The LCD Panel vs. The Crossbow

Ev!LOnE was one of several readers to point out an interesting LCD stress test: "ASUS recently came out with Asus LS201 — a TFT monitor with a protective panel made of crystal-sapphire. What I didn't imagine was the amount of punishment that thing can take. Apparently some Ukrainians shared the same concern and went for a test." Translation not necessary, but some clues about the narration would be appreciated in comments.

DANGER!

[TheMiddleRoad (1153113)]

Do not use this monitor when you are frustrated. Banging your fist against the screen will result in broken fingers.

Blendtec

[werdnapk (706357)]

Will it blend?

hmmmm....

[DMoylan (65079)]

well if he can cock the crossbow with just his hand then it's not a very powerful crossbow. try a 90lb long bow and get back to me.

like that monitor though. wonder if it would survive a sledge hammer to the screen. i've seen monitors taking a few punches from angry windows users.

Re:hmmmm....

[KillerCow (213458)]

well if he can cock the crossbow with just his hand then it's not a very powerful crossbow. try a 90lb long bow and get back to me.

You must have pretty tough working conditions. We've never felt the need to put "ability to withstand 90lb long bow attack" on any of our purchasing forms.

This monitor is for pussies!

[TheMiddleRoad (1153113)]

Yeah! What kind of weak-ass monitor can only take a couple hits from a 90lb pull crossbow? Shit, I hit my LCD with a 280b pull all the time. Just the other day, I put ten rounds with my 9mm into it. It's still standing! I put a youtube up of it. 50,000,000 hits in two hours. SUCK IT DOWN!

if only...

[MarkRose (820682)]

I'm sure Big Blue would have love it [wikipedia.org]!

I am in AWE

[retiredtwice (1128097)]

While that left me agape, I keep having visions of police with these things strapped on the front and back flashing subliminal messages and doubling as bulletproof vests.

I do wonder how they do against a bullet (slow bullet like an ordinary 38), maybe you need to double them ...

Re:I am in AWE

[kypper (446750)]

It would be cooler to have mini video cameras on the back of the cop routed to the chest monitor so that it looked like you were looking right through him. In dark lighting that could be really interesting.

smarter monitor

[ILuvRamen (1026668)]

I'm gonna build one with a built in crossbow so the user knows if they shoot at it, it'll return fire. That will prevent the user from damaging it in the first place. Don't build tough, build smart lol.

Re:smarter monitor

[Burning Plastic (153446)]

No need to build - Shop smart - Shop S-Mart.

Hard core!

[fedx (549787)]

In most offices I've worked in your monitor just has to withstand NERF darts and the occasional hacky-sack attack. I take it Ukranian office wars are a little bit more serious with their choice of weapons.

I don't get it

[dangitman (862676)]

They make a nice monitor, with expensive materials, and then they put it on a shoddy non-tilting stand? WTF? What an insane world we live in. Why the hell does anybody even make non-tilting display stands?

cNet UK review. We scratched it.

[caferace (442)]

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/monitors/0,39029456,49290999,00.htm [cnet.co.uk]

One such product is the Asus LS201 -- a TFT monitor with a protective panel made of crystal-sapphire. Our Asus rep says not only is it scratch-proof, but it's also 'punch-proof'. We were dared to hit it as hard as we could and told it wouldn't break.

Never ones to shirk from a challenge, we formed an orderly queue and gleefully punched the hell out of our first LS201 sample. Unfortunately one of our punchers was wearing a ring, and the offending jewellery left a 2cm scratch on the supposedly scratch-proof monitor.

Asus sent us a replacement and politely asked us to remove any jewellery before we let rip. We duly obliged, but instead of emerging unscathed, the LS201 developed a small, unidentifiable blemish below the protective panel. It wasn't a scratch or a dent -- it looked more like a small piece of fluff.

Our verdict: the LS201 will not shatter into a million pieces when punched (don't try this at home). It's therefore ideal if you're the type of person who likes to attack inanimate objects, or just drop blameless pieces of technology. But it's most definitely not scratch-proof -- we don't care what the stickers say.

Not too surprising

[the eric conspiracy (20178)]

During the Vietnam war some US helicopters were using synthetic sapphire crystals for bullet-proof windows.

It's nice they have gotten the process cheap enough for LCD screens. Definitely won't scratch when you clean it with ordinary cleaners.

Why doesn't the iPhone have this?

[Animats (122034)]

That kind of toughness makes real sense in expensive mobile devices. I was surprised that the iPhone didn't come with a sapphire or diamond screen.

This isn't exotic technology today. The typical supermarket checkout scanner uses sapphire [seamarkinternational.com] or diamond [diamonex.com] coating on the glass. That's why it can survive years of canned goods (and, for Home Depot, hand tools) being scraped across the scanner. In the checkout scanner world, plain glass lasts 2-4 weeks. For diamond, the makers claim 9 years. The sapphire vendor offers a lifetime warranty.

Translation

[Strange Quark Star (1157447)]

First, it's Russian he is speaking, despite the commercial being Ukrainian. The only thing worth translating he says at about 1:00 : "The thing is, that the coating of the monitor is out of the ordinary. In theory, it should withstand extreme stress, some even say it is bullet-proof. That's exactly what we wanted to check. The monitor has survived the shoot, but since the manufacturer gave it to us for tearing apart, we decided to literally kill it. For this we have a crossbow and crossbow arrows." In the end he concludes that this is probably the most resilient monitor in the world.

Listen up, Lenovo!

[n1hilist (997601)]

.. and put this tech into the next Thinkpad! .. with LED backlighting, kthnx

A far more rigorous test

[Blancmange (195140)]

Ship it across the United States and back using FedEx, in a cardboard box marked "Fragile."

Re:lets see....

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

You do realize that, sooner or later, one of us is going to find you and kill you, don't you?

Re:Crossbow Strength

[wizardforce (1005805)]

That crossbow seemed pretty weak.

even so, you probably wouldn't want this to happen your your flat screen monitor and that's the point, by the looks of it, this monitor is *better* at withstanding abuse in comparison to the average one most people would be buying.

Re:Crossbow Strength

[dvice_null (981029)]

Yeah. You only need to get attacked by a crossbow about 5 times and that monitor has paid itself off.

Re:Crossbow Strength

[John Miles (108215)]

That looked a lot like the handmade crossbows fabricated by "Iolo the Bard," a well-known SCA figure in Austin circa 1990 (and inspiration for the character of Iolo in the Ultima games.)

Iolo's bows weren't made to be competitive with modern polonium-doped nanocrystalline bolt launchers or whatever, but to recall the craft of medieval weaponsmiths. Still more than enough to shoot your eye out with.

I agree with the other poster who suggested that these LCDs are coming to police riot shields near you. That's just too cool an idea to pass up. Shove enough images of flowers and frolicking puppies in their faces, and the Black Bloc crowd will surrender without a fight, right?

Re:Weeeeee.....

[pushing-robot (1037830)]

These displays should have a sticker:

Warning: Rebounding Wiimotes may cause severe injury.

Re:Cleavage

[rts008 (812749)]

Yeah, I see cleavage on my monitor all the time, but it never seems to harm the screen.

Mason Williams's Classical Gas

[mosel-saar-ruwer (732341)]

can claim prior art

The Ukrainians' background music was Mason Williams's Classical Gas:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve/B000000ED3001001/0/ [amazon.com]

I wonder if they have to pay these things called "royalties" in the Ukraine?