Chicago (IL) - Researchers from Sony and the Max Planck Institute have demonstrated a flexible display capable of holding color images. While simplistic in form, the proof of concept demo brings prmises fo the first time images shown in Minority Report. In fact, the press release issued by Sony says, "Rigid television screens, bulky laptops and still image posters are to be a thing of the past..." Is the world ready for a box of cereal whose cartoon characters sing and dance for you at the table?

The design is all organic, flexible and transparent with an extremely low energy requirement, less than 15 milliwatts per square centimeter. The response time is almost unreal compared to LCD/TFT displays at between 1 µs and 500 µs. Its viewing angle is nearly unlimited. Due to the transparency, multiple layers can be stacked (possibly for some types of 3D effects). The size is limited only by the substrate material being manufactured.

It is powered by red or IRA-A light upconversion, a process which takes photons of lesser energy, combines them into photons of higher energy (different color, such as red + IR-A becoming green or blue). Unlike LCD displays where the backlight is constantly illuminated, OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) do not require a backlight as they, themselves are the source of the light. This allows them to generate light in all directions, including behind the display where the image would appear backwards.

Research on this work was published in today's issue of the New Journal of Physics. In 2006, Sony demonstrated an earlier version of this work. However, technical, mechanical and design issues prevented them from mass producing the previous generation. According to the researchers, "To the best of our knowledge we demonstrate for the first time a versatile colour all-organic and transparent UC-display. The displays are also flexible with excellent brightness.”

Posted twice

Oct 02, 2008 09:33     

You must really think this is important! :)
Silent Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Cool stuff

Oct 02, 2008 10:14     

Cool stuff
hank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Price

Oct 02, 2008 11:55     

Now if only the technology, at this point, wasn't so expensive... hehe
Awktane report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Put it in a can...

Oct 02, 2008 11:59     

Make a can of spray paint that when sprayed on a wall makes the wall into a tv. any anything you spray it on...just attach some electrodes and your good to go. That would be awsome
BDF report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

That's some pretty slick stuff.

Oct 02, 2008 12:18     

That's pretty sweet. I wanna see it in action with my own eyes. I'm kind of half expecting my eyes to shed a tear while looking at it and it glows while handing in mid-air while I hear "AHHHHHHHHH" in the background. :)
Michael Pulst report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Can't wait for this tech...

Oct 02, 2008 13:43     

Can't wait for this tech to make it's way to tvs, monitors, etc... only downside is shopping will be a b$#@h with all of this OLED screens trying to sell me something every 2 feet.
Action Jackson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Leme AX u sumpfin.

Oct 02, 2008 14:18     

You fin to spellin yo? "prmises fo" What is that? Use FireFox when posting, it does spell checking. Use OpenOffice if you are writing it off line, it does spell checking. This is preschool junk, break into the big time and get some spell checking!
Sirona report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

OLED is the future

Oct 02, 2008 14:51     

I think OLED screens are the future. They are brighter and use less energy. It would be neat to replace the lcd screen in my EEE PC with an OLED one. :)
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

REALLY old news

Oct 02, 2008 17:59     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcAm3KihFho Over a year old.
jj report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Demonstrated?

Oct 03, 2008 05:42     

How about posting a pic or a technical drawing or something for us? It feels like it was a white paper "demonstration". :(
nke report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It comes true!

Oct 03, 2008 09:10     

there is saying by Nostradamus and also a famous prognosticator in INDIA known as Veera Bhrama , they said that the images on the wall's will have motions. (something like one in Harry potter ) It's gonna come true by this invention..ooh too scary.
Arjun report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

OLED web site

Oct 03, 2008 10:30     

http://www.oled-display.net Here is an excellent site on the OLED screens. It would be neat to have OLED screens on notebook computers. Combined with SSD's, it would help the notebook and laptop and UMPC/MIDs have even longer battery life.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0