Technological watch

Bio?inspired Displays: Toward Intelligent Systems With Active Perception and Adaptive Interfaces

Bio?inspired display technology represents a revolutionary paradigm that surpasses traditional screens by drawing inspiration from biological structures and mechanisms. This review categorizes the advances into “human?inspired” and “nature?inspired” approaches, demonstrating how these synergies improve interactivity and comfort. Ultimately, it anticipates a transition from passive viewing to active perception, facilitating future breakthroughs in next?generation interfaces.ABSTRACTUnder the backdrop of deep integration between digitalization and intelligence, conventional display technologies are confronted with multiple constraints, including rigid form factors, limited visual experience, restricted physical performance, and weak environmental interaction. Bio?inspired display technology, which draws on the evolutionarily optimized structures and mechanisms of biological systems, offers groundbreaking concepts and innovative pathways for the development of next?generation display systems. This review systematically introduces the concept of “bio?inspired displays” and organizes current bio?inspired strategies and research advances in information display devices from two dimensions: “human?inspired” and “nature?inspired” approaches. Human?inspired displays focus on human visual behavior and perceptual mechanisms, aiming to achieve deep integration between devices and users and provide healthier visual services. Nature?inspired displays leverage the optical properties of biological structures to overcome the inherent limitations of conventional materials and architectures. The synergistic evolution of display technology and bio?inspired engineering will significantly enhance the natural interactivity, visual comfort, and environmental adaptability of display systems. This paper provides an in?depth analysis of the latest progress, existing challenges, and future directions in the field of bio?inspired displays, reviews emerging bio?inspired technologies and related fabrication processes, and establishes a theoretical framework and technical roadmap for next?generation display innovation. It is foreseeable that bio?inspired display technology will advance human–computer interaction from “passive viewing” to “active perception,” enabling breakthrough applications in smart terminals, digital twins, remote collaboration, and beyond.

Publication date: 28/01/2026

Advanced Materials

      

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870292.