AFTER five years of secret research, two of the world’s biggest electronics companies say they have developed a picture display technology that more than halves the power consumption of large flat-screen television sets.
Today’s increasingly popular plasma TV screens, with a viewing area measuring 40 inches (100 centimetres) and more, consume at least 400 watts, making them a serious contributor to global warming. The new surface-conduction emission display (SED), jointly developed by Japanese firms Canon and Toshiba, will reduce this to less than 150 watts, the manufacturers claimed last week.
The SED’s secret is to get rid of the most power-hungry elements of plasma displays. Instead…
