Levitating particles could make up future TV screens

Japanese scientists have developed a gen-next display technology that creates images and animations from tiny particles levitated by sound waves.
Called Pixie Dust, the incredible new display technology effectively turns tiny floated particles into pixels to create an image.
The display uses sound waves to create images and animations from real particles that appear to float in mid-air, 'Gizmodo' reported.
The new research, from Yoichi Ochiai, Takayuki Hoshi and Jun Rekimoto, from The University of Tokyo, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Sony CSL respectively, involves hundreds of tiny specks, all strategically arranged in real-time to form images, and even moving animations.

"We propose a novel graphics system based on the expansion of 3D-acoustic-manipulation technology. In the conventional study of acoustic levitation, small objects are trapped in the acoustic beams of standing waves," researchers said on the product website.
"We expand this method by changing the distribution of the acoustic-potential field (APF). Using this technique, we can generate the graphics using levitated small objects.
"Our approach makes available many expressions such as the expression by materials and non-digital appearance. These kinds of expressions are used in many applications and we aim to combine them with digital controllability," they said.