Technology of Future Generations

In the November 1998 issue of our newspaper we published the article "Children are our Future" about High School student John Shapiro and his science projects with SF Industries, Inc., a Kansas City research and development company. Now John is building a prototype of a large flat display that can be used as a TV screen or computer monitor. The estimated cost of a color production version of this device is $600.

In some sense this is an unusual project. Originally, SF Industries was founded in 1980 specifically for the development of this project. A letter describing this display was sent to Dr. Vladimir Zworykin, honorable vice president of RCA and inventor of modern television (see article about him on this page).

Dr.Zworykin took an interest in the contents of the mentioned letter and forwarded it to RCA, where he worked many years, and where his opinion had weight. He also wrote that the proposed system perhaps has the lowest distortions, has a simple design, and is not expensive in production.

However, the project crashed due to the bureaucratic system of all major television manufacturers. The problem is that this is a huge industry with sales of about 15 million TV sets each year in United States alone while there are only about one dozen major manufacturers. The only real way to place a new design of a TV set in production is to sell it to an existing manufacturer, because building a new modern TV-set production plant with a several-million-unit annual turnout, like existing manufacturers, costs billions and billions of dollars. Even a small plant with one production line will cost hundred of millions of dollars and will still be too small to compete with the existing giants with their worldwide networks of distributors, salesmen, and service centers.

All industrial giants (not only in electronics) have their own Research and Development Centers with hundreds or even thousands of engineers. They do not solicit ideas from outside. They review outside ideas on a non-confidential basis without obligation to pay if they accept an idea, or pay at their discretion. In fact, they will rarely pay at all, and they almost never pay reasonable compensation without a lawsuit.

As Westinghouse officials expressed little enthusiasm with Zworykin's television in the 20's, similarly RCA officials did not express any enthusiasm with the offered idea of the large flat TV screen in 1980 with reference to their own ongoing research. At the same time, they published a description of one of their ideas in the February 12, 1981, issue of Machine Design. Now, 20 years later, the problem with a large flat TV screen is not yet solved. Nobody in the world currently manufactures an economical model of flat TV sets. At AMC theaters you can see Panasonic's 42-inch flat TV screens, but they cost $20,000 each! RCA has none.

In 1981 researches at SF Industries could build a 72-inch black-and-white (B&W) flat TV screen only one inch thick. But B&W TV sets were almost displaced by color TV sets at that time as the telegraph was displaced by telephone and radio. Researches at SF Industries could build a color 72-inch TV screen also, but this task required very expensive special equipment that could cost up to a million dollars. (Nothing for giants, but not affordable for SF Industries). The project was placed on hold.

The little interest regarding large flat TV screens expressed by the television industry can also be explained by the current 450-line TV standard. Existing large projection TV sets with screens up to 72 inches require large halls and cannot be used in the average American home. The whole picture changes with the upcoming 1080-line high-definition TV standard, where the advantage can only be noticed on 50-60-inch or larger screens.

Now, almost 20 years later, the project was resumed, and John Shapiro will continue the research and build a 60-inch flat B&W TV screen. This device can be used also as a computer monitor. Researches at SF Industries are convinced that John can do this job, because he already has the necessary experience with electroluminescent materials and computers.

At the age of 13 John matriculated at the Johnson County Community College (JCCC) and up to date has taken all of the major computer courses. He is the youngest student in JCCC history. He is now responsible for the maintenance and operation of all computers at SF Industries. On his first try John got 800 points from 800 available points in math, 770 out of 800 in writing and lost only 10 points in chemistry when he took the SAT II test. Only several high school students out of a hundred have this score. Two highly selective universities invited John to participate in their Summer Sessions. John chose university, which is number one in computers, and is now studying math and computer science there.

There is no question that John can build a B&W large flat TV screen independently with minimum help from researches at SF Industries. Researchers at SF Industries are convinced that when the B&W version will be built, the necessary funds for building a color version will be found.

John Shapiro

RCA-1980 model of the flat TV screen. Never was placed in production

Matsushita -1985 model of the flat TV screen. Idea similar to RCA-1980 model. Never was placed in production. Design News, 4-22-85

Panasonic-1999 42-inch plasma flat TV screen. Retail price $2,000

SF Industries - starting point

SF Industries - final point.

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