The University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong has successfully developed an LCD screen with the same characteristics as an E-Ink screen, to keep the displayed picture present for several years without any power.
E-ink screens, such as those on the Amazon Kindle e-reader, don’t need a constant flow of power to display the last loaded content such as LCD screens currently do; a thing that is about to be changed.
Based on this new technology, the research team successfully created a rewritable optical LCD screen (ORWLCD), a phrase to remember. The traditional LCD requires a constant flow of electron beam to display images where the ORWLCD only requires electricity to update the image. No power will be drawn and the connection will be cut until a new image needs to be loaded.
While this technology doesn’t directly help high fps gaming, it’s a great step in the right direction. It will allow much better digital photo frames and similar functions as well as create a base for future LCD display technologies.
The technology behind this is somewhat special to the average person. So I’ll just attach the slides below for those with the knowledge to enjoy and the rest to wonder about.
Thanks to CNbeta for providing us with this information
Images courtesy of CNbeta
Ooooooooooooooooo~
There had been several such bistable LCD technologies over the years, but they tend to be grayscale only and with slow refresh, and with worse looking gray shades than e-ink, so they aren’t attractive to end users. I haven’t seen details of the refresh rate for ORWLCD, but I imagine it’s not any better. Its main claimed benefit is price, but for consumer devices it won’t be much good. It could still work for displays on credits cards, etc., places where e-ink works, but may be too expensive.