Circular TFT Could Replace Traditional Car Instruments

I'm a clumsy guy, and I live in almost perpetual fear of tripping over my own thighs and crashing my head into the oh-so-sharp corner of my LCD display.  Which is why I'm so pleased to see Toshiba Matsushita have spent some time in the lab and come up with this round monitor.  However, before you have visions of a massive monitor displaying that Google Earth screensaver you've always fancied, be aware that the prototype measures a conservative 62mm across.

You see, rather than catering for the inept and easily bruised, Toshiba Matsushita have set their sights on the latest generation of in-car displays.  Many car manufacturers have been using high-resolution TFTs instead of traditional blocky LCD screens, and seemingly they'd prefer a round image to a square one.  With a contrast ratio of 600:1 and resolution of 240 x 240 (at the widest point) you probably wouldn't want to watch much of  feature film on it anyway.

It'll be on show at the Yokohama exhibition from October 24th for people like BMW and Mercedes to drool over.

Toshiba Matsushita [via technabob]