More good things to come in 2010 that will help you save costs in all round activities. Himax Technologies announced the introduction of iCT (Infinity Color Technology), an innovative and proprietary image processing technology which enables significant power saving for TFT-LCD TVs and monitors, regardless of CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) or LED (Light-Emitting Diode) backlights, while enhancing image quality.
This technology developed by Himax Media solutions, a Himax subsidiary, the innovative iCT is a unique and cost-effective approach in optimizing power efficiency and image quality.
Power saving is an important concept in the flat panel display industry. For example, the California Energy Commission recently approved an energy efficiency standard for televisions. When the standard is implemented in 2011, new TVs sold in California should consume at least 33 percent less electricity. Likewise in China, the worlds largest TFT-LCD TV market, a similar energy-saving concept has been advocated at various events. However, with current power-saving technologies, there is always a conflict or trade-off among power-saving, image quality, and the costs to achieving both goals. To optimize energy efficiency, panel and system makers are aggressively seeking the best solution which has promised a bright future for green technologies.
TFT-LCD backlight, either CCFLs or LEDs, typically maintains a constant brightness at all times, regardless of the displayed images. One commonly-adopted technique in saving backlight power is CABC (Content Adaptive Backlight Control) which dynamically adjusts the backlight and contents. While this pure digital approach is able to save panel power, it inevitably leads to loss in gray scales while adjusting gamma curve and thus an undesired image quality. These side effects could be mitigated by using 10-bit or higher TFT-LCD panels, as adopted by a few Japanese tier one TV brands. However, higher bit TFT-LCD panel also leads to higher costs, which prevents wide adoption.
