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While Sony might currently be spoken about in TV circles for its blazing 4K sets, the future could hold something quite different. In fact, Sony’s Next Big Thing — Triluminous displays — will be powered by quantum physics.
The new range of TVs will be the first consumer devices to make use of quantum dots: a previously lab-based semiconductor technology, which uses “tuned” nanocrystals so small — around 10 nanometres in diameter — that they exhibit quantum properties. As a result, they emit light at highly specific and predetermined wavelengths, allowing them to offer a 50 per cent increase in the range of colours that screens can produce.
It’s that promise which has Sony excited over the technology. But what’s different about the new sets, other than a bunch of tiny dots? Nature explains:
The contrast with today’s flat screens begins with the light source. Conventional LCDs use a high-intensity blue LED backlight whose glow is converted by a phosphor coating to create a broadband, white light used to make the moving TV images. The new Triluminos televisions instead pair an uncoated blue LED with a thin glass tube filled with quantum dots. Two kinds of quantum dots in the tube absorb some of the blue light from the backlight and re-emit it as pure red and green light. The resulting white light is more intense at the wavelengths of these three specific colours than the white light made by a phosphor-coated LED, so that more colour comes through in the images.
While pushing the bounds of technological capability with cutting edge science is something we heartily support, it remains to be seen how the use of quantum dots will directly benefit consumers. These TVs may offer up improvements that the everyday viewer doesn’t really appreciate — but we’ll have to wait and see how the sets perform in real life before we know what they can truly offer. Unsurprisingly, there’s no timeline for the release of the Triluminous displays. [Nature via Engadget]
Image by Steve.M~ under Creative Commons license
Aren’t all electronics and indeed everything else powered by quantum physics?
Yes, but nothing really takes advantage of quantum physics…
Debatable.
Very debatable.
Thats exactly what i was going to say, exactly.
Great minds good sir …
Both yes and no surely?
Only if you don’t look at it,bit of a disadvantage in a TV.
You can look at it if you’re outside of our universe. Handy for extra-cosmological sentient lifeforms with a penchant for a bit of Corrie, then!
But, thankfully, a recent poll indicated that 2/3rds of Quantumn Physicists questioned agreed that quantum superstates could be applied to items in the macrosphere as well as the nanosphere, meaning you can now watch telly, not watch telly and do both at the same time.
http://io9.com/quantum-physics/
That’s handy, so I can veg in front of the telly while at the same time doing something more important. Will they use this in monitors too, so I can get on with my work while simultaneously commenting on Giz?
Indeed, but it’s a bit of a kerfuffle. Couldn’t you just subcontract your work to the Chinese?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/16/developer_oursources_job_china/
(thanks to Conor Hunter who pointed this out on the GizUK Google+ community – shameless plug!)
Yes I also saw Connors post on the GizUK Google+ community. Unfortunately i don’t have a six figure salary so can’t afford this option.
However a recent poll that was the same one also indicated that 2/3rds of Quantum Physicists questioned disagreed.
I see what you did there and i like it, as apparently 2/3rds of Quantum Physicists questioned disagreed and agreed at the same time AS WELL!
Transistors would be impossible without quantum physics, they rely on quantum effects and were only invented due to the discovery of quantum physics, and I know I remember reading about quantum tunnelling being used in a common technology, though I can’t remember what this was.
This was indeed what I had in mind with my original post.
If I turn my TV off and go out, is it really there?
Tell me your address and what time you’re going out and i can make sure its not, if it’s a nice big one with smart interweb conectibubs, that is.