Patent ID: 8736948

Claim:
An apparatus comprising an electromechanical image display, the electromechanical image display comprising: a box-structure defining a plurality of cups arranged in a row and column matrix; an axle for each column in the matrix; each cup in the plurality of cups: comprising an electrically conducting material; defining: an open-end facing outward, the open-end defined by an edge of the cup, said edge defining a virtual plane of a viewable surface; a bottom wall opposite the open-end, the bottom wall defining a hole therethrough; and four sidewalls; at least two electric-field-generating conducting plates in each cup in the plurality of cups; a display element for each cup, said display element comprising: an electret; said electret configured so that a positively charged polarity is facing a first junction of two faces of the six faces not defining the tunnel and a negatively charged polarity is facing a second junction of the remaining two faces of the six faces not defining the tunnel; and a parallelepiped having six faces and defining a tunnel through the geometric centers of two of the six faces, said tunnel comprising an axis of rotation for the display element; wherein the axle for each column is non-rotatably attached and passes through two of the four sidewalls of each cup in one column; wherein one display element is rotatably placed on the axle within the four sidewalls of each cup in its column; and wherein when the electric-field-generating conducting plates in any one cup have an electric charge, said electric charge causes the electret within that cup to rotate to a fixed position such that two faces of the parallelepiped are displayed facing outward at the open end.