Incandescent, flat screen, video display

A flat screen video display apparatus of the sort comprising a plurality of incandescent lamps, each of which is individually addressable in an X-Y matrix, where video information for each lamp is derived from a television signal and displayed by illuminating the lamp for a controlled period of time so as to give visual gray scale effects according to the length of time of illumination of the lamp;

• each lamp being connected in series with a source of power, a memory having a time constant and a driver circuit, comprising, for each lamp:
• a means for detecting, storing and decaying a video signal intended for display at that lamp at the next time that the lamp may be illuminated;
• the stored video signal having a decay rate established by the time constant of the memory and being allowed to decay over a decay period equivalent to the vertical video field sweep period;
• comparator means having inputs from said means for detecting, storing and decaying said video signal and from reference signal means;
• said comparator means being adapted to initiate an output signal when the values of the decayed video signal and the reference signal are coincident;
• the timing of the coincidence of said reference and decayed video signals being a function of the initial value of the video signal and of the memory decay time constant;
• and
• solid state switching means connected to the output of said comparator means and in series with said lamp and said source of power, so as to control the period of illumination of said lamp.