Researchers have developed pixels that can emit and analyse light together

20 points - today at 7:51 AM

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layla5alive today at 4:45 PM
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).

_mocha today at 6:16 PM
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.
Cider9986 today at 5:29 PM
>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

tspng today at 7:51 AM
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

poly2it today at 5:11 PM
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.
emsign today at 4:29 PM
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 today at 4:32 PM
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.

close04 today at 4:06 PM
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.