The display on our smartphones is what takes up most of our phones' battery power, and is likely the reason that you have to charge your device multiple times per day.
An Oxford University spin-out company, however, hopes to put an end to that, and has developed a new material that requires no power and yet can be seen perfectly in full sunlight.
The innovation comes from Bodle Technologies, which has received seed-funding from the Oxford Sciences Innovation Fund and is in talks with some of the largest electronics companies in the world, according to Bodle.
The tech itself is similar to the technology used for rewritable DVDs. It uses electrical pulses to create high-tech displays that don't need power and are still perfectly visible.
"We can create an entire new market," said Dr. Peiman Hosseini, founder of Bodle, in an interview with the Telegraph. "You have to charge smartwatches every night, which is slowing adoption. But if you had a smartwatch or smart glass that didn't need much power, you could recharge it just once a week."
The material, however, could go far beyond being used simply in smartphones, and could even be used to create smart windows, which is a market that is reportedly set to be worth over $2 billion by 2017. Not only that, but the tech could also implement "smart glazing," which could block out heat on a hot day or even filter the kinds of light being let in.
The material could go a long way in solving battery issues related to smartphones and wearable devices, both of which use as much as 90 percent of the battery for the display. It could also prove to be a much better solution than the likes of e-paper, which sacrifices display quality in favor of saving battery power.
Source: The Telegraph
