While OLED may have staked a claim as the next generation display technology to beat, Sony has chosen CES 2012 to unveil a new display technology called "Crystal LED." Instead of an LED or CCFL backlight shining through an LCD layer to produce an image, the Crystal LED display technology is a true LED TV that uses a layer of tiny self-emitting LEDs to directly produce the image - think of it like a high resolution shrunk down JumboTron like those found at sporting stadiums.
With each pixel in the 1080 x 1920 Full HD resolution display made up of a red, green and blue LED, the 55-inch prototype model on display at CES uses over six million individual LEDs to create an image. Sony says mounting the LED light source directly on the front of the display results in greater light use efficiency and produces higher contrast images in both light and dark viewing conditions. It also produces a wider color gamut and wider viewing angles compared to existing LCD and plasma displays.
In fact, the display's technical specifications list a brightness of approx. 400 cd/m2, a color gamut of more than 100 percent compared to NTSC, a viewing angle of 180 degrees, and a contrast in dark environments that is "more than measurable limit values." Additionally, Sony says the prototype display has a video response time that is 10 times faster than its current LCD models.
While the Japanese electronics giant says it will continue development of OLED TVs, it will be working in parallel to develop and commercialize its new Crystal LED Display technology with an eye on both professional and consumer products.
Who would have figured out that batteries will be powered by paper one day? Engineers at Sony did, where they recently paraded a bio battery that is capable of generating electricity through the clever use of paper as fuel. This is definitely an improvement over previous battery models that relied on glucose, as this particular paper-powered bio battery relies on an enzyme to decompose paper into glucose – whereby this glucose that is harvested will then be used for power generation. In order to ensure that the decomposition kicks in, Sony relied on an enzyme known as cellulase, where it will make short work of cellulose. As cellulase functions as a catalyst, it can then be reused later on if collected. Sony has also improved the overall power generation capability of this bio battery, where it works well even with the presence of impurities generated by decomposing paper apart from glucose. For comparison’s sake, it seems that decomposing a sheet of A4-sized paper will result in up to 18Wh of electricity – which is similar to the amount of juice generated by half a dozen AA batteries.