New LEDs mean touchless screens and ambient charging

These LEDS are the beginning of the Internet of Light.
They can sense light,
emit light,
and collect energy all in one
The key is a thin film of spherical semiconductors
called quantum dots attached to nanorods
The asymmetrical design allows them to perform multiple functions
The nanorod gathers electrons
while a shell around the dot gathers positive charges
The quantum dot takes both to generate light
Switching the voltage makes the process reverse
The dot collects light
and feeds an electron to the rod
and a positive charge to the shell
Ordinary spherical quantum dots can’t do this
They switch between collecting light and emitting it
faster than the human eye can see
so it looks like they're emitting light continuously
In the future, screens made from this technology
could “see” without need of a camera
TV screens or electronic billboards
could respond to touchless gestures,
phones and tablets could adjust to dappled light,
and any two screens could communicate with each other using “LiFi”
Since these LEDs can also collect energy,
your phone could charge from whatever light hits the screen
Having multi-function instead of single-function devices makes fabrication easier
So far, these experimental LEDs can only produce a single color
and a small array of pixels
But improving this tech could open up a new way for us to interact with our devices

New LEDs mean touchless screens and ambient charging

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