 11     |    38 - 11 = 27    |
|      39       |    3 + 9 = 12     |    39 - 12 = 27    |
|      40       |    4 + 0 =  4     |    40 -  4 = 36    |
|      41       |    4 + 1 =  5     |    41 -  5 = 36    |
|      42       |    4 + 2 =  6     |    42 -  6 = 36    |
|      43       |    4 + 3 =  7     |    43 -  7 = 36    |
|      44       |    4 + 4 =  8     |    44 -  8 = 36    |
|      45       |    4 + 5 =  9     |    45 -  9 = 36    |
|      46       |    4 + 6 = 10     |    46 - 10 = 36    |
|      47       |    4 + 7 = 11     |    47 - 11 = 36    |
|      48       |    4 + 8 = 12     |    48 - 12 = 36    |
|      49       |    4 + 9 = 13     |    49 - 13 = 36    |
|      50       |    5 + 0 =  5     |    50 -  5 = 45    |
|      51       |    5 + 1 =  6     |    51 -  6 = 45    |
|      52       |    5 + 2 =  7     |    52 -  7 = 45    |
|      53       |    5 + 3 =  8     |    53 -  8 = 45    |
|      54       |    5 + 4 =  9     |    54 -  9 = 45    |
|      55       |    5 + 5 = 10     |    55 - 10 = 45    |
|      56       |    5 + 6 = 11     |    56 - 11 = 45    |
|      57       |    5 + 7 = 12     |    57 - 12 = 45    |
|      58       |    5 + 8 = 13     |    58 - 13 = 45    |
|      59       |    5 + 9 = 14     |    59 - 14 = 45    |
|      60       |    6 + 0 =  6     |    60 -  6 = 54    |
|      61       |    6 + 1 =  7     |    61 -  7 = 54    |
|      62       |    6 + 2 =  8     |    62 -  8 = 54    |
|      63       |    6 + 3 =  9     |    63 -  9 = 54    |
|      64       |    6 + 4 = 10     |    64 - 10 = 54    |
|      65       |    6 + 5 = 11     |    65 - 11 = 54    |
|      66       |    6 + 6 = 12     |    66 - 12 = 54    |
|      67       |    6 + 7 = 13     |    67 - 13 = 54    |
|      68       |    6 + 8 = 14     |    68 - 14 = 54    |
|      69       |    6 + 9 = 15     |    69 - 15 = 54    |
|      70       |    7 + 0 =  7     |    70 -  7 = 63    |
|      71       |    7 + 1 =  8     |    71 -  8 = 63    |
|      72       |    7 + 2 =  9     |    72 -  9 = 63    |
|      73       |    7 + 3 = 10     |    73 - 10 = 63    |
|      74       |    7 + 4 = 11     |    74 - 11 = 63    |
|      75       |    7 + 5 = 12     |    75 - 12 = 63    |
|      76       |    7 + 6 = 13     |    76 - 13 = 63    |
|      77       |    7 + 7 = 14     |    77 - 14 = 63    |
|      78       |    7 + 8 = 15     |    78 - 15 = 63    |
|      79       |    7 + 9 = 16     |    79 - 16 = 63    |
|      80       |    8 + 0 =  8     |    80 -  8 = 72    |
|      81       |    8 + 1 =  9     |    81 -  9 = 72    |
|      82       |    8 + 2 = 10     |    82 - 10 = 72    |
|      83       |    8 + 3 = 11     |    83 - 11 = 72    |
|      84       |    8 + 4 = 12     |    84 - 12 = 72    |
|      85       |    8 + 5 = 13     |    85 - 13 = 72    |
|      86       |    8 + 6 = 14     |    86 - 14 = 72    |
|      87       |    8 + 7 = 15     |    87 - 15 = 72    |
|      88       |    8 + 8 = 16     |    88 - 16 = 72    |
|      89       |    8 + 9 = 17     |    89 - 17 = 72    |
|      90       |    9 + 0 =  9     |    90 -  9 = 81    |
|      91       |    9 + 1 = 10     |    91 - 10 = 81    |
|      92       |    9 + 2 = 11     |    92 - 11 = 81    |
|      93       |    9 + 3 = 12     |    93 - 12 = 81    |
|      94       |    9 + 4 = 13     |    94 - 13 = 81    |
|      95       |    9 + 5 = 14     |    95 - 14 = 81    |
|      96       |    9 + 6 = 15     |    96 - 15 = 81    |
|      97       |    9 + 7 = 16     |    97 - 16 = 81    |
|      98       |    9 + 8 = 17     |    98 - 17 = 81    |
|      99       |    9 + 9 = 18     |    99 - 18 = 81    |
+---------------+-------------------+--------------------+

We can now see that despite the fact that we get to choose from
numbers 10 to 99, really, there are only 9 possible numbers to
be put on our mind. So while there are lots of symbols provided,
we only have to worry about 9 of them: 9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81

And if we look close, we'll find that despite the fact that the
symbols are randomized, there is a peculiar consistency in the
Mind Reader: multiples of 9 always share the same symbol.
Refresh the page and you'll see a new symbol, but 9 and 45 and
81 (and the rest of them) will always share that new symbol.

================================================================


================================================================
COMMENT: PSYCHIC THOUGHTS
----------------------------------------------------------------
It irritates me that people believe in psychic phenomena. We so
often attribute strange things to psychic powers. The truth is
that The Flash Mind Reader is a magic trick like all other magic
tricks. It uses misdirection (the many numbers, the randomized
symbols) and hocus pocus (the creepy fade-up of the symbol, the
accompanying sound, vaguely occult wingdings) to get us thinking
about psychic things. The magician only wants you to suspend
your disbelief to fool you. And that's how "The Flash Mind
Reader" works. Magic.

Magic in the sense of hacking with our perceptions and
assumptions. The truth is usually more mundane than we hope.