[HN Gopher] Ultrathin Metasurface Displays Take Aim at the LCD
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       Ultrathin Metasurface Displays Take Aim at the LCD
        
       Author : rbanffy
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2023-03-13 09:35 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
        
       | acereid wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | Night_Thastus wrote:
       | Display technology is so absolutely fascinating. The various
       | forms of LCD (VA/TN/IPS), the various forms of backlighting
       | (Edge, FALD, etc), the shrinking size of the LEDs (regular, mini,
       | micro), now OLEDs and quantum dots, etc. There's even more wild
       | options like e-Ink.
       | 
       | And there's a ton of work happening on the software/firmware side
       | too. VRR, Backlight strobing, HDR support, high refresh rates,
       | wide color gamuts, low latency technology, pixel shifting and
       | brightness limiting for OLED, FRC (frame rate control), DSC
       | (display stream compression), etc.
       | 
       | It's an incredibly innovative field. Every year we're getting
       | closer to an ideal display. I am so excited to see what we get in
       | the next 10-20 years. It will be leaps and bounds above anything
       | available today.
        
         | kridsdale1 wrote:
         | I hope we don't give up on the dream of passive steroscopy. The
         | Nintendo 3DS is still super cool despite its low resolution by
         | modern phone standards. Games for it can't really be ported to
         | Switch because you can't reproduce the display.
        
       | enslavedrobot wrote:
       | 9:1 on off contrast. Meh. This tech is a science project looking
       | for an application (which is generally the problem with
       | metamaterials).
       | 
       | I'm more of a fan of micro LEDs which could actually be a
       | gamechanger in display technology.
        
       | robin_reala wrote:
       | This is very similar to Qualcomm's Mirasol displays right? Or am
       | I misunderstanding the underlying technology?
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric_modulator_disp...
        
         | blincoln wrote:
         | I'm not a materials scientist or display engineer, but the full
         | paper[1] seems to describe something very different from an
         | IMOD display.
         | 
         | * IMOD is a reflective display. This display is a replacement
         | for the LCD layer in LCD displays, but still seems like it
         | would require a backlight.
         | 
         | * The pixels in this display are controlled via heating to
         | change the optical properties of the silicon. The pixels in
         | IMOD are switched by moving a reflective membrane very slightly
         | in relation to a thin film stack - a MEMS analogue of the
         | radar-absorbing skin of stealth aircraft.
         | 
         | * IMOD doesn't require power to maintain the state of a given
         | pixel, only to switch it. Since the metasurface display is
         | controlled by heating, I imagine one state or the other (not
         | sure if it's the "allow light through" or "block light" state)
         | needs to be refreshed constantly.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-023-01078-6
        
           | robin_reala wrote:
           | Thanks for the explanation! Obviously I completely
           | misinterpreted both technologies.
        
       | sam_goody wrote:
       | This is cool and all that, but I want to know if they got the
       | invisibility cloak to work?
       | 
       | (Kind of hard to get good pics of an invisibility cloak, unless
       | you can see Potter's hand sticking out.)
       | 
       | Also, could this tech (conceivably) make a better smart mirror -
       | aside from a tinier more ingrained display for the electronics,
       | could it modify the light before reflecting it back?
        
         | intrasight wrote:
         | Even if it just switched the mirror between reflecting and not,
         | I think it would be cool.
         | 
         | The real game-changer with visible light metamaterials is
         | negative index of refaction, which will allow for completely
         | flat optical lenses. Light-weight and low distortion. Hopefully
         | coming to VR headsets in my lifetime.
        
           | klondike_ wrote:
           | >Even if it just switched the mirror between reflecting and
           | not, I think it would be cool.
           | 
           | This is basically how DLP projectors work
        
         | frazar0 wrote:
         | Don't know much about the invisibility cloak. But in wireless
         | communications the "better smart mirror" idea is being
         | investigated to achieve arbitrary reflection directions that
         | defy Snell's law [1][2]. The objective is to hang these
         | "mirrors" on walls/buildings and reflect the incident power
         | towards areas where the reception is poor.
         | 
         | [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.09183
         | 
         | [2] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9718037
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-14 23:04 UTC)