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113-595: In late 2010, a mobile version of the Reactable was released for iOS. The Reactable is a round translucent table, used in a darkened room, and appears as a backlit display. By placing blocks called tangibles on the table, and interfacing with the visual display via the tangibles or fingertips, a virtual modular synthesizer is operated, creating music or sound effects. There are various types of tangibles representing different modules of an analog synthesizer. Audio frequency VCOs , LFOs , VCFs , and sequencers are some of

226-406: A diffuser to provide even lighting from an uneven source. Backlights come in many colors. Monochrome LCDs typically have yellow , green , blue , or white backlights, while color displays use white backlights that cover most of the color spectrum . Colored LED backlighting is most commonly used in small, inexpensive LCD panels. White LED backlighting is becoming dominant. ELP backlighting

339-502: A "Live Session Album" made at the now-closed Olympic Studios. This was then followed by online stores adding to their pages a release titled "Volta Revisited" in February 2008, with projected (and incorrect) release dates of April/May 2008 listed. An email from Derek Birkett, head of One Little Indian , stated the proposed contents of the release, meant to 'tie-up' the Volta campaign. The release

452-677: A 10-piece female Icelandic brass section. Björk had described the tour as "kind of primitive, raw, almost butch", in marked contrast to her 2001 tour for Vespertine . At several of the concerts Björk had been joined on stage by some of the musicians who collaborated on the album (but who are not part of the touring band), including ANOHNI, Min Xiao-Fen and Toumani Diabaté. Björk has voiced her dislike of fans recording video or taking pictures with flash at her concerts using their mobile phones, stating that it affects her ability to perform. The tour took Björk to countries that she has not played in for over

565-707: A Reactable was installed at Discovery Place in Charlotte, North Carolina. as part of the 'Think it up' exhibition which opened to the public on May 1, 2010 From July 2, 2010, until October 1, 2010, a Reactable Experience was on display in the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, as part of their 'BioRhythm' exhibition. There is Reactable at the Centre des sciences de Montréal in Montreal, Canada. In 2011

678-463: A backlight, for example, OLED displays, cathode-ray tube (CRT), and plasma (PDP) displays. A similar type of technology is called a frontlight , which illuminates an LCD from the front. A review of some early backlighting schemes for LCDs is given in a report Engineering and Technology History by Peter J. Wild . The light source can be made up of: An ELP gives off uniform light over its entire surface, but other backlights frequently employ

791-459: A challenge; first generation implementations could potentially use more power than their CCFL counterparts, though it is possible for an LED display to be more power efficient. In 2010, current generation LED displays can have significant power consumption advantages. For example, the non-LED version of the 24" Benq G2420HDB consumer display has a 49W consumption compared to the 24W of the LED version of

904-471: A collection of all of these images" burned into her memory, from her trip to Indonesia as well as her vivid, in-flight reverie." —In an interview on MTV Björk talked about the background of "Earth Intruders". "Earth Intruders" incorporates the efforts of multiple collaborators, including Timbaland and Danja's tribal production, Congolese ensemble Konono N°1 who play electric likembés , and experimental American percussionist Chris Corsano , as well as

1017-546: A continuously playing, "squelching" unified marching sound. "Declare Independence" was originally an instrumental track by British musician and frequent musical collaborator Mark Bell , performed at his live shows as early as November 2006. Björk later added her vocals and a brass arrangement on top. It features noisy and distorted industrial techno -style production, similar to "Pluto" on Björk's 1997 album Homogenic , and has been compared to Atari Teenage Riot because of its stylistic nods to punk . The lyrics are dedicated to

1130-432: A costume made, based on Ocelot's ideas, by paper sculptor Anne-Lise Kœhler. The full video was made available in the iTunes Store on 24 April 2007. It was nominated for the 2007 Q Award for Best Video. A fan contest to submit ideas for the music video for "Innocence" was announced, with the intention being that Björk would work with the chosen fan director to fully flesh out the video idea. The original deadline for

1243-666: A decade, including Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. Live footage of two concerts in Paris and Reykjavík, as well as a session with the tour band at Olympic Studios , were released as part of the Voltaïc box set on 23 June 2009. Björk has used live performances of "Declare Independence" to declare political support for various causes, often to some controversy. At two concerts in Tokyo , Japan, she showed her support for Kosovo's declaration of independence . When her upcoming performance at

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1356-459: A digital video camera is processed by the open-source computer vision software called reacTIVision , originally developed by Martin Kaltenbrunner and Ross Bencina for the Reactable project. reacTIVision detects cartesian and rotational placement of fiducials on the table surface, then emits the specially designed Open Sound Control based network protocol called TUIO , which communicates to

1469-559: A distorted sample of the song was uploaded to YouTube as part of the viral marketing campaign for the Volta album. A fifteen-second sample of the track then appeared on the Rhino Records online ringtone website on 1 April 2007. The purchased ringtone featured a different clip (with different lyrics) to the one used in the online preview on the site; both audio samples were subsequently spread across online music forums. On 3 April 2007, it

1582-473: A large stack of uniaxial oriented birefringent films that reflect the former absorbed polarization mode of the light. Such reflective polarizers using uniaxial oriented polymerized liquid crystals (birefringent polymers or birefringent glue) are invented in 1989 by Philips researchers Dirk Broer, Adrianus de Vaan and Joerg Brambring. The combination of such reflective polarizers, and LED dynamic backlight control make today's LCD televisions far more efficient than

1695-503: A lot of things in one word: a dance, a river in Africa which doesn't work anymore, and the battery. So okay – this fits. The full album was accidentally made available on the UK iTunes Store at midnight on 23 April 2007 for a total of six hours, two weeks before the album's official release date. This led to the album being leaked online the following day. Volta was released in three editions in

1808-502: A magazine or somebody says something. I had waited for years while working on the album but it didn't come. In the lyrics there are words like " voltage " and " voodoo ", which I found to be too common somehow. I have always tried to choose titles which are kind of Latin or something, which aren't english, which is a little funny because we europeans find latin to be sort of neutral language ... But I found Volta ... I don't recall how it came about, but I Googled it and found that it

1921-448: A new LED iMac , meaning all of Apple's new computer screens became LED-backlit displays. Almost every laptop with a 16:9 display introduced since September 2009 uses LED-backlit panels. This is also the case for most LCD television sets, which are marketed in some countries under the misleading name LED TV , although the image is still generated by an LCD panel. Most LED backlights for LCDs are edge-lit , i.e. several LEDs are placed at

2034-404: A particular genre, but wanted to work with him solely as a musician in his own right. Björk has also explained that when the two of them were together, Timbaland asked Björk what kind of music she would like to make with him, for example a hit song or "something weird", and Björk replied that she was interested in finding out where they "overlapped" musically, and they would go from there. The result

2147-412: A post on sprk.nl on 20 March 2007. The unreleased Volta track, "Trance", appears in the short film dedicated to Alexander McQueen, "To Lee, With Love, Nick", directed by Nick Knight. The track entitled "Vertebræ by Vertebræ" was retitled from the previous, "Energy". Björk said about the title of the album: I am always looking for words that have some sort of energy. Usually the name just comes, from

2260-763: A result, the white point is less dependent on individual LEDs, and degrading of individual LEDs over lifetime, leading to a more homogenous backlight with improved colour consistency and lower lumen depreciation. The use of LED backlights in notebook computers has been growing. Sony has used LED backlights in some of its higher-end slim VAIO notebooks since 2005, and Fujitsu introduced notebooks with LED backlights in 2006. In 2007, Asus , Dell , and Apple introduced LED backlights into some of their notebook models. As of 2008 , Lenovo has announced LED-backlit notebooks. In October 2008, Apple announced that it would be using LED backlights for all of its notebooks and new 24-inch Apple Cinema Display , and one year later it introduced

2373-513: A return to the supposed "pop" sound of Björk's earlier solo albums Debut and Post . This was due in part to the inclusion of three tracks co-produced by record producer Timbaland ; in interviews before the album's release he had stated that seven of the tracks he worked with Björk on would end up on her album, seemingly indicating that the decision was made to choose other tracks than the Timbaland-produced ones, or else other versions of

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2486-444: A sheet on which phosphorous luminescent materials are printed for colour conversion. The principle is similar to quantum dots, but the phosphors applied are much more robust than the quantum dot nano-particles for applications that require long lifetime in more demanding operational conditions. Because the phosphor sheet is placed at a distance (remote) of the LED it experiences much less temperature stress than phosphors in white LEDs. As

2599-459: A specially designed layer of plastic that diffuses the light through a series of unevenly spaced bumps. The density of bumps increases further away from the light source according to a diffusion equation . The diffused light then travels to either side of the diffuser; the front faces the actual LCD panel, the back has a reflector to guide otherwise wasted light back toward the LCD panel. The reflector

2712-800: A statement denouncing Björk's outburst, and warned that she would be banned from future appearances in China if she repeated such behavior. In an interview, Björk said that she did not "[plan] a trip to China with the purpose of ... propaganda " and that Chinese officials "sensationalized" her performance. On July 17, 2008, the Chinese Ministry of Culture announced that artistic groups who "threaten national unity" or "whip up ethnic hatred" among other things during live events would be banned from performing. Fans of Oasis and Bob Dylan , who had previously performed in Tibetan Freedom Concerts , blamed

2825-456: A technology where the intensity of the LEDs are kept constant, but the brightness adjustment is achieved by varying a time interval of flashing these constant light intensity light sources ), the backlight is dimmed to the brightest color that appears on the screen while simultaneously boosting the LCD contrast to the maximum achievable levels If the frequency of the pulse-width modulation is too low or

2938-408: A translucent table. Underneath the table is a voice recorder , aimed at the underside of the table and inputting video to a personal computer . There is also a video projector under the table, also connected to the computer, projecting video onto the underside of the table top that can be seen from the upper side as well. There is an audio engine based on Pure Data and SuperCollider Placed onto

3051-400: Is a poor match to the transmission peaks of the red and green color filters of the LCD. This causes the red and green primaries to shift toward yellow, reducing the color gamut of the display. RGB LEDs consist of a red, a blue, and a green LED and can be controlled to produce different color temperatures of white. RGB LEDs for backlighting are found in high end color proofing displays such as

3164-412: Is a sort of continuity of 'Hyperballad'." Björk has since said that "Initially after its release, I felt Volta was just OK", and that she regards the tour versions of the songs as better than those found on the album – in this sense the live recordings released on Voltaïc are to be seen as the true version of the album. The track titles were confirmed in a 14 March 2007 article on MTV, and confirmed in

3277-418: Is based on blue LEDs (such as gallium nitride (GaN) LEDs) that illuminate a layer of nanocrystal phosphors, called quantum dots (QDs). The quantum dots convert the blue wavelengths to the desired longer wavelengths as narrow-bandwidth green and red colors for optimal illumination of the LCD from behind. The manufacturer, Nanosys , claims that the color output of the dots can be tuned precisely by controlling

3390-455: Is both the name of a scientist in Italy who invented the battery, and also a river in Africa which had been built by men, and a lagoon built by men called Lake Volta . So several parts come into it. I'm not going to name anything specific, people can guess for themselves what it is. There is also a mediaeval dance with carries that name, a very funny dance which is very hard to learn. Thus, I got

3503-521: Is hard to achieve, especially as the LEDs age, with each LED aging at a different rate. The use of three separate light sources for red, green, and blue means that the white point of the display can move as the LEDs age at different rates; white LEDs are affected by this phenomenon, with changes of several hundred kelvins of color temperature being recorded. White LEDs suffer from blue shifts at higher temperatures varying from 3141K to 3222K for 10 °C to 80 °C respectively. Power efficiency may be

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3616-494: Is mostly proof that Björk is as fallible as the messy, unpredictable humanity she celebrates, and that even her definition of 'pop' is avant-garde.' Volta spent nine weeks at number one on Billboard 's Top Electronic Albums chart and in the first three months of release sold over half a million copies worldwide. It also managed to peak at number nine in the Billboard 200 chart, making it her highest charting album ever in

3729-471: Is often abbreviated as "FALD". This arrangement allows for local dimming to obtain darker black pixels depending on the image displayed. LED backlight are often dynamically controlled using the video information (dynamic backlight control or dynamic "local dimming" LED backlight, also marketed as HDR, high dynamic range television, invented by Philips researchers Douglas Stanton, Martinus Stroomer and Adrianus de Vaan ). Using PWM (pulse-width modulation,

3842-408: Is often used for larger displays or when even backlighting is important; it can also be either colored or white. An ELP must be driven by relatively high voltage AC power, which is provided by an inverter circuit. CCFL backlights are used on larger displays such as computer monitors, and are typically white in color; these also require the use of an inverter and diffuser. Incandescent backlighting

3955-429: Is operating the backlight at a frequency higher than the brain can perceive. The flicker can be reduced or eliminated by setting the display to full brightness, though this may have a negative impact on image quality and battery life due to increased power consumption. For a non-ELP backlight to produce even lighting, which is critical for displays, the light is first passed through a lightguide (Light guide plate, LGP) -

4068-543: Is sometimes made of aluminum foil or a simple white-pigmented surface. The LCD backlight systems are made highly efficient by applying optical films such as prismatic structure to gain the light into the desired viewer directions and reflective polarizing films that recycle the polarized light that was formerly absorbed by the first polarizer of the LCD (invented by Philips researchers Adrianus de Vaan and Paulus Schaareman), generally achieved using so called DBEF films manufactured and supplied by 3M. These polarizers consist of

4181-472: The Faroe Islands and Greenland . Björk has described "Wanderlust" as being the heart of Volta , and has said that the song is about "the state of looking for something and almost knowing you're never going to find it" and that it makes fun of her hunger for "something new". It was released in the UK on 30 June. As Björk said in an interview for Harp , "Things go in circles. Wanderlust, for example,

4294-520: The Faroe Islands caused some minor controversy in the country. At a concert in Shanghai , China, on 2 March 2008, Björk shouted " Tibet , Tibet!" three times followed by "Raise your flag!" four times during the finale performance of "Declare Independence". Immediately there was an 'uneasy atmosphere' and fans left the venue quickly, and internet forums such as Tianya fielded many negative comments on her statement. China's Ministry of Culture issued

4407-481: The NTSC color specification. LED backlighting in color screens comes in two varieties: white LED backlights and RGB LED backlights. White LEDs are used most often in notebook computers and desktop screens, and make up virtually all mobile LCD screens. A white LED is typically a blue LED with broad spectrum yellow phosphor to result in the emission of white light. However, because the spectral curve peaks at yellow, it

4520-689: The UK Official Download Chart , and number 78 on the main UK Singles Chart , while the remix EP later charted on its own at number 150. In the United States, the song became her second entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 84. Volta was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards . The album was re-released in June 2009 in expanded versions, under

4633-470: The UK Official Download Chart , and number 78 on the main UK Singles Chart , while the remix EP later released charted on its own at number 150. In the United States, the song debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 84 in the issue dated 28 April 2007. This is Björk's highest position on the US Hot 100, the previous being " Big Time Sensuality " in 1993, which peaked at number 88. The single's success on

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4746-521: The '90s and her experiments in the 2000s." Arwa Haider also stated that "this [ Volta ] is arguably [Björk's] strongest album yet", while Priya Elan praised the album as 'another amazing statement of intent-full of hope, eccenticity and wonderfulness.' Michael Keefe, in a more balanced review, said that Volta is not 'a great album, but it is quite good.' The song "Earth Intruders" got favourable reception by music critics. Drowned in Sound reviewer Mike Diver gave

4859-594: The 2008 Serbian Exit Festival was cancelled, Björk suggested that "Maybe a Serb attended my concert [in Tokyo] and called home, and therefore the concert in Novi Sad was cancelled." The organiser behind the Exit Festival denied that Björk's cancellation from the festival was because of her song dedication to Kosovo ; that it was actually their inability to guarantee the safety of her fans. Björk's management maintained that

4972-505: The American late night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien , performing the song "Wanderlust". Björk performed three songs, at a benefit concert at Club NASA in Reykjavík on April 1 for FORMA, an Icelandic organisation which deals with people who have eating disorders. Tour rehearsals began shortly before this performance. Björk went on an 18-month tour in support of the album, which

5085-658: The CRT-based sets, leading to a worldwide energy saving of 600 TWh (2017), equal to 10% of the electricity consumption of all households worldwide or equal to 2 times the energy production of all solar cells in the world. The evolution of energy standards and the increasing public expectations regarding power consumption have made it necessary for backlight systems to manage their power. As for other consumer electronics products (e.g., fridges or light bulbs), energy consumption categories are enforced for television sets. Standards for power ratings for TV sets have been introduced, e.g., in

5198-500: The HP DreamColor LP2480zx monitor or selected HP EliteBook notebooks, as well as more recent consumer-grade displays such as Dell's Studio series laptops which have an optional RGB LED display. RGB LEDs can deliver an enormous color gamut to screens. When using three separate LEDs ( additive color ) the backlight can produce a color spectrum that closely matches the color filters in the LCD pixels themselves. In this way,

5311-1067: The Johnsons , appears on the album for two duets—"The Dull Flame of Desire" and "My Juvenile". The collaborative sessions took place in Jamaica. Björk has also put together her own fourteen-piece brass section of female Icelandic musicians who play on three tracks on the album. Its members comprise Sylvía Hlynsdóttir, Ása Berglind Hjálmarsdóttir, Dröfn Helgadóttir, Valdís Þorkelsdóttir, Karen J. Sturlaugsson, Björk Níelsdóttir, Sigrún Jónsdóttir, Harpa Jóhannsdóttir, Vilborg Jónsdóttir, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Erla Axelsdóttir, Særún Pálmadóttir, Lilja Valdimarsdóttir and Brynja Guðmundsdóttir. Other collaborators include American drummers Brian Chippendale and Chris Corsano , Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté , Congolese ensemble Konono N°1 , Chinese pipa player Min Xiao-Fen , British electronic musician Mark Bell , Icelandic lyricist Sjón programmer and engineer Damian Taylor and Estonian producer Michael Pärt . Volta

5424-569: The Reactable Experience is on display in many exhibitions. Some of these include: INTECH , Discovery World , Museum of Science and Industry , Sub Mix Pro , ZKM , and Game Science Center Berlin . During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Reactable was featured at the CODE festival. Throughout February, this event featured interactive media paired with sports and music. In March 2010,

5537-657: The UK: a digipak CD edition; a limited edition CD-DVD edition (featuring surround audio in DTS ); and a double vinyl edition. The UK and Japanese editions of the album feature the Mark Bell Mix of "I See Who You Are" as a bonus track. Later editions were released in regular jewelcases. As part of the marketing campaign for the album, a series of cryptic videos were circulated on various websites, specifically via YouTube and MySpace. The videos contained distorted audio samples and snippets of

5650-619: The US charts has been mainly attributed to internet downloads; the single sold 16,000 downloads on the week of its release, propelling it to number 65 on the US Billboard Hot Digital Tracks . The song also peaked at number 75 on the US Billboard Pop 100 chart. Perhaps because of the lack of a physical release, "Innocence" failed to chart in the UK, becoming only the third single of Björk's career up until this point not to chart,

5763-541: The US on 31 July 2007, though this date was moved later. "Declare Independence" was released as the third single from Volta on 1 January 2008. The video, directed by Michel Gondry (his seventh video with Björk, and the first since 1997's Bachelorette ), was premiered on AOL on 6 December 2007 and on Channel 4 in the UK on 13 December 2007. A making-of was made available on November 29, 2007. The video shoot took place on 11 October 2007 in New York City. Unlike

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5876-607: The USA, EU, and Australia as well as in China. Moreover, a 2008 study showed that among European countries, power consumption is one of the most important criteria for consumers when they choose a television, as important as the screen size. Volta (album) Volta is the sixth studio album by the Icelandic singer Björk , released on 1 May 2007 by One Little Independent Records . It features contributions from multiple artists, including Björk's longtime collaborator Mark Bell and

5989-524: The United States, selling 43,000 copies in its first week. Volta was also released by both Polydor and Universal in selected Asian countries including Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Indonesia in which each country mentioned had a corresponding tour in 2008. In Japan, the album debuted at number 12 on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart with 16,425 copies sold on its first week of release. The single "Earth Intruders" reached number 67 on

6102-502: The Volta tour and a small concert in Reykjavík , Iceland straight after the tour had finished. The "Volta Revisited" collection eventually surfaced as Voltaïc and was to include a live DVD among 3 other discs, although manufacturing problems lead to a delay of up to six months for its release. One manufacturing error led to 20,000 copies of the box-set having to be destroyed, and with a remanufacture necessary, Björk decided to make changes to

6215-418: The actual synthesizer and visualization software that outputs to the video projector. reacTIVision is also capable of multi-touch fingertip tracking. The Reactable has been presented and performed at various festivals and conferences such as Ars Electronica , Sónar , NIME and SIGGRAPH . Over the years, the Reactable team has showcased more than 150 presentations and concerts in more than 30 countries around

6328-560: The album was released on 23 June 2009 as Voltaïc , and includes two live concerts filmed in Paris and Reykjavík, remixes and videos from the Volta era and a live session at Olympic Studios in London. The release was originally announced as Volta Revisited and rumoured to be released in March 2008, and some online music shops made the album available for pre-order, while the Olympic Studio session

6441-649: The back or side of a display panel. LCDs do not produce light by themselves, so they need illumination ( ambient light or a special light source) to produce a visible image. Backlights are often used in smartphones , computer monitors , and LCD televisions . They are used in small displays to increase readability in low light conditions such as in wristwatches . Typical sources of light for backlights include light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs). Simple types of LCDs such as those used in pocket calculators are built without an internal light source, requiring external light sources to convey

6554-530: The band Nero featured a Reactable in the music video of their single "Promises". From March 2011 a Reactable is on display in Copernicus Science Centre , Warsaw, Poland. It is a part of "Re:Generation" exhibition and is available for use by visitors. British band Coldplay used a Reactable during their performance of their song " Midnight " during iTunes Festival at SXSW on March 11, 2014. The Reactable received much attention from bloggers and

6667-454: The cancellation was because of the dedication, claiming that they had received an email from Exit Festival saying that they would only allow the concert to go ahead if Björk's management "denied that Björk has ever [dedicated the song to Kosovo]". On 7 March 2008, Exit Festival organiser Bojan Bošković changed his position and told NME that Björk has an "open invitation" to play at the festival. Björk's dedicating of "Declare Independence" to

6780-425: The case of "Vertebræ by Vertebræ" and "Declare Independence", because she was interested to find out how the sounds from that soundtrack album would sound in a less ambient or atmospheric soundscape. For the song "Pneumonia", also featuring an independent horn section, she drew inspiration from her own bout with the disease, and an emotionally moving viewing of the film Pan's Labyrinth . "The song "Earth Intruders,"

6893-546: The children who were affected by the tsunami – in May 2005 Björk released the charity album Army of Me: Remixes and Covers to help UNICEF's work in the south east Asian region. Björk's experiences in Indonesia led to the track " Earth Intruders ", originally a ten-minute song which Björk then subsequently edited for the album version. Björk collaborated on seven tracks in total with Timbaland. Timbaland had stated that he intended one of

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7006-400: The commonly used tangibles. There are also tangibles that affect other modules: one called radar is a periodic trigger, and another called tonalizer limits a VCO to the notes of a musical scale . The table itself is the display. As a tangible is placed on the table, various animated symbols appear, such as waveforms, circles, circular grids, or sweeping lines. Some symbols merely show what

7119-425: The competition was to be on July 10; however, a decision was subsequently made to move the deadline for the contest forward by a month to June 10 in order to release the track "Innocence" around the same period that "Declare Independence" would have been originally released. The decision was met with mixed reactions by fans as many were subsequently unable to submit their ideas due to the new deadline. The shooting for

7232-421: The corresponding digital release. The second single from Volta was originally meant to be "Declare Independence", but due to the worldwide success of Volta Björk had to perform more international promotion work than her label One Little Indian had originally planned, meaning that the previously planned video shoot for "Declare Independence" with Michel Gondry in London could not take place. The deadline for

7345-467: The display image to the user. Most LCD screens, however, are built with an internal light source. Such screens consist of several layers. The backlight is usually the first layer from the back. Light valves then vary the amount of light reaching the eye, by blocking its passage in some way. Most use a fixed polarizing filter and a switching one, to block the undesired light. Many types of displays other than LCD generate their own light and do not require

7458-444: The edges of a lightguide (Light guide plate, LGP), which distributes the light behind the LC panel. Advantages of this technique are the very thin flat-panel construction and low cost. A more expensive version is called full-array or direct LED and consists of many LEDs placed behind the LC panel (an array of LEDs), such that large panels can be evenly illuminated. Full-array local dimming

7571-432: The electric battery) of the band "itshardtofindabandname" from Iceland. An article on Pitchfork on 29 March 2007 later confirmed the authenticity of the viral marketing campaign. A podcast shot by Ragnheidur Gestsdóttir detailing the album's production was made available on iTunes on 10 April 2007; six episodes were made for download, though the final installment cuts out before the video ends. A special edition of

7684-424: The filter passband can be narrowed so that each color component lets only a very narrow band of spectrum through the LCD. This improves the efficiency of the display since less light is blocked when white is displayed. The actual red, green, and blue points can be moved farther out so that the display is capable of reproducing more vivid colors. A method to further improve the color gamut of LED-backlit LCD panels

7797-586: The first being " Jóga " in 1997 (the EP charted at number 191 in 1998, however), and the second being " Oceania " in 2004. The music video for "Earth Intruders" was directed by Michel Ocelot . It features Björk's face floating in the background, first upside down, then upright, singing with her eyes closed. In the foreground, a large group of silhouetted tribal warriors dance in time to the music. The video features psychedelic colours and patterns imposed on an earthy backdrop. The video ends with Björk's face slowly fading into

7910-464: The first two singles from Volta , the single has a physical release in the form of two 12-inch vinyls, a CD and a DVD. On 7 April 2007, the " Mark Stent Extended Edit" of "Earth Intruders" was released on the Australian iTunes Store ; most other iTunes Stores made the single available on April 9, the official release date of the digital single. The album version of Earth Intruders (which differs from

8023-508: The helmets of several foot soldiers and then up through a pulley system before returning to the guitar. As the song progresses, the strings are spraypainted with several colours as they pass through the loop. All the people in the video including Björk wear jumpsuits with the flags of Greenland and the Faroe Islands on their shoulders. The video is also available on the DVD compilation Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1) . A video

8136-512: The iTunes Store version both in terms of mixing and track length) was leaked to the Internet on 24 April 2007, due to the full album being made available accidentally on the UK iTunes Store on 23 April 2007 for a total of six hours, two weeks before the album's official release date. A digital-only "Earth Intruders – Club Mixes" EP was released on the iTunes Store in the US and UK on 21 May 2007. The European iTunes release contained only three of

8249-412: The lyrics from some of the tracks on Volta . The videos were discovered on 28 March 2007, though one of the videos had been uploaded to YouTube as early as 19 March 2007. A mysterious MySpace profile link was then discovered on 28 March 2007, which featured another cryptic video and four new audio samples. The profile belonged to a fictitious "Gerome Voltaire" (a play on Alessandro Volta , the inventor of

8362-432: The middle of a glade, her eyes being opened just as she sings the last lyric. Ocelot stated that Björk had originally wanted Kirikou to be featured as a 20-year-old in the video. It was accomplished within strict time constraints through a combination of live-action, silhouette animation , 3D computer graphics , traditional animation , cut-outs and other special effects . "Kirikou" was danced by Legrand Bemba-Debert in

8475-460: The music video contest for "Innocence" (originally announced on 19 March 2007) was then brought forward a month to 10 June 2007 so as to provide a finished video able to coincide with the July release originally planned for Declare Independence. "Innocence", the other Timbaland -co-produced track, was released digitally across the globe on 23 July 2007. It was announced that the release would be available in

8588-522: The name Voltaïc . There were five separate versions of related material from Volta . The full version included a CD of 11 songs performed live at the Olympic Studios , a DVD of live performances in Paris and Reykjavík during the Volta tour, a second DVD of the Volta music videos, videos of the top ten runners-up from the " Innocence " video contest, and a second CD of remixes from Volta' s singles. The official worldwide release date of all editions

8701-459: The new regulations for their subsequent denials of permission to perform in Chinese venues. Volta was well received by critics upon its release, though to a lesser extent than Björk's previous albums. According to Metacritic, the album holds a rating of 77/100, indicating favourable reviews. Heather Phares of AllMusic stated that " Volta finds the perfect balance between [Björk's] poppier work in

8814-433: The ocean ... but more dirty sounding than when [she] did, for example, Vespertine ", and thematically, she intended the album to be "going for something more pagan ". She used brass instrumentation for almost every song on the album, and most of the instrumentation is courtesy of an all-female Icelandic brass ensemble. However, Björk also used samples from her previous project, The Music From Drawing Restraint 9 , as in

8927-466: The original five tracks. It is only the second time (the first being " Play Dead ") that an instrumental of a Björk track has been officially released. With this release, it was determined that "Earth Intruders" would have no physical release in any territory worldwide. Also, the Mark Stent mix was initially labelled as an "Extended Edit", but on 23 May 2007, was retitled to "Radio Edit"; the "xxxChange Mix"

9040-406: The particular tangible is doing, others can be used by fingertip to control the respective module. If a VCO tangible is placed on the table, a VCO module is added to the virtual synthesizer. In the display, a waveform will appear between the tangible and the "output" (a bright spot at the center of the table), and a circle appears around the tangible which allows fingertip control of the amplitude of

9153-636: The producers Timbaland and Danja . The album received positive reviews and is Björk's first and only album to reach the top 10 on the US Billboard 200 , peaking at number nine. Volta spent nine weeks at number one on the US Top Electronic Albums chart and in the first three months of release sold over half a million copies worldwide. In the United Kingdom it was certified silver . The lead single, " Earth Intruders ", reached number 67 on

9266-537: The resulting combined white light allows for an equivalent or better color gamut than that emitted by a more expensive set of three RGB LEDs. At the Consumer Electronics Show 2015, a number of companies showed QD-enhanced LED-backlighting of LCD TVs, including Samsung Electronics , LG Electronics , and the Chinese TCL Corporation . There are several challenges with LED backlights. Uniformity

9379-402: The same display ( G2420HDBL ). To overcome the aforementioned challenges with RGB and white LED backlights an 'advanced remote phosphor' LED technology has been developed by NDF Special Light Products, specifically for high-end and long-life LCD applications such as cockpit displays, air traffic control displays, and medical displays. This technology uses blue pump LEDs in combination with

9492-434: The size of the nanocrystals. Other companies pursuing this method are Nanoco Group PLC (UK), QD Vision , 3M a licensee of Nanosys and Avantama of Switzerland . Sony has adapted quantum dot technology from the US company QD Vision to introduce LCD TVs with an improved edge-lit LED backlight marketed under the term Triluminos in 2013. With a blue LED and optimized nanocrystals for green and red colors in front of it,

9605-467: The song 9/10, praising it as 'immediately catchy, compellingly left of centre, and undeniably unique'. Digital Spy reviewer Miriam Zendle cited "Earth Intruders" as returning to Björk's earlier commercial sound, comparing it to her more recent albums that were "incredibly difficult to grasp hold of". Music website Popjustice called it the 80th greatest single of 2007. However, Volta also received some mixed reviews with Pitchfork stating that 'Volta

9718-411: The table are the tangibles that have fiducials attached to their underside which are seen through the table by the camera. The fiducials are printed black-and-white images, consisting of circles and dots in varying patterns, optimized for use by reacTIVision . reacTIVision then uses the fiducials to understand the function of a particular tangible. Most of the tangibles are flat, with one fiducial on

9831-405: The track listing resulting in four songs being cut from the live DVD. Towards the end of April 2009 Universal Europe accidentally shipped their copies of Voltaïc early. A statement released by One Little Indian stated that the projected release date was meant to be June 2009 as they wanted all three versions of Voltaïc to be available upon official release – the early shipment by Universal Europe

9944-405: The tracks he did with Björk to appear on his new solo album but this did not materialise. The lead-off single from Volta , "Earth Intruders", is co-produced by Timbaland, as well as the second single " Innocence "; the album track "Hope" is co-written by Timbaland. Björk has stated that the other Timbaland tracks are unlikely to ever be released. Anohni , lead singer of the band Antony and

10057-519: The tracks. At the time Timbaland had also had recent hits with Justin Timberlake (" SexyBack ") and Nelly Furtado (" Promiscuous " and " Maneater "), with him and his protégé Danja being responsible for some of the biggest hits of 2006 and 2007. As the news of Björk's having worked with Timbaland spread across the Internet, many websites started speculating on whether the album would be " hip hop " flavoured; in one interview Timbaland himself referred to

10170-477: The underside. Some other tangibles are cubes, with fiducials attached to several sides, allowing those tangibles to serve multiple functions. Currently, there are two versions of the Reactable, Reactable Live! and the Reactable experience. Reactable Live is a smaller, more portable version designed for professional musicians. The Reactable experience is more like the original Reactable, and suited for installations in public spaces. The live video stream received from

10283-433: The upcoming album as "hip hop". It's crazy – I'm going tonight to go hear it. It's hip hop. I can't really describe it to you – if I had it right now I'd just play it to you. That's the best way for you to understand, and I'd let you tell me what it is. Pitchfork , in their exclusive first interview with Björk for the promotion of Volta , quoted Björk as saying that the new album would be "full-bodied and really up". This

10396-436: The user is very sensitive to flicker, this may cause discomfort and eye-strain, similar to the flicker of CRT displays . This can be tested by a user simply by waving a hand or object in front of the screen. If the object appears to have sharply defined edges as it moves, the backlight is strobing on and off at a fairly low frequency. If the object appears blurry, the display either has a continuously illuminated backlight or

10509-406: The video of "Declare Independence", originally announced as the album's second single, was rescheduled to August. On 27 July 2007 it was announced that the winner of the video contest was to be decided via an online poll from a shortlist of eleven videos. On 7 August 2007, the winners, a French duo known only as Fred & Annabelle, were chosen. The military-themed video for "Declare Independence"

10622-523: The waveform. Additionally, in this example the tangible can be rotated by hand to change the frequency. Placing a filter tangible between the VCO and the output causes the VCO's waveform to connect to the filter, and the filter waveform to connect to the output. If an LFO tangible is placed near the VCO, a waveform will then appear connecting those two, and the LFO will modulate the VCO. The main user interface consists of

10735-524: The world. Icelandic singer Björk is perhaps the first musician outside of the select presentations and demonstrations to use a Reactable in live performance. Björk's 2007 world tour supporting her 2007 release Volta used the instrument in several songs including " Declare Independence "; Björk's live inaugural use of the instrument took place at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 27, 2007. Recently splitting into two models,

10848-440: Was " Earth Intruders ", released digitally on 9 April 2007, though leaked on 6 April 2007. Originally expected to be released as a physical single on 21 May 2007, the release was instead replaced by another digital release, "Earth Intruders – Club Mixes", via iTunes. Indeed, there were no chart eligible physical singles released at all during the Volta era, although box sets were eventually released of each single some months after

10961-469: Was 23 June 2009. The artwork was nominated for an award at the 2010 Brit Insurance Design Awards. It was a collaboration between the German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm and British fashion photographer Nick Knight. Björk went on the 18-month Volta tour , her first tour in four years. In an interview with Pitchfork , Björk talked for the first time about the theme of the album. But with this one, it

11074-719: Was a tribal sound, because they were both interested in it. She has also said that One Little Indian "always feel that 'my latest release is the most commercial to date'", and that she feels Volta is no more commercial than any of her previous work. A wide array of artists collaborated with Björk on material for the album. Björk first contacted Timbaland about a possible collaboration in December 2005. The first session took place in February 2006 in Studio 4 at Manhattan Center Studios in New York City, soon after Björk had visited Banda Aceh in February 2006 to view some of UNICEF 's work with

11187-538: Was based on a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) by using two CCFLs at opposite edges of the LCD or by an array of CCFLs behind the LCD (see picture of an array with 18 CCFLs for a 40-inch LCD TV). Due to the disadvantages in comparison with LED illumination (higher voltage and power needed, thicker panel design, no high-speed switching, faster aging), LED backlighting is becoming more popular. Many LCD models, from cheap TN-displays to color proofing S-IPS or S-PVA panels, have wide gamut CCFLs representing more than 95% of

11300-474: Was created soon after Björk awoke from a dream she had during a cross-Atlantic flight to New York. In the dream, the singer said a "tsunami of millions and millions of poverty-stricken people" swelled high above the airplane she was a passenger on. Eventually, the wave overtook the plane, hit land and razed the White House into oblivion. "It's a quite chaotic song," she said of Volta's first single. "Lyrically, it's

11413-400: Was different because I knew more emotionally what I wanted. And because I'd done two or three projects in a row that were quite serious, maybe I just needed to get that out of my system or something. So all I wanted to do for this album was just to have fun and do something that was full-bodied and really up. In the run-up to the release of the album, many media outlets were lauding the album as

11526-487: Was directed by French director Michel Gondry . The video shoot was originally going to take place in August 2007 in London, but it was eventually rescheduled to 11 October 2007 in New York City. The finished video was premiered on AOL on 6 December 2007. It opens with Mark Bell standing on a wall suspended above Björk, playing a loom -shaped bass guitar . The strings from this guitar thread themselves through Björk's megaphone,

11639-550: Was featured in major TV shows and popular magazines. Rolling Stone Magazine claimed that the Reactable was the hot instrument of 2007. The device has also received several awards including Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Digital Musics, the MIDEM Hottest Music Biz Start-Up Award, and two D&AD Yellow Pencil Awards in 2008. Backlit A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) that provides illumination from

11752-546: Was her first tour in four years. On the tour, which was conducted on a month-on/month-off basis, Björk performed with fourteen musicians on stage. Björk's touring band for this tour consisted of drummer Chris Corsano, musician Mark Bell (who also accompanied Björk on the Homogenic tour), pianist Jónas Sen (who played celeste on the tracks Gratitude and Cetacea on the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack), musician Damian Taylor and

11865-421: Was labeled as an electropop , experimental , world and avant-pop album. Stylistically, it's a distinctive and eclectic album that, while incorporating the efforts of many collaborators, touches on forms of music like brass music , Chinese folk music , percussive tribal music, electro , Malian folk music , ambient and industrial music . Björk opted to incorporate plucked stringed instruments "like

11978-542: Was only of the Deluxe Edition. However, UK-based music retailer CD Wow was found to be for a brief period selling un-cut copies of the box set, before its official release. These copies, which had allegedly been destroyed, were manufactured in Malaysia, and as such contained more tracks than the other released (cut) editions. Voltaïc eventually enjoyed its full official release on 23 June 2009. The lead single from Volta

12091-438: Was originally announced on 4 September 2007 as the "Live Sessions Album". The Voltaïc release is available in five different editions, each featuring varying versions of the 'full' 2 CD and 2 DVD edition. The release was subject to numerous delays, mostly due to manufacturing problems. The first mention of the release of live material from the Volta tour was made through an announcement made on Björk's official website regarding

12204-448: Was originally not going to include a live DVD, but amongst those items that did not make the final release were the online blips made as part of the viral marketing campaign for Volta , the EPK interview that was used in the Volta podcasts available on the iTunes Store , and an unreleased "AOL Online session". A Björk concert was filmed at L'Olympia in Paris, France during the last leg of

12317-549: Was reported that the Björk section of the Rhino Records online ringtone store had been removed. After internet radio station WOXY played the song on 6 April 2007, the song was made widely available across file-sharing networks . Björk has since stated that the album was not "hip hop" and that she had not intended for it to be so. She said that she did not want to work with Timbaland as a " hitmaker ", or because of his affiliation to

12430-557: Was retitled from the previous non-descriptive title "Earth Intruders Remix". On 21 April 2007, Björk appeared as musical guest on an episode of the US TV show Saturday Night Live in promotion of the album. She performed the songs " Earth Intruders " and "Wanderlust". On 8 June 2007, it was aired a performance by Björk on UK show Later... with Jools Holland . She performed the songs " Earth Intruders ", " The Anchor Song ", and " Declare Independence ". On 27 September 2007, she appeared on

12543-417: Was shot for the track "Wanderlust", directed by Encyclopedia Pictura and shot in New York City in stereoscopic 3D . The video involves "a mixture of large scale puppeteering , live action acrobatics , miniatures , and CG ". The video was released in February 2008. Björk said in an interview that she and ANOHNI had recorded themselves singing " The Dull Flame of Desire " on a green screen , then she sent

12656-584: Was taken by fans as further evidence of a more "pop" album (as compared to her more recent output). A week later, the head of One Little Indian Records , Derek Birkett, heralded the new album as "the most commercial thing she's ever done" in Music Week . The first mention of "Earth Intruders" as a song title was made on All Access on 10 March 2007, and was later confirmed as the lead single through an article in The Guardian on 11 March 2007. On 26 March 2007,

12769-406: Was used by early LCD panels to achieve high brightness, but the limited life and excess heat produced by incandescent bulbs were severe limitations. The heat generated by incandescent bulbs typically requires the bulbs to be mounted away from the display to prevent damage. For several years (until about 2010), the preferred backlight for matrix-addressed large LCD panels such as in monitors and TVs

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