A United Kingdom start-up Lightvert Ltd has patented a new display medium that could revolutionise the advertising world. The company has developed the Echo system, a persistence of vision display technology that temporarily prints an image directly on to the viewer’s retina. Images are generated using a single vertical line of light, so do not exist in reality. Adverts up to 200 metres tall could appear, but only in the viewer’s eye.

Lightvert plans to take the technology to the Middle East this year and sees Dubai’s skyline as an ideal place to display what is being perceived as the future of advertising. A company senor official was quoted in a UAE daily as saying: "Outdoor advertising is traditionally at street level on a human scale – we are looking to change all that by opening up new amounts of high-value advertising real estate, and that is tall buildings." The concept may be hard to grasp but developers insist the display is safe and will not cause a distraction to drivers or pilots.

With the Echo system, a narrow strip of reflective material is fixed to a building with a high-speed light scanner projecting light off the reflector towards the viewer. That would create large-scale images that are "captured" for a brief moment in the viewer’s eye. The images are fleeting but striking, prompting viewers to engage and share the experience.