The monitor is the quintessential output device, and unlike the mouse and keyboard, it is constantly evolving with new panel types, higher resolutions, better frame rates, and better color rendering. However, they will not be the only technologies that will mark the monitors of the future
Today we do not stop seeing applications of the so-called artificial intelligence in various aspects of computing. This has made us wonder how the monitors to which we connect our PCs can benefit and how this evolution would take place. The conclusions we have reached? Well, a series of improvements in them that could completely change the way we interact with our computer screen.
The key to everything, the internal circuitry of the monitors
Every monitor has an internal circuitry that is responsible for managing the video signal that comes from the video output of the graphics card. Whether this is DisplayPort, HDMI or any other type of connection. For what it has inside a chip or several chips in charge of carrying out these basic functions. We not only have the circuitry of the device’s power supply, but in the middle of it a chip which we call LCD or OLED controller, depending on the type of screen we use, although its operation is the same in both cases. Whose job is none other than to read the information from the video signal and decide which pixels are activated and each count is activated.
This brings us to the concept of the Pixel Clock, which tells us how many pixels a monitor can handle per second. If we have a Full HD one, then with a frequency of 60 Hz, then the speed of the Pixel Clock will result from multiplying 1920 x 1080 by 60. Which gives us 124 MHz. As you can understand, 4K monitors and with frequencies very high refresh rates have a Display Driver that achieves very high clock speeds. For example, a 4K at 240 Hz can touch 2 GHz, that is, the typical speed of a processor.
Obviously, the operation of this chip is quite simple and straightforward and does not require further complications, however, there is a type of monitor that has much more complex circuitry, which have become popular in recent years and whose internal operation will become the basis for future models.
Smart TV is the foundation
Smart TVs are nothing more than monitors that integrate two additional elements, to start with the necessary circuitry to connect the television to the digital terrestrial signal, which is where the conventional channels, increasingly disused, are broadcast. The other element is the circuitry of a mobile phone, which allows applications to be run, but adapted for use on televisions. It is these extra elements that make buying a television more expensive than a monitor when both are the same size and type of panel.
However, the circuitry they use is extremely simple, many of the Smart TVs do not have much better processors than a low- or medium-range mobile in terms of capacity. They don’t need more for their functions either, but at the same time we have the fact that yes or yes they have to make these chips more and more complex, exceeding what the device really requires and they could well stay there. Of course, it also opens up the possibility of adding functions that were not possible on a conventional monitor before.
What additional features will be added as standard?
To understand what the evolution of PC monitors will be, we must start from the fact that there are certain technologies that have been seen in Smart TVs that really have their uses in monitors. However, they cannot be implemented as they are in televisions, since their implementation is not good enough for use with a computer.
What do we mean? Well, due to the fact that the evolution of the simple LCD controller to a processor with a face and eyes will bring with it a series of additional functions, among which we will find:
- Automatic resolution scaling: which consists in that if a video signal goes to a resolution other than that of the monitor it is on, it is transformed to adapt to the native resolution.
- Frame interpolation: for the creation of extra frames. Graphics cards will generally do this job, but this option will also be available on monitors.
- Automatic color calibration: which is ideal for graphic designers.
Among many others and all thanks to the fact that the chip in charge of managing the image on the monitor will end up evolving and with it these extra functions can be added. Many of them have already been found in high-end Smart TVs for years, and we honestly believe that they will end up reaching PC monitors as additional functions, although the ones we have mentioned are not the only ones.
