A new innovation is in its development stage to enhance the viewing capability of smartphones and tablets, especially when users are caught in the sun's glare. The texts and images are not visible when it is in direct exposure to the sun. The moth eyes inspired screen overlay on gadgets allows viewing even in exposure to bright light.
The moth eyes screen coating enhances the viewing feature of smartphones and tablets, making it sharper and clearer in contrast. Researchers from the College of Optics and Photonics from the University of Central Florida (CREOL) led by Shin Tson Wu published their report in the Journal Optica, the Optical Society's journal.
Shin Tson Wu states that the optical innovation is from mother nature herself, referring to the moth's eyes where the idea is an inspiration. It is very difficult to view the gadgets' messages and images under the bright sunlight. The antireflection film coating will allow users to view the information even under the glaring sun.
With the moth eyes screen coating, the mobile devices limit reflections to up to 0.23 percent only, unlike the ordinary screen that allows reflection to up to 4.4 percent. Reflection is the reason why it is difficult to view messages and images outdoors under the sun, as the bright light washes out the display from view, reports Science News Online.
The brightness and sharpness of smartphones and tablets using the moth eyes screen film enhance the display feature even under the sun. The mobile devices displays become dust and scratch protectors with the screen coating layover as well, adds Wu.
Microscopic visuals show that the moth eyes screen film has minute uniform dimples, with about 100 nanometers in diameter, that is one over one-thousandth the width of a human hair. The screen overlay is also applicable to bendable displays. Other technologies that address such problem is a sensor that boosts the brightness features when it detects bright light, but this feature drains the battery soon enough, reports Physics.org.
Although the researchers have difficulty in fabricating the moth eyes screen innovation due to its nanoscale dimensions, they are proceeding to the next phase of the project. The test of its mechanical properties that involves the search for a balance of surface flexibility and hardness.