Displaying Information

Greg Linden's post on the issues surrounding small displays (cell-phones etc.) reminded me of a point Edward Tufte makes quite frequently: Current display technology is crap. Even modern computer monitors don't offer the resolution of paper. Cell-phone displays offer an abomidable resolution in too small a size. Display resolution clearly isnt the only issue—size, color-accuracy, and refresh-rate play a huge part. I believe that technology should open us to the world, and so I'm opposed to the idea that a tiny display with huge resolution could be held close to the eye. This is not a solution, but a hack—and a poor one at that. Projection is an interesting idea, both holographic mid-air sci-fi style, and direct-to-the-retina sci-fi style. From what I've found, the eye-glass displays are still bulky and of terrible quality (think mid-90s arcade style VR helmets, only a little smaller). In any case, I'm rooting for some kind of projectiong, either direct-to-the-eye, or eye-glasses projection - offering a layering method. Think of the possibilities, what with all the virtual Earth software (GOOGLE Earth, etc.), LBS applications, and so many other emerging fields that are made for pervasive and ubiquitous computing.