The liquid crystal display (or LCD) technology is one of the most promising solutions for the future, but it would seem that some manufacturers are determined to go beyond our wildest expectations in this field. And the best example comes from Sharp, who has just announced the development of an unique prototype, which offers certain features nobody would have though possible, at least at today's level of technological development in this particular area of research.

Thus, according to the company's statement, the main factors that led it on this path of research are represented by the increased worldwide demand for thin profile, high-resolution LCD displays which have a very low level of power consumption. Moreover, since broadcasting and communications are shifting to digital format, users are also demanding advanced products that will be able to take advantage of these emerging technologies to their full extent, delivering very high quality images.

And one of the first steps towards this goal is represented exactly by this prototype, which features a thickness of 20 mm or 0.78 inches (main display section; 29 mm or 1.1 inches at the thickest part), contrast ratio of 100,000:1, and power consumption of 140 kWh/year in a 50-inch class TV. Moreover, it provides a color reproducibility level of around 150% of the NTSC color gamut, and, quite strangely for such a thin device, weighs around 25 kilos. No word on the available resolution, though.

As mentioned earlier, this device is - quite unfortunately - just a prototype. Thus, according to Sharp, we won't be seeing a mass-produced devices based on this prototype until 2010, but considering the fact that LCD technology is constantly advancing, and at a very high pace, for that matter, perhaps this thing (or one of its derivatives) will hit the shelves a lot sooner.

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