By Andrew Liszewski
Philips really seems to be thinking outside the television box these days. First they come up with their Ambilight technology (which I’m still not sold on BTW) and now they’re looking into creating displays made of fur. Instead of LEDs or some other technology each pixel on the display would be made of a colored piece of fabric covered in different colored hairs.
When the hairs are all lying down flat you’d only see their color. But when an electrostatic charge is applied all those hairs would then repel each other and stand on end revealing the color of the fabric below. By precisely controlling the charges being applied to each fabric pixel you can in theory produce a fully functioning display.
Of course while the technology could be used to produce a TV that’s soft to the touch Philips instead sees it being used to incorporate displays into clothing or other items made of fabric. So instead of throwing paint on a fur coat PETA might one day be able to show their public service announcements on them.
[ Philips’ Fabric Display Patent ] VIA [ New Scientist Invention Blog ]
