December 21, 2010 (Plano, TX) - Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions (TAOS) today announced that the company has received the prestigious 2010 TV Innovation Award for its digital ambient light sensors in the Green Technology category at the 2nd Annual TV Innovation Awards. The TV Innovation Awards, administered by IMS Research and judged by an independent panel of industry experts, honors the most groundbreaking companies in the television space shaping the future of the medium in 14 different categories.
"The TV Innovation Awards recognize technologies that are most likely to make a radical shift or change in the television landscape," said Ian Weightman, president, IMS Research, the administrator of the TV Innovation Awards. "With more than 140 entries for the 2010 awards, competition was intense. The judges of the Green Technology category were clearly impressed with the unique capabilities and maturity of the TAOS Digital Ambient Light Sensing solution."
As displays can consume as much as 60% of the overall system power, digital ambient light sensors have become a critical and ubiquitous component in today's consumer electronics that manufacturers worldwide have adopted to automatically adjust the display picture brightness thereby reducing overall system power consumption. Digital ambient light sensors enable the automatic adjustment of LCD, OLED or plasma display brightness based on determining the ambient light conditions. This enhances display picture quality and additionally reduces overall system power consumption by as much as 30%. Digital ambient light sensors also deliver improved display contrast ratio when combined with the system SoC.
Digital ambient light sensors have become increasingly more relevant to consumers and critical to manufacturers driven by increased global awareness and concerns surrounding the need for energy conservation and the Green movement. AOS digital ambient light sensors are being leveraged by manufacturers of HDTVs to lower their system power consumption in order to certify their products to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of TV energy efficiency initiatives driven by the US EPA Energy Star, California Energy Commission (CEC), the European Commission's Ecodesign Directive and, most recently, in China with its China Energy Conservation Project (CECP) which aims to reduce flat panel TV energy consumption with its mandatory TV energy standard that became effective on December 1, 2010.
The TAOS digital ambient light sensors use a patented dual photodiode architecture that allows for more flexible, aesthetic industrial design by allowing HDTV manufacturers to conceal the ambient light sensor behind spectrally-distorting dark plastic or glass. As darkened glass or translucent materials can be transparent to IR wavelengths while attenuating visible light by 100 times or more, the TAOS dual-photodiode architecture compensates for the increased IR component. When combined with the ability to adjust the analog gain settings up to 128X, the device excels in challenging very low-light level applications. As a result, TAOS digital ambient light sensors provide consumer electronics manufacturers with greater freedom to produce sleeker, more appealing and innovative designs by eliminating the need to use clear glass/plastic in front of the sensor or drill unattractive holes/slots into the display bezel in order for light to reach the sensor.
"TAOS is very honored to have its digital ambient sensors recognized by the TV Innovation Awards," said Jerry Koontz, TAOS director of marketing. "TAOS pioneered the industry's first digital ambient light sensor on 2002 when it introduced the TSL2550 device and continues to expand its leadership role in ambient light sensing. The TAOS portfolio now includes discrete and integrated digital color sensor and proximity detection sensor solutions, higher sensitivity ambient light sensors for demanding low-light applications and expanded packaging options for cost-sensitive applications. With HDTVs and their bezels continuing to become thinner, TAOS IR proximity sensing technology is also a very attractive solution to HDTV manufacturers for eliminating mechanical buttons/switches which also reduces system cost and increases overall system reliability."