Sony just revealed an OLED screen that's so astonishingly flexible it can be rolled tightly around a tube the size of a pencil. All of your sci-fi-inspired bendy screen next-gen computer dreams just came true.
The screen uses a new organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) based on a new semiconducting material that has eight times the current modulation rate of existing OTFTs. Also, instead of relying on driving electronics based on conventional solid chips in their familiar little black plastic packages, Sony's built all the display driver tech out of OTFTs themselves, and integrated them into the actual panel the display itself is made on. This is crafted from a super-thin (20 micron-thick) substrate, making it flexible enough to be repeatedly rolled around a tube of diameter of just 4mm, as well as being stretched.
Check out the video below to see it in action. The display is still in prototype mode, so it has failed pixels and stripes (because no effort's been made to optimize the display manufacturing process or yield, as in a real production line). But it still manages a 432 by 240 pixel screen at 121 pixels per inch at a full 16 million color range.
After seeing this it certainly makes the old fake PSP 2 prototypes seem a lot less ridiculous.
Uncomfortable to hold? Yes. But damn, how awesome will it be when we have PDAs, smart phones and mobile gaming made from paper thin displays. I am also now one step closer to having a video business card.
[Via Sony]
This is why I said 3D TV's are not worth it.
Practical? maybe not. Ridiculously awesome? hell yes!
You said it. But next TV I buy will be this type, depending on price of course.
Seems like they haven't nailed the tech just right as you can see the screen has quite a few interlacing problems and lines on it. If perfected this could be awesome!
I am now that much closer to owning Octocamo.
Release this now Sony, and for cheap. I want to see the classic moving-images-newspapers of sci-fi series like Firefly within my life-time!