The bigger picture

Scientists have unveiled a new technology that could lead to video displays that faithfully reproduce a fuller range of colours than current models.

The invention, based on fine-tuning light using microscopic artificial muscles, could turn into competitively priced consumer products in eight years, the scientists claim.

In ordinary displays such as TV tubes, flat-screen LCDs, or plasma screens, each pixel is composed of three light-emitting elements, one for each of the fundamental colours red, green, and blue. Shades of orange and yellow are displayed by mixing different amounts of red and green. The colour elements in a pixel are indistinguishable as the eye sees a single, composite colour.

The fundamental colours in each pixel are fixed, and only their amounts can change -- by adjusting the brightness of the colour elements -- to create different composite colours. That way, existing displays can reproduce most visible colours, but not all. For example, current displays do not faithfully reproduce the hues of blue one can see in the sky or in the sea.