Picture Perfect

As millions of bleary-eyed computer users can attest, words and images on a screen are not nearly as sharp and crisp as those in, say, Technology Review. But IBM researchers in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., have built a display with a resolution of 200 pixels per inch -four times the resolution of the best commercial liquid crystal and cathode ray tube displays -that achieves a clarity rivaling the printed page. From a distance of about 45 centimeters, the screen’s resolution closely approaches most people’s limit of visual acuity. IBM says commercialization is still a year away. Initial targets will be applications in which high resolution is critical, such as monitors for displaying x-rays and for publication design and production. But the computer giant expects eventually to make the flat-panel monitors available for mass-market computers.