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Types of Monitors Part II

2. Flat Panel Monitors

A flat panel monitor is also called LCD monitor. It uses a liquid crystal display (LCD) instead of a cathode ray, tube to produce output on the screen. The LCD uses a liquid compound to display information on a screen. Typically, LCD has fluorescent tubes that emit light waves toward the liquid crystal cells, which are sandwiched between two sheets of material. When an electrical charge passes through the cells, the cells twist. This twisting causes some light waves to be blocked (while others are passed through) and creating image on the screen.

A flat panel monitor takes up less desk space and also consumes less power. Flat panel monitors are available with different sizes such as 15, 17, 18, 20, 21 and 23 inches.

Flat panel monitors are commonly used in mobile devices such as laptop and tablet PCs. Similarly, smart phones, PDAs calculators have LCD screens. E-book is another mobile device that use LCD screen. The standard size of panel monitors for laptop computers is 15 or 16 inches.

There are two main categories of LCDs. These are:

i) Active Matrix LCD

Active matrix LCD uses a transistor for each liquid crystal cell or pixel and thus displays high quality images. Active Matrix LCD is also known as Thin Film Transistor (TFT) display. Today, new generation of TFT is called Organic LED that displays brighter images than standard TFT display. The organic LED uses organic molecules to generate output on the screen.

ii) Passive Matrix LCD

Passive matrix LCD uses fewer transistors and requires less power than active matrix LCD. The colors on passive matrix LCD are not bright as compared to active matrix LCD.

LCD Quality

The quality of LCD screen depends on its resolution, which is general proportional to the size of screen. For example, a 15 inch flat panel monitor typically has a resolution of 1024 x 768, while a 17-inch has a resolution of 1280 x 1024.

3. Touch Screen Monitors

These are special monitors through which input data is directly entered by touching the screen with user fingertip. Usually, it is used to make selection from a menu of choices. Most touch screen computers use sensors in the computer’s screen to detect the touch of a finger. Automated Teller Machines (ATM) interface is an example of touch screen. In some computer systems, pen-based or light pen input devices are used. The user touches the screen with a pen. However, the term touch screen implies a system that accepts input data by touching the screen with the user’s fingertip.

Touch screen systems are used in restaurants, supermarkets, departmental stores etc. Most PDAs, Laptop, and Tablet PCs also have touch screens.

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