Sony's new ultrathin rollable display prototype
By Peter Rojas 
posted July 8th 2005 12:23PM
posted July 8th 2005 12:23PM
It's a total cliché that these things are always five years away from being commercialized, but Sony and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research have developed a prototype for a new ultrathin display that should start showing up in TVs and cellphones sometime around 2010. The display, which is just 0.35mm thick and can be rolled up like a piece of paper when you're not using it (or when you need to swat a fly), has a resolution of 79dpi, and apparently has yet to be photographed (translation: if you spot a pic of this, let us know).
I assume the technology they are reffering to is like the GPS map device used in the movie RED PLANET starring Val kilmer.
i have a question, why would you need to fold up your cellphone display?
Well, maybe it'll be used in future newspapers with animated ads and updating news ;p
Foldable display on a fone? Imagine a fone much like a small (say A7) sheet of paper, folded over. Only the paper is both keyboard and display.
There you go.
I think the point is, having a thin display leaves room for other junk, like MP3 players and cameras. :)
Arhhh crap, I just smoked my phone.
#3) Or better yet we stop sucking down paper like there is no tomorrow and just buy ONE news paper with a subscription that wirelessly updates every morning with the latest info fresh from the "presses".
One would hope that this would mean cheaper since there is no printing overhead.
One is also not that stupid to believe such nonsense as passing the savings on.
Also, what would your cheap ass aunt wrap your christmas gifts in?
You're in the w.c. and out of paper. Who's got a phone?
Sony devolped this? A friend of ours in works in Oxford for scientific research was in a program developing a TV screen as such, and it was definately not Sony.
If they get the cost down low enough, maybe it could replace newspapers and toilet paper making one all purpose material.
Imagine a phone, that has a roll up screen inside of it, that streches out to be many inches wide.
You now have a large screen display for what ever visual data you need... video-confrencing, watching movies, displaying maps if your lost with your phone, what ever.
Big TV taking up too much room in your living room? roll it up, and stick it in a architect-blue print tube, and hide it in the closet.
The idea is that once video screens are made flexible, you can put them anywhere, and wrap them around anything.
video clothing, displays that aren't a fixed physical size. why do I only have a 12 inch screen on my laptop? why can't I have a 30 inch roll out one. I only need 12 inches or so for the keyboard... why does the screen have to be the same size?
The possiblities are endless.
and yes, i CAN NOT WAIT for the GPS / MAP / AWESOME thing that was in Red Planet with Val Kilmer.
sony isn't the first to do it. my university is.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000667030805/
#12
"semi-flexible display"
"The display ... can be rolled up like a piece of paper when you’re not using it"
humm.
if you read the article posted by msafi(http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000667030805/) it says that companies and universities have been working on it. Sony may not be the first one to have any type of flexible display, but it could be the first using a different technology then your universities
Philips is also doing it
http://www.polymervision.com/New-Center/Press-Releases/Article-14631.html
If you have ever watched Earth: Final Conflict then you know what kind of things we can expect.
For the rest of you just think of a smartphone no bigger then the treo 650 that expands to a 15" tablet PC
Perhaps something like those communicators they used in Earth: Final Conflict. Those video phones were cool.
Antonio: Many's a phone I've owned that I'd've used as TP, NO DOUBT ;-P...
Evan - Outstanding catch! I've been thinking of the Globals in E:FC since I first read aobut OLED's about 3 years ago. Don't know what Sony's tech is, but the two major flexible display techs out are Organic ElectroLuminescence (OEL)/Organic LED (OLED) and E-paper/E-Ink. Totally different technologies with different usage markets, but essentially the same end product: paper-thin displays. The OEL/OLED has a couple companies (Cambridge, Philips, etc) that are working on different takes, but will result in a full-color, full-motion, flexible monitor. The tech is already in use in some car audio and cell phones displays. E-paper is more like moveable type; think newspaper sheets that can be rewritten. Good for static images, text, especially in direct sunlight. Sony was working on a text reader using this tech a while back, so this might be closer to what they're talking about here.
Doh! Shoulda read the article first. It mentions organic materials like 4 times.. This would be a refined OEL display. WOot! I want my Global!
si[pix] is developing this with BASF, it started a few years ago...
http://www.sipix.com/index.htm
Hey I read about this ages ago in the development stages. There was a website and a video of how it worked.
The demo I saw was a credit card sized piece of plastic that was a screen, the card/screen could be bent by the fingers (its held in the hand) and it acted like a map, so when bent on a corner the screen would move in that direction, also it was touch screen too -- which was nice.
OMG YES! I totally thought of the E:FC Global reference too... all that's really missing for those to be a reality is the display, the infrastructure and of course the voice recognition for calling but still something even close is cool!
As for why you would want these displays.... well there are tons of different thing that could be done like a little pen like thing where you pull out the screen that might have a digitizer on it. That makes a PDA or even something like a PSP in the space of a pen or more realistically a large marker or glue stick, but still.
also there are of course all the various regular display applications, like Super flexible screens and diverse designs. Heck even monitors that would support and react to being bent. You could have a monitor where if you bent the edge that's where the task bar goes and it's treated differently or something, I don't really know I'm just thinking really randomly but never-the-less this sort of stuff is amazing. Oh, and another idea... have a regular LCD, or other "cheaper" thin display tech, monitor where, if you need more space you pull out flexible pull-outs and simply snap supports in place so that these extra panels stay out and rigid.
Another amazing thing that I could imagine in 20 or more years when the tech is really commonplace, would be to be able to coat walls in the technology making display walls or walls that could change pattern or colour on a whim. Heck rooms like that would be lit by the walls.
It's the unimagined applications that nobody can really think of until they have it in their hands that makes this all really excited.
As you can probably tell it's late so I'm not too coherent and I'm rather enthusiastic about this type of display technology.
"Another amazing thing that I could imagine in 20 or more years when the tech is really commonplace, would be to be able to coat walls in the technology making display walls or walls that could change pattern or colour on a whim. Heck rooms like that would be lit by the walls.
"
Well I was also thinking along those lines, while being excited and having time to myself I got to brainstorming and one scenario which should be available to all would allow the 'themeing' of all your products. So imagine clicking a new theme in Windows, wirelessly this would change the portable devices like your watch, PDA, laptop and mobile, but then flood through your home to change the OLED wallpaper, the outer colour or pattern of the car (think custom flower painted pattern on the Beatles Roles Royce) even down to ones shoes.
That to me is what themeing ones live should be, all at the click of a button!
Here is another of sony's efforts: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3846
the video does not show up now but I downloaded it ages ago when the story first run, sorry guys