Great Expectations

nature photonics technology focus

Great expectations

isplay technologies can be found backlights (see page 756), which help to in almost all aspects of our daily improve the power efficiency and colour Dlives, with electronic displays now rendering of LCDs. being included even on objects that have New display technologies are also traditionally never featured screens, such enabling other innovative applications. as kitchen appliances. Without a doubt, Light Blue Optics has combined electronic books (e-books) are the success holographic projection technology with story of 2010. According to Amazon.com, infrared touch-recognition technology sales of e-books have now exceeded to make a pico projection system those of hardback books, and it is display that allows users to interact with the technology that has made e-book readers a projected content (see page 750). Finding practical option in terms of their readability applications for such an ingenious and battery life. Most of these devices technology requires little imagination — feature a black and white electrophoretic you could do your internet shopping by display technology developed by E Ink projecting the website onto the table and (see page 748), a company that started choosing the items you want by touch, or after its founder ran out of books to read project an interactive presentation onto on holiday. What makes these displays your desktop at work. different to other types of display is their The pico projection market is also a bistable nature — power is only needed growing opportunity for microdisplays when turning a page. The demand for these made using liquid crystal on silicon (see Cover image low-power displays is now bigger than ever, page 752). UK company Forth Dimension and consumers are eagerly awaiting the Display pioneered this technology, and Light Blue Optics’ pico projection system deployment of improved versions that are its products are now used in a variety of combines holographic projection with infrared tough-recognition, allowing users full colour, have better contrast or feature applications including in the military, to interact with the displayed content. a larger screen size. Munisamy Anandan, medical and movie industries. president of the Society for Information Displays are everywhere, and new Display, believes that e-readers are a big technologies are constantly emerging. NPG Asia-Pacific growth opportunity, not only for new Who knows what the next applications for Chiyoda Building 2-37 display technologies, but also for LED displays will be? Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0843 Japan T: +81 3 3267 8751 F: +81 3 3267 8746 [email protected] Business news EDITORs Industry-wide LCD price cuts, AMOLED displays and more 746 NADYA ANSCOMBE Oliver Graydon Research highlights production editor Our choice from the recent literature 747 chris gilloch COPY EDITOR Profile James baxter

CONTENTS Emergence of the e-book 748 Art editor Tom Wilson Industry perspective Sales Account Manager Pico projectors: Interactive experience 750 Ken Mikami Adrian Cable T: +81 3 3267 8751 Microdisplays: Liquid crystal on silicon 752 advertising director David Vettese george Lui T: +1 415 781 3804 Product highlights advertising manager simon Allardice Outdoor white LEDs, despeckled laser systems and more 755 T: +1 415 403 9034 Interview Watch this space 756 Interview with Munisamy Anandan