DIGITAL wallpaper, a staple of science-fiction living rooms, could be in Japanese homes by the end of this year.
Called SmartBricks, the tiles consist of an array of liquid-crystal pixels. The pixels can be switched on and off electronically and made to reflect areas of red, green or blue light which build up into a colour image. Once the image is formed, no power is needed to maintain it.
The tiles have no embedded light source. Instead, they rely on ambient light to illuminate the image, producing a softer picture than backlit liquid-crystal displays. The effect, say its developers, is akin to that produced by real wallpaper.
The resolution is low, since the pixels are 5 millimetres wide, and the current ...
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