http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19337/?a=f "Photonic crystals are being used by a Toronto startup to create commercial devices that offer better color and resolution than other flexible displays. Scientists in Canada have used photonic crystals to create a novel type of flexible electronic-paper display. Unlike other such devices, the photonic-crystal display is the first with pixels that can be individually tuned to any color. "You get much brighter and more-intense colors," says André Arsenault, a chemist at the University of Toronto and cofounder of Opalux, a Toronto-based company commercializing the photonic-crystal technology, called P-Ink. With P-Ink, it's a different story. "We can get 100 percent of the area to be red," Arsenault says. This is because each pixel can be tuned to create any color in the visible spectrum. "That's a three-times increase in the brightness of colors," he says. "It makes a huge difference." "It's a spectacular innovation," says Edzer Huitema, chief technology officer of the Dutch firm Polymer Vision, based in Eindhoven. Even traditional screens, such as cathode-ray tubes, LCDs, and plasma displays, use three or even four differently colored pixels to generate color. "It's a major limitation for all color-display technologies," Huitema says. When the color of each pixel is controlled, not only does the color quality increase, but the resolution should also improve by a factor of three. Arsenault predicts that Opalux will have the first products on the market within two years, probably in the form of advertising displays. But, he says, it will be a long while before P-Ink will be in a position to completely replace traditional displays. "The caveat is that we are not at video speeds," Arsenault says. this one looks like a keeper! :) Even if they don't achieve high refresh rates, colour display that can be manufactured to huge sizes, use little power (and at times NONE) and can reproduce colours like this - the benefits to photographers editing images would be awesome! Maybe not at the editing stage, I'd hate to have to wait a second to see where my dragged mouse would appear, but on a second 'preview' monitor it would be great. k
