Over the years, technological innovations have swept over our society like a wave cresting on the beach. Technology has often improved so rapidly it seemed like it is constantly threatening to drown us in a sea of new features and incredible applications. Today, we are going to be examining the roots of two of the most revolutionary technological advances of our time, plasma televisions and iPod Nanos.
We are used to iPod Nanos and comparable MP3 devices bringing us top-notch quality sound, but few people think about the roots from which this technology grew. The first digital recording devices used in the music industry were developed in late 1977 by Sony. This technology was embraced by a number of different recording studios and quickly became the standard in digital sound quality. The year following this digital recording device, Sony introduced the world to the first portable music player, the Sony Walkman. The Sony Walkman would go on to sell over 100 million units and was embraced by a public looking for an audio player that was portable and offered great sound. The technology would eventually give way to the compact disc in 1988, mini-discs in 1992 and Apple’s iPod in 2001. In 2006, the first generation of iPod Nanos were released to the public.
The latest generation of iPod Nanos are simply amazing. The latest generation iPod Nano runs on lithium ion battery technology, and has a whole suite of different features. These features include a 1.5″ color LCD, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch technology and flash memory (up to 16 GB). They play a number of different media formats including AAC, MP3, Wav and MP4. They are truly the Swiss army knives of media players.
The television had a similar evolution. Though televisions are based on technologies that were set forth by inventors such as Vladimir Zworykin and Karl Braun, the general consensus is that the first electronic television was invented by Philo T. Farnsworth. From that humble beginning, television sets would constantly evolve into a variety of different forms. First there was black & white televisions, then color televisions. Then the technology changed into a variety of forms which have included LCDs, LEDs and finally plasma televisions. As hard as it is being able to keep up with techonological advances, it does benefit the consumer to an extent. New models are released so fast that previous models haven’t had time to make room for them, forcing stores to lower prices and making cheap televisions accessible to everyone.
Plasma televisions have screens that range from 32 inches, all the way to 100 inches. They generally have wide-screens that are capable of a 16:9 ratio and have refresh rates that are far superior to either LCDs or LEDs. They are the new bench-mark of television technology.
While screens are continuously getting thinner, it is hard to imagine what the next stage for TV’s will be. Hologram screens perhaps? While early prototypes have been made, the technology seems far from complete with many obstacles to overcome. Only time will tell.