Researchers have developed pixels that can emit and analyse light together

tspng

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new type of pixel that can not only be used to create images, but also to analyse them. This could eventually be used for better in-display cameras where the pixels are used as a image sensors. The researchers have published their results in Nature recently: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10681-7

close04

Love the technological aspect, hate the practical implications. Any part of any screen can be a camera. Good luck covering that with a post-it.

emsign

A privacy nightmare, this WILL be misused systematically. I used to get excited about new technologies like that, but big tech ruined the future for me.

wartywhoa23

Beautiful! No prole will evade the stare of the Big Brother. P.S. For the offended at "prole" and /s-agnostic parsers: yes that's who you are for the BB, like it or not. And of course there's nothing beautiful in that.

layla5alive

I agree with the others: this is literally the perfect implementation of literal Big Brother "your TV watches you" tech - this WILL BE ABUSED by Tech Corps + Governments. We need to stop building surveilance panopticons! "it is even conceivable that Norris’s pixels could react to a captured image and, without going through a computer, produce corresponding light patterns." Great, also they invented a digital mirror (and digital fun house mirror).

poly2it

Is this really as detrimental to privacy as other comments claim? There are already very small cameras which can be used for adversarial purposes. This technology could be useful for many utilitarian purposes.

Cider9986

>In the future, this could lead to the development of devices that function as camera and display at the same time. So literally a telescreen from 1984. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen Anyone that says they don't value privacy and they have nothing to hide is never willing to install a livestreaming camera in their bedroom and bathroom. The telescreen doesn't really add anything to what we have today, with camera and screen separated. Perhaps it will what finally removes the last place of privacy for regular people, their home. It's already happened with smart tvs and voice assistants but supposedly they don't record all the time. Most phones seem to have working permissions, not to say that people won't allow microphone access, but it isn't the default. Pretty sure that there's no option for microphone all the time, unlike location. I definitely could see a "scandal" when smart TV manufacturers start adding these to analyze peoples reactions to advertising. Could you put it past them considering they already record your screen by default? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_content_recognition

_mocha

This reminds me of approximately 30 years ago. While dabbling in ham radio, I learned that speakers can work in reverse as microphones, and vice versa.

gblargg

https://archive.is/fca8n

Vaslo

Glad I’m not the only one who sees the potential issues with these things

OutOfHere

Have a little fun by putting a mirror in front of it when it's not in active use. Let them learn themselves.