Microsoft Research and the Amazing LCD Display

If that isn't a great title for another children's book tie-in, I don't know what is.

Anyway, apparently MSR has come up with a new method for displaying pixels that utilizes smoke and mirrors. Or rather, no smoke, and mirrors that can change their shape and deflect light out of the screen or keep it within the pixel. Presumably this will result in brighter screens that are more visible in sunlight (due to there being no polariser/color filter to block most of the backlight), deeper blacks (because there's no backlight bleeding), 1.5ms response times, and it's cheap! Now there only needs to be a Product RED edition and it'll help combat AIDS, too.

Anyway, it sounds pretty promising. Will Microsoft Hardware be getting into the display industry soon? Maybe we could have an On10 video about this?

According to Ars, the only catch is that the current prototypes have extremely poor contrast ratios (20:1 versus the 800:1 of a typical LCD).  They hope to be able to get it closer to 800:1 in future prototypes, though, so that may not be a problem.

Looks like a pretty cool tech.

While I was still a Tech at Ford Motor Company Calibration (Electronics) we were working with this on Ford Auto Glass.
The capability has been with us for about 21 years now.
I'm not allowed to give specifics, of course, but I have been wondering when this would "surface".

Hint: Using this same technology you can instantly tint or change the color of any glass panel.
The uses are endless.

pff wake me up when they get over  100hz refresh rates and crt response rates(~0.86ms)..  and more adaptable customizable resolutions that don't look like sh/t when you're not using the native resolution.

K0ogle said:

pff wake me up when they get over  100hz refresh rates and crt response rates(~0.86ms)..  and more adaptable customizable resolutions that don't look like sh/t when you're not using the native resolution.

You do realize that a 1ms response time would make both >100hz refresh rates and CRT response times possible, right?

CannotResolveSymbol said:

K0ogle said:

*snip*

You do realize that a 1ms response time would make both >100hz refresh rates and CRT response times possible, right?

nope I didn't explain it more

K0ogle said:

CannotResolveSymbol said:

*snip*

nope I didn't explain it more

1ms = 1/1000th seconds
1hz = 1/second
therefore a display surface with a response time of 1ms has an effective "CRT frequency" of 1000Hz... or so you'd think.

But we know that's not right because those <10ms displays still don't match a CRT at 100Hz because you're confusing screen refresh times with pixel response times (and then there's input lag).

So we're going to have to wait for <1ms displays with full RGB gamut before CRTs can be removed from circulation for all tasks.

W3bbo said:

K0ogle said:

*snip*

1ms = 1/1000th seconds
1hz = 1/second
therefore a display surface with a response time of 1ms has an effective "CRT frequency" of 1000Hz... or so you'd think.

But we know that's not right because those <10ms displays still don't match a CRT at 100Hz because you're confusing screen refresh times with pixel response times (and then there's input lag).

So we're going to have to wait for <1ms displays with full RGB gamut before CRTs can be removed from circulation for all tasks.

CRT Vertical scan refresh rates to be specific.
How do we monitor repeating identical frames?

On LCDs this has more to do with opacity, most are running at 200Hz anyway.
(Opacity while they're still back-lit for our current humble technology.)