Just when you thought it was safe to figure out that LCD OLED Q-Dot LCD whatever display technology was settled for the next decade, now comes some smart guys at MIT who have taken some “bio-inspiration” and come up with a “Brilliant Display” using a technology named “IMOD” for short or “interferometric modulator” and Qualcomm is coming out with it on a cell phone.

See it in the sunlight, too…and uses a lot less energy to make a really nice display.

From Scientific American Nov 2007 issue:

A new technology that mimics the way nature gives bright color to butterfly wings can make cell phone displays clearly legible, even in the sun’s glare
By M. Mitchell Waldrop
[…]
the devices do use an array of artificial microstructures to produce the same kind of iridescent colors as are seen on the wings of tropical butterflies. And Qualcomm is betting that its approach will give IMODs several advantages over today’s dominant liquid-crystal-display (LCD) technology.
[…]

Something about a small gap between the display layer and a reflective surface behind manages to provide a truly remarkable display.

So…move over OLEDs and Quantum Dot stuff….