Sharp's very, very sharp experimental screen

Sharp has produced a 64-inch LCD monitor that provides screen resolution four times that of normal high-definition screens. Normal HD screens have 2 million pixel points. The new Sharp monitor, which is on display at the Ceatec technology trade show here this week, sports 4,096-by-2,160 pixel-line resolution--double the number of vertical and horizontal pixel lines offered by a normal HD screen. This comes out to nearly 9 million pixel points.

Small details, like plumes of smoke over an aerial shot of a rural village, can be picked out. The monitor can also be divided into quarters and display four high-definition videos at once.

The screen, still in the development phase, will be targeted at film and television producers as well as medical researchers, a Sharp representative said. The exhibit is one of the more popular at the weeklong trade show taking place outside Tokyo. But eventually, these technologies trickle down to the consumer market.

The company is using the show to emphasize its role in the screen world. In August, Sharp formally began producing LCD panels out of its second Kameyama plant. The plant processes eighth-generation glass sheets, which measure just over 7 feet by 8 feet. Six 52-inch LCDs can be popped out of a single sheet. The smaller glass sheets processed in sixth- and seventh-generation plants can only produce two and three 52-inch panels, respectively, out of a single piece of glass.

Other prototypes being shown include a screen with a technology Sharp calls Mega Contrast. The screen has a 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio. Typical HD LCD screens sport a 1,200-to-1 contrast ratio.

On other notes, Sharp also showed off its Japanese-English electronic translator, which will come to the Japanese market later this year. If you speak a Japanese phrase into it, the handheld translates it into spoken English text--and vice versa.