Japanese company Funai, which sells products under the Emerson, Sylvania, and Symphonic brands, has announced a screen technology that does away with the need for a backlight. Traditional LCD screens act as shutters, letting through bits of light from a backlight to create their images. This new Funai technology instead apparently uses a current-sensitive dye that changes color when exposed to electricity. Reflecting a claimed 80% of light, the display would be bright enough to view in many conditions without needing an internal light source. Funai says that the manufacture of this type of screen should cost only one-third as much as existing LCD screens. In addition to low costs for the screens themselves, Funai promises heavy power reductions over LCD screens, as high as 99%. This is all quite incredible-sounding without a more thorough description of the technology. On its surface, it sounds quite similar to an electronic ink display, but Funai will have to release more details to tell for sure. The company expects to release seven- and fourteen-inch screens using the tech sometime next year.