Sony Unveils Flexible OLED Thinner Than a Hair 274
Elliot Chang writes "For Sony's newest display, the company decided to throw into the mix ultra-thinness (just 80m or a bit thinner than a human hair) and the energy-saving power of OLEDs. The new prototype is so bendy that it can be wrapped around a pencil while still streaming video!"
Why does it look so horrible? (Score:4, Interesting)
Too bad. (Score:3, Interesting)
Too bad sony is making it. Guess I will have to wait for a chinese knockoff. No way is sony getting any of my money.
Nice. Not great but nice. (Score:3, Interesting)
How much?
How big can you get it?
How long will it last?
When will it ship?
You know the kind of important info...
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Interesting)
As you can now see, it's Slashdot's fault. Apparently someone is too lazy to update the Unicode whitelist with characters that are actually useful on a tech site.
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:3, Interesting)
Just curious (Score:2, Interesting)
Why do the images of both of those prototypes have lines going all across them? I'd imagine you'd want to demo something like that without that being a side effect - unless it's intentional...? I'm sure someone here knows. :)
Re:That's awesome (Score:3, Interesting)
I imagine such screens would be useful during the process of manufacture of various gadgets (and after production remaining in one shape, with hard translucent shell around it; otherwise it would be damaged too easily). In that case distortion shouldn't be a problem.
45 Comments and no applications (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously,
Sunglasses with HUD, Contact Lenses with onscreen displays, Fingernail Applicques a la Cyberpunk. Subdermal vital signs readout, Passports, Driver's Licenses and Credit Cards with really cool security features.
Every book and magazine you wanted to read ever on a 1 or 2 page Ebook reader way thinner than anything we have now. Yeah, batteries and storage will take up some room. At some point the interface, and charging equipment will be the bottleneck to making smaller system.
Re:45 Comments and no applications (Score:3, Interesting)
At some point the interface, and charging equipment will be the bottleneck to making smaller system.
Not even. Just wait til resonant inductive charging and micro high-speed RF become common, then your paper-thin ereader will have wi-fi and a constant power source.
Re:Artifacts (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:45 Comments and no applications (Score:3, Interesting)
you still have focal point problems. Been there done that. did research on information HUD's with the big guys..
It's hard to get past the change in focus. you cant have a perfectly clear hud superimposed over your vision at all times.
Re:Summary of comments so far (Score:4, Interesting)
All i can say from the specs is you'll need a pretty dark room to see anything. The sun has a luminance of about 1 billion cd/m2, fluorescent lamps about 10,000 cd/m2, the iphone-screen has a peak luminance of 428 cd/m2, and this is only 100 cd/m2. (cd=candelabra).Any stronger light-source shining on the picture (or your eyes)=less picture.
That would mean almost all light sources with this tech so far, even reflected light/backlightcan be >100 cd/m2.
Re:Artifacts (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Too bad. (Score:3, Interesting)
They are clearly always a step or 10 ahead of everyone else
Like in mobile phones? Or music players
Sony is a lot like HP--a once-great engineering company that has been given over too and ruined by marketing drones, at least at the consumer product level. Their pro video equipment is still great stuff but even in that realm Sony no longer rules the way it once did.
Re:But when? (Score:2, Interesting)
But when will I be able to buy a reasonable-size and reasonable-price display that uses OLEDs? Lab toys are cute, but real products are sexy.
Apple apparently considered an OLED display for the iPhone 4G but decided against it because of cost and reliability concerns. However, the fact that they even considered it suggests that it won't be all that much longer before manufacturers start shipping OLEDs in actual products.
Speaking of which, can we use named entities yet? (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess the answer is “sorta”.
Re:Too bad. (Score:3, Interesting)
Why not? Do you think they rootkitted the OLED?
Maybe not yet, but it's just a matter of time...
But seriously, DRM technology will eventually be tightly integrated with display technology itself, the display surface itself. And Sony will be leading the way.
Re:Get over yourself. (Score:2, Interesting)