In low-light, HDR Backlight Adjustment takes a collage of images at various exposure levels and blends them into one perfectly exposed photo.

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Pebble will reflect even a small amount of ambient light, however, so your backlight usage is likely to be fairly minimal.

ENGADGET: Pebble smartwatch review Mobile

The UCLA engineers have created a novel concept for harvesting and recycling energy for electronic devices - one that involves equipping these devices' LCD screens with built-in photovoltaic polarizers, allowing them to convert ambient light, sunlight and their own backlight into electricity.

ENGADGET: Photovoltaic polarizers could make self-charging smartphone dreams come true

While LCD screens need a backlight to illuminate their crystals, OLED does not need a separate light source.

BBC: LG to start selling curved OLED TVs in South Korea

It utilizes the light emitting properties of quantum dots to create an ideal backlight for LCDs -- one of the most critical factors in the color and efficiency performance of LCDs.

ENGADGET: 3M and Nanosys team-up to roll out quantum dot-enhanced LCDs

But without the backlight on, it's rather hard to see the top LCD without some light shining on it.

ENGADGET: Hands-on with Motorola's RAZR V3 for Cingular

The display's backlight has nanopatterned grooves that send blue, green and red in multiple directions, letting the LCD show only the light that would be seen from a given viewpoint.

ENGADGET: HP Labs builds a glasses-free, portable 3D display with wide viewing angles (video)