A Low-Energy Display Method WIth Implications For Fashion, Customizable Products, And Industrial Design
Slow Display, a project from MIT’s Media Lab, is a method for creating displays on screens and physical materials that consumes very little power. The project coats screens in light-sensitive paint, activating the material with a UV laser projector programmed with the design of the display.
The team’s prototype system can create displays at a resolution of 16 megapixels; with the capacity to create images that last for hours, the method is ideal for slow-changing, always-on displays like those used to display road conditions or advertising – Slow Display uses less than 2 watts to project a 3-meter display. In addition to the typical display applications, the Slow Display team highlights other potential uses:
Rapid prototyping for industrial design: machine-recognizable modeling grids can be overlaid on top of physical prototypes, such that changes in the physical world can be easily reflected in digital space:
Instantly customizable products: modifications can be applied at the point of sale for individual items:
“Agile fashion”: Users can sample nanoscale fashion trends that emerge by the day or by the hour:
Watch the video below for the Slow Design team’s explanation of the process:
Slow Display
[via New Scientist]
Recent Articles By Kyle Studstill 
Kyle Studstill is a regular contributor to PSFK.com. Kyle works as a consultant working at the New York office of PSFK. His background is in analysis, from the analysis of cultural and technological change, to analysis of consumer and human insight, to military intelligence analysis with the US Intelligence and Security Command. Kyle loves the future, much like O'Brien from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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