Flat Panel Displays Asia

WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2005
"

Location: Chatham House, 10 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LE
(Nearest Tube Stations: Piccadilly Circus or Green Park)
Time: 17.30 - 19.30 pm
To Register Please click here.

Chairman: Dr Phil Surman, IMaging & Displays Research Group, De Montford University

Speakers Chris Williams, Logystyx UK Limited "Flat Panel Display Developments in Asia: Implications for the UK"

Dr Grant Bourhill, Optical Imaging Technology Group, Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd "Don't mind the gap: Commercialising technology 6000 miles away"

Background

Chris Williams will talk about Flat Panel Display developments in Asia and how it impacts upon the UK. He will also include detailed comments about the emerging topic of flexible display technology, and how disruptive developments in the UK are likely to mean that domestic production of these displays will be possible, reversing the trend whereby we have been exclusively dependent on Asia for the strategic supply of display product.

He will close by discussing the new UK Displays Network, which is a DTI funded Knowledge Transfer Network that is open to all to join, and how it is progressing in these early days of its existence.

Grant Bourhill & Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd

Grant Bourhill graduated with a First in Chemistry from Strathclyde University in 1988. He completed a PhD, at the same University, studying the linear and nonlinear optical properties of organic materials in 1991, for which he was awarded the Ritchie Prize for best thesis. He then spent 3 years at the California Institute of Technology, under a NASA fellowship, working with Profs Joe Perry and Seth Marder on structure-property relationships in organic photonic materials. After a brief spell as a Humboldt Fellow in Germany, he returned to the UK in 1995 to join the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in Great Malvern.

He spent five enjoyable years researching methods to protect optical sensors from laser-induced dazzle and damage, as well as investigating novel optical damage sensors for composite structures. For the latter project, he was part of a team to win the John Benjamin Award and the Rank Prize. In 2000, he joined Sharp Laboratories of Europe (SLE) in Oxford. He led the team responsible for successfully transferring switchable 2D-3D technology for mass production in 2002, for which the team was honoured with a Sharp R&D award. He also led the research team that in July 2005 transferred dual-view and switchable view angle technologies for mass manufacture. He is currently Director of Optical Imaging and Display Systems at SLE and vice-Chair of the UK Chapter of the SiD. Grant has published over 45 peer-reviewed papers and is the author on over 35 patents.

SLE was the first overseas research facility of Sharp Corporation. It employs currently approximately 110 staff, the majority of whom are scientists. The purpose of SLE is to add value to Sharp Corporation by developing technology and technology platforms for products. SLE also identifies technology driven market opportunities in Europe. The laboratory has worked closely with Sharp Corporation to develop products including the HR-TFT liquid crystal display, smart microwave ovens, intelligent e-dictionaries, electronically switchable 2D-3D displays and mobile phone displays with monolithic digital drivers. This list is growing constantly, with the recent addition of dual-view displays and switchable viewing angle displays. The laboratory has also recently announced CW operation of the world's first blue laser diode grown by MBE.

See http://sharp-world.com/index.html and http://www.sle.sharp.co.uk/

Phil Surman & De Montford University
Phil is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Imaging and Displays Research Group at De Montfort University. He has been conducting research into 3D displays for many years and was awarded his PhD on ‘Head Tracking Two-image Television Displays’ from De Montfort University in 2002. The PhD work was continued within the EU-funded ATTEST 3D TV project, which covered the complete television chain from capture through to the display itself and human factors. De Montfort’s role was to produce a multi-user 3D prototype display. He is currently working with the team on developing the prototype into a version that is closer to market. The Imaging and Displays Research Group is in the European 3D TV Network of Excellence (NoE), which consists of around 150 researchers from nineteen organisations throughout Europe. Phil is a participant in NoE activities, and is also active in promoting 3D and in seeking funding.

De Montfort University (DMU) is a pioneering and innovative institution. It is one of Britain's largest universities, with around 23,000 students based at two UK centres: Bedford and Leicester along with several other campuses, each maintaining its own distinctive characters and specialisms. Alongside teaching, research of the highest level is carried out in De Montfort's six academic faculties and its additional research centres. DMU has a wealth of expertise in 3D display systems having two distinct groups within the faculty of Computing Science and Engineering at the Leicester site, comprising of the Imaging and Displays Research Group (IDRG) specialising in design of stereoscopic and autostereoscopic display and their applications and the Imaging Technologies Group (ITG) specialising in computational techniques for integral imaging. In addition to the research groupings, the faculty has recently opened a stereoscopic virtual reality facility, and a virtual TV studio facility.