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!"
80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
> just 80m or a bit thinner than a human hair
80 meters is a pretty substantial hair.
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They clearly had some French researchers working on it.
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
80 meters is a pretty substantial hair.
You can't expect much grasp of metric units from Americans. It was bad enough when they used the Imperial system, but nowadays they have only two units of scale: a human hair and the state of Texas. Anything in between is just passed over in embarrassed silence.
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
Dont forget our standard unit for fluid flow: hogsheads per acre fortnight.
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Dont forget our standard unit for fluid flow: hogsheads per acre fortnight.
Or speed: furlongs per fortnight.
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Well look, if I only have a teaspoon on hand then that's what I measure with.
Honestly, your elitism is quite off-putting. You should be ashamed.
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nowadays they have only two units of scale: a human hair and the state of Texas.
Not quite true. The human hair unit has three levels: the hair, the cunt hair and the red cunt hair.
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
Is really that useful? If you whitelist then should also be allowed, along with , and . Before you know it people will be asking for , or even !
Speaking of which, can we use named entities yet? (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess the answer is “sorta”.
Now I wanna know which ones are implemented... (Score:3, Informative)
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the fact that I didn't properly proofread by one sentence post
Not a big deal really, considering the "editing" of TFS...
Re:80m? Quite a hair. (Score:5, Funny)
or the fact that I didn't properly proofread by one sentence post
Even more fail would be not proofreading a post commenting on not proofreading.
Bidirectional text (5:erocS) (Score:2)
I don't know what is more fail: a board for nerds not allowing the micro symbol in comments or the fact that I didn't properly proofread by one sentence post.
Even more fail than those is people who can intercourse with a page's layout by abusing directionality override characters [slashdot.org]. That's why Slashdot uses a whitelist in the first place.
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micrometers (Score:3)
If you can't mu, u.
Video on akihabaranews (Score:5, Informative)
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Pencil in your pocket? (Score:2)
That's awesome (Score:2)
Re:That's awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Well, there are some advantages to distortion. Think the girl in your adult video is a bit too chunky? Just bend the edges of the screen toward you!
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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.
Re:That's awesome (Score:4, Insightful)
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The only small consumer product (to be most general) with large and thin retracting/rollup part that I can think of is a measurement equipment. Similar idea with the stripe being much wider and containing a screen probably can't be made sturdy enough... (and cheaply enough)
I suspect one should look at rollup screens, that are shown now and then, mostly as a nice demo with easy appeal. Not much more perhaps even until the time of things like Nokia Morph (which is a quite different ballgame) or contact lenses
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Flexible gadgets are undeniably sexy, eh? (Score:5, Funny)
I kept telling her that, but she wouldn't fall for it.
video pencils (Score:5, Funny)
The new prototype is so bendy that it can be wrapped around a pencil while still streaming video!"
and to think, in my day we were happy with a plastic woman whose undies floated off when you tipped it up.
Re:video pencils (Score:5, Funny)
and to think, in my day we were happy with a plastic woman whose undies floated off when you tipped it up.
Think of how that can be improved on! Just add an accelerometer and it can cue a video of woman stripping when tipped. Shake the pen and it will skip to a different woman (3 stock woman but you can either have a monthly subscription or purchase individual new penstrip avatars for $0.99 each). Algorithms can determine your preferences and suggest new avatars... etc
The future is awesome. It can't come quick enough.
Re:video pencils (Score:5, Funny)
It can't come quick enough.
I think it just did.
Why does it look so horrible? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why does it look so horrible? (Score:5, Informative)
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For a prototype, though, this is pretty smurfing impressive.
Re:Why does it look so horrible? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, too many people here don't seem to acknowledge that this is an early prototype. They're acting like Sony's going to start marketing these things as is in a few weeks or something.
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What "this" is that? Damaging the image by bending it? I'm pretty sure an LCD can do that. Which is what I tried to say.
When they can bend it without losing coherence, I'll see it as non-lame.
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Er, sorta.
LCDs need a finite thickness of fluid (crystals in colloidal suspension) so that applying an electric field can create regions of polarization alignment and disalignment. The liquid has to be contained bewteen sandwiched layers and kept to a constant thickness. When you bend the panel, the thickness is no longer constant, and the alignments are no longer coherent across the panel. In parts the liquid may be totally squeezed to the sides, producing a totally dead spot.
OLED devices are essentiall
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The 'dead' strips seem to change as it get's bent.
I don't see it. Looks to me like the stripes of dead pixels are pretty consistent and don't appear or disappear as it rolls up.
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I'm pretty sure these artifacts are actually a result not of the display itself but whatever connector elements are used to actually drive the oled pixels, as they can appear and disappear, and are forming one pixel wide lines, suggesting problems with the horizontal and vertical electrodes that are undoubtedly laid across the display in a grid (one layer H, one layer V, display between), and specifically, problems with whatever method they are using to essentially glue/solder/otherwise make connection at t
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Are they supposed to be there?
No, they are lines of dead and/or stuck pixels. If you notice, they are all either red, green, blue, or black lines. What this means is that the control lines, or power feeds for those lines of pixels are bad/malformed.
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.
Get over yourself. (Score:2, Insightful)
You realize that nearly anything you buy may have components by Sony somewhere inside right? Video encoders, audio decoders, LCDs of all kinds, various DSPs, DACs, etc.
Get over yourself. Sony pulled a stunt FIVE YEARS AGO. Sony's also a huge company that produces a lot of different components used by a variety of manufacturers.
Re:Get over yourself. (Score:5, Informative)
Try last month. They unconditionally (and probably illegally) pulled out a major feature of the PS3 for all PS3 owners.
Re:Get over yourself. (Score:5, Insightful)
GIve me a break, people that spew this BS haven't actually used Linux on the PS3.
It was NOT a "major" feature, I was on the YDL forums (the most active PS3 Linux community online) and it was a ghost town.
Quite frankly, PS3 on the Linux was useless, it had 256MB or RAM, less then 200MBs were usable, you could hack it to access GPU memory but it was overall pretty much useless. PPU builds of applications were hard to find, you were stuck without Flash (crappy Gnash work around), and old version of Firefox (no HTML5), and any cheap netbook would run circles around it.
The worst part is after 3 years of Linux on the PS3 nobody made any substantial Cell applications. There was barely any community support. Nobody cared.
All these whiners complaining about he loss of Linux of the PS3; where the hell were you when it was available?
Re:Get over yourself. (Score:5, Informative)
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And aside from the price of minor public outrage, they have paid virtually no price for doing it. (Forgive me if I don't view having to pay each affected customer $7.50 or a voucher for a free song download as a significant punishment.)
You're correct that completely avoiding Sony products is next to impossible, but that's hardly a reason to give up on trying to impose a punishment. Where choice exists, one can choose not to go with Sony.
Re:Get over yourself. (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. all my panasonic gear has NO sony components in it.
no Sony chips inside. It's one reason why I went Panasonic... they dont use ANY sony parts and are a glass maker on their own as well.
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What about your Celphone? Your car? or any number of electronic devices you own?
It's fucking ridiculous. Great, you avoid anything sony and I'll go look at the cool new flexible display.
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Cellphone = iPhone and no sony chips.
Car = GM and nope, Delphi does not source sony chips. In fact sony does not have any chips for engine management or automotive systems.
Crestron gear - i doubt it. Coffee maker has no chips. Stove, Fridge... not a chance.
Sony really is not a massive chip maker anymore. It's rare to have a sony chip anymore unless it's a specific sony technology or device... Blu Ray players... They have a sony parts...
I will not buy a blu ray player. It's a dumb thing to own IMO. I
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No No No. What I said was, is like Sony guts.
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Too BAD? Do you see anyone else making stuff like what Sony does? They are clearly always a step or 10 ahead of everyone else. They maybe assholes about many things, but first of all, the company is big and different people are responsible for different things, their research is great. Secondly, they are likely to sell licenses on production to other companies as well, so you will see these screens on other pieces of electronic equipment that is not directly coming out of Sony.
As to Chinese knockoffs, t
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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.
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Indeed; they taught me that they were not a reputable company when they put malware on music CDs, and again when they took away functionality from devices their poor customers had purchasd after those customers had bought and paid for those devices. Sony coouldn't be more evil if Satan himself was CEO.
In fact, they're so untrustworthy in my eyes I won't even believe in this breakthrough until the Amazing Randi says it's not an illusion.
Why anyone would give Sony their hard-earned money, especially for compu
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You think you should buy from a company that produced CD's with a rootkit on them?
You think you should support a company that makes a habit of removing features from their game console?
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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.
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I'm sure that this is cool. But...
Sarcasm aside, I refuse to buy any Sony products either. Not because I'm afraid there's a rootkit there, but because Sony Corp. has stated via said rootkit, that they think I'm a criminal, and they don't give a shit if they damage my property.
Given that corporate attitude, the only way I can "punish" them is by refusing to give them my money.
But when? (Score:5, Insightful)
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about 20 years from now the prices will be in the range that you'll like, before then, if you have to ask about the price - you can't afford it.
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You can already get phones with AMOLED displays, so I can't imagine more than 5 or 10 years, but if you want bargain basement prices you may need to wait longer.
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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.
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...
the Fun House re-born (Score:2)
this gives a whole new aspect to the House-of-Mirrors. Gawd! I want to be a kid again....
Aspect Ratio fix (Score:4, Funny)
Summary of comments so far (Score:2)
50% Hurr hurr they said 80 meters in the summary!
50% The pixels are broken.
I guess it'll take a while for the intelligent posters to come up with any decent feedback on this technology...
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but that the bear dances at all"
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.
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. :)
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I'd say they're in the research phase. The technology is being shown both to impress us and to show it's possible. The problems are either do to wear and tear, technology at such an early stage isn't particularly durable, or there are a few issues that still need to be addressed.
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I'll feed the troll since I'm feeling masochistic today: My subject said "Just curious". I don't think I had to rehash "oh, that's pretty cool" to ask a question - a legitimate technical one at that.
Environmentally friendly? (Score:2)
By making it so thin does that mean they are using less exotic/toxic materials? Or does it simply mean that they've found a way to reduce the size of the packaging around the OLED pixels?
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It means they've found more potent/exotic chemicals than before, so now they can make it smaller and maintain toxicity.
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.
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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.
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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:45 Comments and no applications (Score:4, Insightful)
You're thinking in the wrong dimension. This is working towards an ebook reader which you can roll up so you can carry it around in your shirt pocket. Back in ancient times, they rolled up parchment so it would take less storage space. Those scrolls got replaced by books with pages because you needed to keep scrolling parchment to continue reading, and it was easier to flip a bunch of pages than to scroll to the section you wanted.
Ebook readers eliminate the need to physically turn pages, and so once again rolling becomes the most space-efficient storage method.
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Well, not exactly. A Piece of paper lying flat would require less space than a rolled up piece of paper. A book not only easier to read, but also very space efficient. Considering an Iphone is already small enough to fit in your pocket, why would you make it bulkier by putting it into a scroll?
Making it foldable does double its ability to be stored in spaces of varying dimensions, but its not like making a device designed to play video ROLL up is going to make it any more efficient, unless you have a video
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Sunglasses with HUD, Contact Lenses with onscreen displays,
Your eye can't focus on those, unless you're tragically myopic, and then you're gneeing over a flexible screen on coke-bottle glasses...
Subdermal vital signs readout
Interesting, but a bit clunky when you add in power and I/O.
Passports,
You want a passport that has a variable display? So would a lot of crooks.
Driver's Licenses and Credit Cards with really cool security features.
Which will still be summarily ignored by crooks ordering online using your
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Wall Paper (Score:2)
*rimshot* (Score:2)
This is... OLED NEWS
cutting room (Score:2)
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No, there's also labor.
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It doesn't have to be meant for screens foldable to end user. Just for fab making gadgets.
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Or perhaps they just want to have somewhat oval screen on some of their devices; or even most of the surface of the device being a screen. Highly flexible display should come handy during manufacturing...and then simply remain in place, under protective layer.
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I would hope we, as societies, would be able to resist such waste...
But I don't hold by breath.
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OLED longevity has increased quite a bit since the first cell-phone displays in the early '00s.
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I'm still somewhat amused by people who bought a gaming console and expected to treat it as a personal computer... ...if Sony ever advertised rooting the box, then they'll have to put that feature back in or face charges of false advertising. If it's hackers who advertised rooting the box, Sony doesn't owe anyone anything.
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I'm still somewhat amused by people who bought a gaming console and expected to treat it as a personal computer...
You weren't paying attention to Sony's ad campaign, were you? Heck, I think the only thing they did NOT advertize the PS3 could do was...play games.
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I'm still somewhat amused by people who bought a gaming console and expected to treat it as a personal computer...
Mostly, yes, I'm kind of there with you--I bought my PS3 without even knowing it was possible to run an OS on it, and still don't care. However, considering the military invested in a cluster (no idea if it's Beowulf style) of these for computing purposes, it's well known that SOMEONE is using them for just that reason, and others might be inclined to as well. They just had a /. article about how the military will have trouble finding unpatched versions of PS3's to replace any broken equipment in the future