High-fibre illumination

Laptops and pocket organisers use bright backlights to illuminate the screen, but this quickly makes the batteries go flat. Hewlett-Packard has an idea for catching ambient light to improve screen lighting (US 2004/141105). The laptop body and lid are peppered with small holes, each plugged with an optical fibre. The other ends of the fibres are arranged behind the LCD screen. The fibres gather light from all directions and backlight the screen.