Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers have developed a new technology that could triple the resolution density of displays. The new technology could allow field-sequential color displays where a single subpixel can be quickly switched among red, green or blue. By eliminating the color filters traditionally used to spatially divide one pixel into red, green or blue subpixels, field-sequential color displays allow the three subpixels to become three independent pixels and thus triples the resolution density. Credit: Yuge Huang and Ruidong Zhu, CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida

An international team of researchers has developed a new blue-phase liquid crystal that could enable televisions, computer screens and other displays that pack more pixels into the same space while also r...

This is the directional emission of light. Credit: TU Wien

Recently, surprising physical effects were observed using special microscopic waveguides for light. Such “photonic structures” currently are revolutionizing the fields of optics and photonics, and have opened up the new research area of “Chiral Quantum Optics.” What one learns at school is that light oscillates under a right angle (transversal) with respect to its direction of propagation. Among experts, however, it was already known that light behaves differently when it is confined strongly in the transversal plane using “photonic structures.” In particular, this is the case for special ultra-thin glass fibers which have a diameter of only a few hundred nanometers and which are thereby smaller than the wavelength of light...

1. A closer look at one of the cylinders comprising a new non-metal metamaterial. The arrows depict how different aspects of an electromagnetic field interact with the cylinder.
2. Each cylinder of this new non-metal metamaterial is made of boron-doped silicon and precisely tailored to absorb electromagnetic waves.

Electrical engineers at Duke University have created the world’s first electromagnetic metamaterial made without any metal. The device’s ability to absorb electromagnetic energy without heating up has direct applications in imaging, sensing and lighting. Metamaterials are synthetic materials composed of many individual, engineered features that together produce properties not found in nature...

MIT Media Lab spinout Changing Environments is the brains behind the solar-powered Soofa Bench, which is equipped with an embedded charging station for mobile devices that also connects to wireless networks. Recently, the startup released the solar-powered Soofa Sign, which displays public transit times, weather, and events, among other city information. Credit: Changing Environments

Equipped with high-tech versions of common city fixtures—namely, smart benches and digital information signs—and fueled by a “deploy or die” attitude, MIT Media Lab spinout Changing Environments is hoping to accelerate the development of “smart” cities that use technology to solve urban challenges...