The owner had window film applied, followed by white "sheer-weave" motorized solar shades to filter light but leave the view intact.

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In Chapter restaurant, designed by Tokyo's Spin Studio, a winding iron staircase leads to a mezzanine of book-filled shelves. (It's mostly decorative, though select guests are invited to venture up there.) White perforated screens over the floor-to-ceiling windows filter the light.

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Last May, Plastic Logic demonstrated a paper-like flexible screen capable of playing video in colour, which is achieved by placing a filter on top of the original black-and-white display.

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The first permanent colour photograph was taken by Thomas Sutton who was working with Clerk Maxwell and is a composite of three black and white pictures, each one taken through a red, green or blue filter.

BBC: Pioneering colour photography

For the white Talbot-Runhof dress, a base fabric was embroidered with sequins, sewn to the dialysis-machine filter fabric and then bathed in a liquid that dissolved the base, leaving fringes of sequins attached to the filter-cum-dress.

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