the piston display, invented by belgian company imec in 2011, utilizes a mems (micro-electro-mechanical system) based structure. in this type of display, thousands of microscopic pistons are able to be manipulated up and down to act as pixels, which in turn reflect light with a desired wavelength to represent an image. this developing technology is currently in the prototype phase, as imec is still developing the mechanism that will mobilize their "pixels" more effectively. some of the limitations of this type of this display include the high cost, difficulty of creating large screens, and its susceptibility to mechanical failures due to the relatively large amount of moving parts (microscopic pistons).