LCD Bezel Covers - Update

[sagrada737]

Hi Folks,

Well... I finally got around to doing the final installation of the Bezel Covers for my three VIZIO 70" LCD monitors.  After testing various geometry configurations, I decided on some final dimensions suitable for my monitor setup, and made a couple of Bezel Covers out of 0.032 thick "mirrored stainless steel"sheet stock. 

If you are interested in this type of material, here is a link to a supplier:
https://www.stainlesssupply.com/order-metal-online/docs/g1c1045s2ss0p0/304-stainless-steel-sheet-8-mirror.htm
By the way, this material is very hard and must be sheared correctly or it will radically twist.  The above company can make the parts for you.

I'm very pleased with the final design, as it gives a nice illusion of "color blending", which tends to reduce bezel interference, making for a more pleasing flight.  This addition is certainly a subjective solution for the broad black bezels on most LCD Monitors, and it doesn't come close to filling the shoes of a nice wrap-around projection display...   But it does a good job, and retains the beautiful contrast of multiple LCD displays for use in the Sim.  Also, I suspect that the blending effect will be even better after I install the Nose Section on my Sim, providing a greater sense of immersion, without the "untreated black bezels".  All this is quite subjective, so take it for what it's worth.  If you are using LCD monitors, give it a try - you might like the effect.

Here are a couple of very short videos...  The first shows the Bezel Cover blending effect:
Bezel Covers Installed

This short video shows the basic bezel geometry to give you a better idea of the design concept:
Bezel Cover Geometry

Keep your airspeed up!
Mike

[XOrionFE]

This is really a brilliant solution Mike.  What some would say is a classic example of thinking outside the box. I think I will have to give this a try.   I know especially in the cockpit that my peraonal experience is that the brain ignores the bezels anyway but one cant help but notice how much better this appears than black bezels.


Now need a solution for filling in back windows with lighting and some motion that mimics the front three without having to run full simulations and wideview.  I am convinced that one can thoroughly be engrossed and immersed in a 3 large screen lcd setup but nice to have something on. The back two monitors without full blown copies of sim needing to run.   

Nice work,
Scott

[sagrada737]

Hi Scott,

Glad you liked the finished result for my new Bezel Covers.  As you have stated over and over, "It's hard to beat the clarity and image contrast afforded by an LCD monitor."   The question of what to do about the bezels is glaring, but we tend to justify the black bands of separation between monitors by saying that we soon forget they are there.  There is some truth in that, as the overall cockpit immersion can be intense in flying the 737 (especially single pilot communicating with live ATC), so the outside display tends to become secondary in our minds.  The idea of the Bezel Cover treatment is to "further minimize" the multi-monitor bezel banding by having it blur into the adjacent displays.  This, the Bezel Covers do nicely by blending in the hues of adjacent monitors.

I'm looking forward to completing building up my FDS 737 Nose Section.  Because, one thing the Nose Section will do is to further draw the mind's eye into the cockpit environment, helping to complete the visual illusion as we on occasion glance outside the windows for quick outside reference.  This is a visual effect, and is mainly due to the sharper visual contrast of things located in closer proximity within the cockpit environment.  This gets contrasted with that of the somewhat "disffused view" through the windows as we seek to view something coherent outside.  Our minds are constantly integrating the Pilot's viewpoint with the outside view, with that of the more local cockpit environment.   It is this "visual switching" that helps create the necessary illusion we enjoy in our Sims.  Hands-on inside and visual sense outside.

The fact is...  Things closer to us seem to draw our attention more locally, over what is more distant and diffused.  In the case of our Sims, this is why the fairly limited view through the hard lines of the cockpit windows, and other hard features within the flight deck, visually serve to enhance the sense of flight dynamics as contrasted with what is going outside our flight deck environment.  We can touch and feel things in the flight deck, but the outside view only needs to give a hint of what is happening in order to complete the illusion - manifest as immersion.

In this regard, the idea of Bezel Covers help with this diffusion by eliminating the sharp and hard contrast of the black bezel bands on the multi-segmented monitors.  This of course is why wrap-around projection is so nice, even with its lower contrast and image detail - because it offers a contiguous, diffused representation of what's happening outside the aircraft.  In-flight, we don't really care as much about image detail outside, because our minds are really concerned with "global information"  - we really care about what the aircraft is doing, and whether or not it is doing what we have commanded it to do.  This is especially true when the aircraft is operating close to the ground. 

When you think about it, when we are taking off or landing, we take global snapshots of what the aircraft is doing, and we then make corrective inputs for what we want the aircraft to do.  Flying requires a good balance of judgement and timing, with serious discipline relating to cockpit management over what's happening with respect to the view outside.  This is what makes flying so much fun during the take-off and landing phase, because it places more demand on our our senses and reactions.   Frankly, the same holds true at altitude with respect to systems management and position awareness.  When these get out-of-whack, pilots drill holes in the ground.

Anyone who has flown in instrument conditions knows that you need to keep your mind on "what the instruments are saying" with respect to aircraft operations and position awareness, what you are doing, what you will do next, and what is suppose to happen after that.  There is a lot going on flying on a clear day - let alone flying IMC - or even worse, when flying in partial IMC where the pilot tends (desires) to "rubber neck" looking for some sign or reference to the ground below.

Anyway, with respect to my full-scale 737 Sim Project, I want to connect as many of the dots as possible (on a budget) to help create a sense of what we experience in flight.  Thus, little things like Bezel Covers, sound enhancements, audio-shakers, etc.,  help to create the illusions needed to further the sense of immersion we desire for our Sim Project.  All subjective of course...

Regarding your comments...  I like your thinking on what to do with the Rear Windows visuals in the 737 Nose Section.  I'm not sure of a good way to "trick the mind" with smoke and mirrors so-to-speak, because when we do look over our shoulder, our minds expect to take that global snapshot of something outside to get some scrap of coherent information.  There may be no way around this except to have 5 monitors, or of course, a nice 220 degree projection system.  If you come up with something, please let us know.

Mike

[Maurice]

Very clever Mike. This looks great and the clarity & brightness of the picture is amazing so the overall look greatly overshadows the slight distortion the strips create at the monitor junctions. At any rate, the distortion is really only obvious while taxiing and much less obvious once airborne which is where you spend most of the time anyway.

And you are quite right...once you have the shell in place, you will only see a much smaller portion of the screen and the junctions will probably disappear unless you just focus on them, which you will likely stop doing in a very short time.

Great setup!

Maurice