What are some weird things getting color displays nowadays?

[dontwalkhand]

In the 90s everything except your computer and TV had a monochrome screen, that displayed the information it needed to display. Cell phones quickly went color, which is great, as its a consumer product. Shortly after that, ATMs started going color with full motion graphics, and makes it easier to manage your money...

Then things started getting stranger...

Parking meters started popping up with color LCDs, these don't need to be color at all, as all it showed was black text on a white background showing time remaining. It is as if the color screen isn't even used here, but it is.

Then the farebox on the bus...same thing...the color is only there to make it look fancy.

The elevators in a new office building had a color LCD to do nothing but display what floor it was at. (This was around for a while, but still seems like huge overkill), the building did not use it for ads or anything, it just showed a number and an arrow on a full color LCD.

Vending Machines...

What are weird things getting a color display nowadays? It seems where a 2 line matrix screen would have sufficed before, now needs a full color display to do the same job?

The real problem I have with these color displays is that, they are VERY HARD TO READ IN SUNLIGHT, so I end up having to shield the ATM, farebox on the bus, or parking meter just to be able to read the screen now, whereas before, I could just read it, no matter the lighting conditions (a backlight was provided before when night time occurred, but now, since the screen is color, the backlight is on all the time anyway).

Why does a gas pump need a full color display to tell you when to swipe your card, or begin fueling?

I guess product designers are making EVERYTHING have color screens now just because it looks cool, even though it is useless on something like a parking meter.

 

[likemyorbs]

First world problems...

 

[samiwas]

....Why does a gas pump need a full color display to tell you when to swipe your card, or begin fueling?

I guess product designers are making EVERYTHING have color screens now just because it looks cool, even though it is useless on something like a parking meter.

I think that low-quality color screens are so cheap these days that the cost of putting them in a product is practically nothing. I mean if an iPad with that screen can sell for well under $1000, then the screen itself would max out at a few hundred. So a low-quality screen might only be $100. That's nothing in the cost of an elevator, gas pump, or a myriad of other devices. Plus, since most of these systems probably run on an embedded windows or linux, there's no big cost to supporting color.

But, I have had this same thought before...

 

[mrsir2009]

Because monochrome displays probably aren't made much anymore, so it'd be cheaper to use low quality colour LCDs that are manufactured in great quantity anyway.