Written on July 27, 2008 – 3:00 am | by Bogdan Alex |
Nowadays, everyone can afford at least an LCD monitor, because they got cheaper by the year. You can even buy a 37” LCD HDTV at a decent price and don’t worry, prices are still dropping, so in a couple of years we might be able to buy huge LCDs at affordable prices. I’m sure you all know the LCD’s benefits and weaknesses, that’s why we still have to choose among plasma displays, SED, OLED, FED and laser projector displays, besides LCDs.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there were some technology that featured all the LCD benefits but, without the annoying downsides? That’s exactly what Microsoft thought. The Redmond giant already has a division that came up with plans for a technology that is to eliminate the downsides of the LCD panels.

The division envisioned a telescopic-pixel design that should be working as follows: each pixel has a tiny doughnut-shaped mirror and an even tinier disc-shaped one. The mirrors move when they need to let light through, as opposed to the liquid crystals that twist and untwist in an LCD. Since the light passes through fewer materials, the telescopic display wouldn't need a backlight as bright as an LCD's, saving energy. The mirrors are more nimble than crystals, too, improving reaction time. Finally, the design is simpler, meaning that there’s a strong possibility, should this technology ever enter mass production, telescopic TV could end up being cheaper than LCD sets.