[HN Gopher] Breakthrough in nanostructure technology for real-ti...
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       Breakthrough in nanostructure technology for real-time color
       display
        
       Author : wglb
       Score  : 56 points
       Date   : 2024-03-07 18:55 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (phys.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | Color e-ink
        
         | qwerty456127 wrote:
         | Great! I personally would better like a breakthrough in their
         | pricing though :-)
         | 
         | The very reason I would like an a eink display is its lofi-
         | ness, lack of real-time visual effect bells&wistles. To calm
         | down and work with my emails, spreadsheets and mind maps like
         | if I were reading and typing on plain paper. So I don't really
         | need "real time". I would buy a huge one (like 49-inch 4K to
         | fit a lot on one screen) but even an ordinary size costs much,
         | let alone so big :-(
        
         | orbital-decay wrote:
         | That's not EPD though, that's more like IMOD/Mirasol back in
         | the day. It manipulates color by restructuring so it will
         | always have the same limitations as MEMS displays like IMOD.
         | The picture in the article gives an impression on poor viewing
         | angles on this thing.
        
       | i_am_a_squirrel wrote:
       | I hate to break it to these people, but we've had real time color
       | displays for a while now :D
        
         | Tuna-Fish wrote:
         | Real-time color _emissive_ displays. This work is about
         | reflective displays. (e-ink)
        
           | fnordpiglet wrote:
           | Can't quantum dots not be used in reflective displays as
           | well?
        
             | fngjdflmdflg wrote:
             | How do you update the dots when the image changes?
        
       | araes wrote:
       | From the article, the sizes they're talking about are 10 um
       | pixels, or 10 um pitch, so approximately 2540 ppi. [1] Pretty
       | respectable by modern standards, as Wikipedia says a lot of
       | phones are ~600 ppi. [2] The demo was 3 mm pixels, so not quite
       | as impressive.
       | 
       | Not sure what the refresh or contrast are, as the summary was
       | really light on actual meaningful numbers. If somebody has the
       | paper from something other than a paywall, maybe it has more.
       | 
       | The shape changing part might be neat, depending on how much
       | shape changing there is, and how difficult it is to achieve.
       | Maybe piezo style pixels or something.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch
       | 
       | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_density
        
         | jajko wrote:
         | I am struggling to imagine where to use such a massive
         | resolution, well beyond the best human eyes.
         | 
         | As a photographer I can see some use in electronic viewfinders
         | maybe, but in general pro / semipro photography is in long term
         | decline, way too many enthusiasts (including me) ditched their
         | heavy full frames for mere top phones and never looked back
         | (for me its general shift into parenthood and lack of time for
         | all that annoying processing too, I perform all I ever needed
         | in phone in few taps and for more detailed work Samsung's built
         | in pen is above great).
        
           | thfuran wrote:
           | VR headsets want emissive displays but can make use of
           | extremely high dpi on the display element itself.
        
         | itishappy wrote:
         | I believe that's the size of the individual particles, not the
         | expected pixel size. The particles will still need to self-
         | assemble which (I suspect) requires larger numbers of
         | particles.
         | 
         | An analogy might be quantum dots, which are nano-scale
         | structures, but each micro-scale pixel uses many dots.
        
       | pmontra wrote:
       | "the size and color of micro-nanostructures adapt to fluctuations
       | in alcohol concentration or pH value"
       | 
       | Varying them quickly enough is the remaining part of the problem.
        
       | fmeyer wrote:
       | The idea behind this is not new.
       | 
       | https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/yetisen/files/morpho_butte...
        
       | UberFly wrote:
       | We're finally inching closer to that color-changing finger nail
       | polish from Total Recall.
        
         | mpalmer wrote:
         | Not to mention the singing cereal boxes of Minority Report.
        
         | ClassyJacket wrote:
         | That was The Fifth Element!
        
           | Loughla wrote:
           | No, it was total recall. The Fifth Element had a box thing
           | that painted the secretary's nails. Not necessarily the same
           | thing, could just be a little nail robot inside it. Total
           | recall had the tap to change color feature.
        
       | LarsDu88 wrote:
       | I remember reading about the Lycurgus cup
       | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycurgus_Cup) years ago in
       | college. Pretty cool we can now control the phenomena.
       | 
       | Highly, highly doubt this will result in a commercial competitor
       | to OLED one day, but who knows? Perhaps there will be a path here
       | towards translucent displays...
        
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       (page generated 2024-03-11 23:00 UTC)