Microsoft researchers have built a prototype display technology that mimics the optics in a telescope (at the scale of individual display pixels), with results that are faster and more efficient than a liquid crystal display (LCD).

LCD, the most common display technology, is lit from the back, and less than 10 percent of the light reaches the surface of the screen.

The new telescopic pixel design uses reflective optics, and currently can get about 36 percent of the backlight out of a pixel. The researchers believe they could get this up to 75 percent. The new design takes only 1.5 milliseconds to turn a pixel dark then light again, about six times faster than a typical LCD pixel.