Sony’s new, super-thin OLED display wraps around a pencil

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/05/26/video-sonys-new-super-thin-oled-display-wraps-around-a-pencil/

by Ghost_Noname • 16 years ago

110 47 16 years ago

jacquesm5• 16 years ago

Now that is amazing. What a neat development, this will enable a whole slew of new applications.

pmjordan• 16 years ago

Unfortunately, they've been the "next big thing" for a number of years now. Apparently there are yield and longevity issues to be solved before mass production of large OLED displays. But yes, extremely cool.

melling2• 16 years ago

The other option is to find a market for what they can build. For example, bring more effective advertising to consumers in places they don't normally get it. Something eye catchy?

brk3• 16 years ago

This is neat, but I'm sort of wondering what value it really is. It would seem that until we have highly flexible batteries, LCD controller chips, and all the other periphery that would have to go with this to make a finished product the applications are somewhat limited.

ggruschow• 16 years ago

1. Roll-up phone display to make the pocket size smaller and simultaneously make the usable display size larger.

2. Animated blowout party favors for those $100k+ parties people seem fond of throwing.

jacquesm5• 16 years ago

- curved displays so you don't have to refocus all the time on a wide screen

- an e-book reader that is just a spine with a roll out display

jiaaro• 16 years ago

I don't think the answer lies in making all those components flexible... more likely in just making them smaller.

Batteries may have to go flexible though... you can only store so much energy in a space

akmiller• 16 years ago

On the larger scale, how about a projector screen that doesn't require a projector.

jasonkester• 16 years ago

The natural use for this would be a laptop with a netbook form factor and 21" roll-out screen.

Now that 3G is ubiquitous and cheap in the developing world (more so than in the US or Europe even), this is the final piece in the puzzle for truly portable dev on the road. A machine the size of a paperback that you can do real work on while hopping chicken buses across South America.

brk3• 16 years ago

To me, a roll-out screen implies a certain amount of non-rigidness (unless you're going to make the device weigh 10lbs.). Seems like a 21" screen on a chicken bus (or subway, or plane, etc.) wouldn't be such a great fit.

madebylaw• 16 years ago

How about giant scrolls that could be used as blueprints? They could be networked between the contractor on site and the engineers and architects at the office. Currently whenever there's a change in the plan an entire blueprint page must be reprinted and couriered over. Plus, one page could hold the plans for an entire skyscraper.

Keyframe• 16 years ago

with new and improved battery tech, how about a bottle of coke wrapped around with something like this, at least promo bottles? Of course, when it reaches a stage of cheap production.

nkassis• 16 years ago

So... when can I get my Daily Prophet? I'm expecting pictures of politicians making faces and such ;p This is truly impressive. I wonder if the lines are bad pixels or just meant to be there for testing.

DrSprout• 16 years ago

When my university put RFID tags on all of our ID cards, I fantasized about setting up enough scanners to create a marauder's map.

All you would really need is a simple web server and a shit ton of RFID readers set up all over the place. Completely impractical, but plausible. Now that we've got e-paper, we've got the final piece.

someone_here• 16 years ago

You may only need 3 readers. Some off the shelf detectors can read RFIDs from 200 meters away (though they are physically quite large)

slig• 16 years ago

I read once about a company doing that with cell phones, by reading the unique user id within GSM packets.

bshep3• 16 years ago

FWIW, To me the lines look like manufacturing defects, but you could be right.

Idea looks great though! I hope these become a reality at some point.

tibbon• 16 years ago

I'm more wondering when I'll be able to buy a 42" Sony OLED HDTV...

ErrantX• 16 years ago

It looks really neat.

It's interesting that it is on a rig - is it just an automated way of displaying that it can be wrapped round a pencil. Or is it because it has to be kept taught still to work right (I know previous thin OLED/liquid paper displays have had problems when not held taught)

gjm11• 16 years ago

They're bound to have rigs like that around anyway for life testing and such, so using one to automate the demo would seem a pretty natural thing to do, whether or not there's a requirement to hold the material taut.

wizard_2• 16 years ago

Is sony making this themselves or do they use some other company they own? I'm curious who the big players are in the OLED space, it seems like it's finally getting interesting.

matt1• 16 years ago

I know a guy who bought oled.com and a few other oled-related domains a few years back on a gamble that they would one day take off. I imagine he's pretty happy with that purchase right about now...

asnyder• 16 years ago

For a moment I thought OLED was trademarked and that the domains would be effectively forced over to the trademark owner. I did a quick US trademark search and couldn't find the OLED mark registered. His gamble will probably pay off.

ahoyhere• 16 years ago

Has nobody read Diamond Age, seriously?

jcl2• 16 years ago

I take it you're referring to Hackworth's chopsticks? That was the first thing I thought of when I read the article's title, too.

...it wasn't long before he came up with the idea of selling advertising space on the damn things, chopstick handles and Chinese columnar script being a perfect match. Before long he was presenting it to his superiors: eminently user-friendly bamboid chopsters with colorful advertising messages continuously scrolling up their handles in real time, like news headlines in Times Square.

justin_hancock• 16 years ago

Perhaps a means for making an invisibility cloak, e.g. display the image of your environment on the cloak.

pak• 16 years ago

Wouldn't that depend on which direction you are being observed from?

harisenbon2• 16 years ago

While not 100% invisible, I've always been impressed by this video of an invisibility cloak that was produced in japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKPVQal851U

patrickk• 16 years ago

iPad 2.0: roll it up, and put it under your arm. Like a newspaper or an architect's plans.

I wantee.

anamax• 16 years ago

For some discussion of HP's research on displays and other electronics printed on plastic sheets see http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/100519.html

Video and other talks are at http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/spring-schedule-20092010... .

Fun fact - they're talking about production runs of 300 square meters at a time.

mattcrest• 16 years ago

Video slap bracelets. That is all.

Sony’s new, super-thin OLED display wraps around a pencil

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