Microsoft research propose a new OLED power consumption technique (which they call FingerShadow) that uses local-dimming for screen areas covered by user fingers. Because OLED pixels only consume power when lit, this is a clever way to save power when people interactive with their smartphones or tablets.
According to Microsoft, they did a short study (10 users) and on average 11.14% of the screen is covered by fingers - which means FingerShadow can achieve a power saving of 5-22% (average 12.96%) with almost no overhead. Clever idea there Microsoft.
Microsoft has been involved with OLEDs since 2009 (when they launched the Zune HD with its 3.3" AMOLED display) and we've seen several research products involved with OLEDs (mostly transparent ones) from them since. When Microsoft designed the first Windows Phone Mobile version, they specifically designed the UI to conserve power on OLED displays.
Comments
This may be true. But what we should take from that in any case is that OLED's emissive nature will enable all sorts of innovations such as this one...
I am not sure, but honestly this seems like a very complex method to achieve very modest energy savings. Not to mention that users will be annoyed by this feature unless it works almost perfectly.