Patent ID: 8603613

Claim:
A building material having multiple selectable visual appearance capabilities, comprising: at least one decorative element including: at least one layer of light altering material arranged to selectively transmit, absorb or reflect light in a wavelength range, the at least one layer of light altering material including an encapsulated cholesteric liquid crystal material produced using a polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) technique, an encapsulated electrowetting device or an encapsulated photonic crystal device; at least upper and lower layers of covering material arranged to cover upper and lower sides, respectively, of the at least one layer of light altering material, the upper and/or lower layer of covering material including an electrode arranged to expose light altering material to an electric field and thereby control the light altering material to selectively transmit, absorb or reflect light in the wavelength range; a first outer protective layer arranged over the upper layer of covering material; a second outer protective layer arranged over the lower layer of covering material; and a controller that electrically communicates with the electrode and provides a control signal to the electrode to create the electric field and cause the light altering material to generate a visual appearance in a display area; wherein the decorative element is arranged to controllably provide five or more stable, differently colored visual appearances at each of one or more pixels, wherein the five or more stable, differently colored visual appearances are each their own respective color within the visual spectrum, and being exhibited at the one or more pixels without requiring application of electrical power to the one or more pixels, each pixel having a size of at least 1 inch by 1 inch, and the decorative element is arranged to function as an exposed durable construction material.