Posted on 07/29/2008 9:04:10 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON: Microsoft's new telescopic displays, boasting pixels that use a pair of mirrors to block or transmit light, may give the developers of the much in vogue liquid crystal displays or LCDs a run for their money.
The telescopic pixels could lead to displays that are faster, brighter, and more power efficient than liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
In fact, researchers at Microsoft Research have claimed that their design is also simpler and easier to fabricate, which should make it cheaper than the LCDs that rule the markets for TVs, cell phones, and flat-panel computer monitors.
"There is nothing in LCD technology that stands out. The only reason it has done well is it's the lowest price (flat-panel) display," The Technology Review quoted Sriram Peruvemba, vice president of marketing at electronic-paper pioneer E Ink, based in Cambridge, MA, as saying.
Michael Sinclair at Microsoft Research said that the new telescopic pixels switch completely off and on within 1.5 milliseconds and that the ultra-fast response time translates to simpler, low-cost colour displays.
In LCDs, a pixel is made of three subpixels -- red, green, and blue and each subpixel is controlled with a separate transistor circuit, making the circuits complex.
Sinclair said that as the telescopic display switches so rapidly, it is possible to put red, green and blue light-emitting diodes behind each pixel, and have them sequentially light up to create a colour shade.
"This would reduce the complexity and cost of today's LCD," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at infotech.indiatimes.com ...
fyi
"There are literally hundreds of thousands to millions of little shutter-like devices that have a mechanical movement. In most devices, what fails first are the mechanical parts," he said.
Cheap, efficient and fragile or durable power hog.
Decisions, decisions.
Any display technology from Microsoft will only be able to display a solid blue background. ;-)
If this was anyone but MicroSoft, I would suspect they stole DLP technology from Texas Instruments.
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