Adjusting the picture: LCDs and Quantum Dots
An article, "Dotting the Eyes" published in the June 16, 2011 issue of The Economist, noted something that many of us who spend a good part of their day looking into Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens, such as the monitor for the pc that I'm writing this on or the one you're reading it on, have long known - the color range is very limited. Jason Hartlove, President and CEO of California based Nanosys, believes his company may have found a way to expand the color range available to LCDs, using plastic sheets coated with quantum dots that his company manufactures. which - according to the Nanosys website - enables
LCDs to display about 50% more color than they can today. This means richer, more viscerally alive reds, a deeper palette of greens (the color the human eye sees more intensely than any other color) and vivid blues. Browsing through photos on a tablet is now more like holding a stack of high quality, professional prints. Watching a movie on a big screen in the living room is more akin to attending a private screening at a Hollywood studio.
Other companies, such as Samsung Electronics and QD Vision of Massachusetts, have also begun to design, test and market their own products with the same goal as Nanosys - using quantum dots to improve the picture quality and color range of LCDs, efficently and at low cost.
