Apple Developing Special Screen For Viewing in Polarised Sunglasses

[Maura]

MacStories reports on another fascinating Apple patent unearthed by AppleInsider today, which shows that Apple’s boffins have been working on developing a new type of LCD display that provides optimum visibility when viewed outdoors by a person wearing polarized sunglasses. They really do think of everything, don’t they?! According to the report, polarized sunglasses only let in light that has an electric field that vibrates vertically, and the current LCD displays used by Apple have an electric field that only vibrates in one direction, therefore someone viewing the screens through polarised sunglasses might see distorted images when looking from a certain direction. Apple’s new patent aims to create an LCD display that corrects this, so that you can keep your sunglasses on when you view it. Here’s a rather technical bit from the patent that explains how Apple’s invention works:

“By emitting circularly-polarized light, the display reduces the perceived distortion found at some angles when the display is viewed through a linearly-polarising filter.”

Or failing that, you could just take off your sunglasses while you look at the screen!

Source: Apple Patents LCD Screen That Plays Nice with Sunglasses, AppleInsider | Apple exploring improved outdoor LCD viewing with sunglasses-friendly screens