Prysm Attempts to Compete with Sony, Panasonic and Samsung with $100M in Funding

With screens as large as 225 inches, Prysm wants to be the next major manufacturer in screen development.

If you haven't heard of Prysm, you're not alone. This new screen development company manufactures what it refers to as a Laser Phosphor Display (LPD).

describes the technology as one that uses laser diodes and a surface-emissive phosphor panel, similar to a laser printer. “Once directed by a mirror, the laser turns the phosphorus red, blue or green thus producing a flicker-free image that's also void of motion blur,” TechCrunch reports. As if that weren't intriguing enough, the screens – which range from 80- to 225-inch displays – are energy efficient, using less than a third of the energy used by other displays. Artiman Ventures and Partech International lead this round of funding, bringing Prysm's total funds to $135 million. There are several other investors involved, but all of them are remaining anonymous.

While this technology sounds pretty cool, one has to wonder about the potential danger of looking at a screen made up of laser diodes. It's wholly possible that this is just as safe as any other screen available. There were, after all, great concerns that our current crop of screens would make us blind (they didn't). But that doesn't mean we should carelessly embrace LPDs.