Ambient light powered LCD released by Samsung

March 4, 2011 by Katie Gatto weblog

Ambient light powered LCD released by Samsung

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Image: ITportal

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most of us are familiar with LCD technology. You probably have an LCD monitor in front of you right now. There may be an LCD TV sitting in your living room, or bedroom, at this very second. You know that LCD screens come with a power cord. You plug it in and your screen comes to life.

But what if you did not have to plug in your LCD at all? What if it soaked up the light in the room to power itself?

Samsung is betting that consumers will be intrigued enough by the idea to make it worth the purchase. They have tweaked their existing transparent LCD technology, it is now energy efficient enough that it can be powered by ambient light alone. That's right, just the light in the room, no cords and no batteries to replace.

A prototype of the technology was debuted at 2011.

The prototype featured a 46-inch screen that supported full HD resolution video, at 1920x1080 pixels. The screen was also able to act as a full ten finger touchscreen. The company does have plans for commercial models in the works, but they were not too forthcoming with details such as when devices may be available or how much they will cost. This may have something to do with the fact that this technology is still in development. During the demo the did have some problems.

There are some rumors of Samsung using this technology to develop larger panels than the ones currently in existence. The biggest panels that the company currently releases is a 65-inch model.

More information: via ITportal

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Justavian
Mar 04, 2011

Rank: 4.3 / 5 (3)
All you need is for the room to have forty six 100 watt bulbs, and that's it!

Would have been nice to have some mention of actual power requirements.
Physmet
Mar 04, 2011

Rank: 4.8 / 5 (4)
It would be nice to know what the definition of ambient is. I like the fact that it's all possible due to the energy efficiency of the display itself. This makes it definitely intriguing. What happens, though, if you want to turn the lights down or off during movies? We tend to watch tv more at night and don't like a bright light on above us. Can it store energy collected during the day for later use?

Anyway, sounds like a great product.
stealthc
Mar 04, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
As soon as these come out I'm going to replace the screens on my laptop, they should come out with varying sizes and an interface adapter that uses hdmi and usb bus to provide all power needed so I can disconnect current display and save a tonne of battery juice.
Jujitsu_master
Mar 25, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
It seems like people think of it as some sort of transparent version of a home theatre. In fact, its display performance(eg. contrast ratio, brightness, viewing angles) is not worth discussing. only possible commercial uses we can think of are things like window displays or car navigation system. Thus the bottle neck boils down to the reliability... LCD is so easy to be smashed and thinking about the Liquid Crystal spilt all over floor is utter disaster.
Rank 4.1 /5 (21 votes)
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