Samsung titillates with transparent and 0.05mm 'flapping' OLED panels

Samsung's all up in Sony's OLED space this morning at the FPD International 2008 show. They started by trotting out that 40-inch OLED TV again, with a Full HD resolution, 8.9-mm depth, and contrast ratio so high they just call it 1,000,000:1. Then they upped the ante while dialing down the dimensions to a 4-inch, ultra-thin 0.05-mm OLED (pictured above) with 480 x 272 pixel resolution, 100,000:1 contrast, 200cd/m2 brightness -- so thin that it was displayed flapping in the wind. Take that Sony and your 0.3-mm OLED chubster. Sammy then reached deep into its bag of tricks with a transparent AMOLED display (first hinted at around these parts in early 2006) with an appropriately clad model presumably meant to invoke your pubescent fantasies of x-ray vision. Or maybe that's just us. Click through to see what we mean.

[Via OLED-Display]

[allislost @ Oct 29th 2008 7:18AM]

Is that thin enough to put under my skin on my chest and have it flash the Superman logo whenever i take off my shirt?

[KilgoreTrout @ Oct 29th 2008 7:27AM]

Sure thing dude; that's what it's meant for

[chuuchdizzle @ Oct 29th 2008 7:21AM]

TOLED+AMOLED = TAMOLED??

[absinthe party @ Oct 29th 2008 7:23AM]

Stop calling them "Sammy," damnit!

[Dooday Pro @ Oct 29th 2008 9:41AM]

Sungy?

[Wwhat @ Oct 29th 2008 10:38AM]

I agree, already inappropriate for big companies it seems especially unsuited to call asian mega-companies cutesy names somehow

[BradS @ Oct 29th 2008 12:16PM]

Samnit?


I chuckle whenever I read Sammy, keep using it!

[ed. @ Oct 29th 2008 7:25AM]

heres a pics of the 40"

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20081029/fpd1_09.jpg

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20081029/fpd1_02.jpg

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20081029/fpd1_03.gif

It looks REALLY good.

[ed. @ Oct 29th 2008 7:27AM]

Dam this lack of editability

That last pic was wrong. It was link to the thumbnail. Here's the real one.

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20081029/fpd1_03.jpg

[Jakob @ Oct 29th 2008 7:39AM]

Awesome, thinner than a paper!

[Shinigami @ Oct 29th 2008 7:44AM]

Wait, did Sammy show their 3.5 year old prototype again??? Sammy its time to produce more than one (million) of them!

[insane.uk @ Oct 29th 2008 8:08AM]

I wonder, if they can make them transparent, could I slap a few of them together to make a cube shaped display that would show real 3D objects?

[dd @ Oct 29th 2008 8:29AM]

Real 3d objects? You mean.....actual objects? My house is full of those.

[G @ Oct 29th 2008 8:57AM]

GOOD IDEA

[allislost @ Oct 29th 2008 9:18AM]

You mean you wanna move the "cube display" every time you want to look at an object from another angle?

You could just rotate the object within one screen and save yourself the cost of buying 3 more.

[wodahS @ Oct 29th 2008 8:54AM]

Being transparent and cube shaped would fail greatly, non-transparent and cylinder shaped with motion detector, that would do the trick.

[Benson @ Oct 29th 2008 9:06AM]

Well, for the 320x240 resolution of the TAMOLED, a cube would need about 240 sheets, assuming they're thin enough. If I'm reading correctly, you get 30% transmission through one panel; let's say half the loss is due to the interfaces, and so doesn't occur internally; your transmission will still be 65% per layer, so from the center will be ~ 10^-23.

You'd need >95% transmission for this to work out like that...

[Patriks7 @ Oct 29th 2008 9:08AM]

Now make it into a touchscreen and you have a real piece of paper..

[Patriks7 @ Oct 29th 2008 9:32AM]

Uhm I meant "you have SOMETHING like"

[Jakob @ Oct 29th 2008 10:15AM]

Haha you're probably just going to destroy it with a single touch or gesture :D

[Nick @ Oct 29th 2008 9:35AM]

Is it just me or are we getting in to the realm of persistent televised advertising here? With the advent of thinner and thinner video media, these little panels are going to be screaming ads at us from every window and wall... I think that the tech is cool, but just like a doomsday device, in the wrong hands I have a feeling that we're all going to be sick of it sooner or later...
Still, it would be pretty sick to have a floor-to-ceiling window covered with sheets of AMOLED a la Tony Stark... Complete opacity for darkness, selected clarity to display information... Prettttty sweeet.... But nigh impossible and ridiculously expensive.

[SoreThumb @ Oct 29th 2008 9:42AM]

TASTE THE FUTURE
This is more delicious than the broodwich :O

[EdgeOne @ Oct 29th 2008 9:59AM]

Awesome! I was just thinking if only my LCD was flexible so that I could... um... hmm.

(jk, cool application potential)

[quiwiz @ Oct 29th 2008 11:18AM]

Hot...
*flap flap flap*

[webon @ Oct 29th 2008 12:15PM]

damn it woman stop drying your hair! the frigging tele keeps frigging flapping. Im trying to watch the game!!

[BradS @ Oct 29th 2008 12:20PM]

It flaps? Make a flag out of it that can be changed whenever needed, so whenever France surrenders to someone they can change it to their new (non-robotic!) overlords.

[Portlymouse @ Oct 29th 2008 3:55PM]

The Large format print industry is doing really well these days. We can print on just about anything and the costs are starting make the tech accesible to all. Now imagine when this paper thin OLED tech becomes cost effective enough to replace the oversized print! No more reprinting every few months or when your product changes. You buy a Pico-PC and a custom fit OLED and boom you are set for the next few years. At least untill they can project the ads directly into our minds.

[Crazy J @ Oct 29th 2008 10:34PM]

I've seen this type of flexible screens in the movies that my kids were watching, and I thought, "Never in my lifetime, probably during my kids' lifetime..."

But it seems it's already here now. Wow... just wow...

[Sharone @ Oct 30th 2008 5:40AM]

Dear Samsung

1600 x 1200 in a 21 inch display. Hurry.

TIA

[Anonymous @ Dec 31st 2008 6:30PM]

Has anyone noticed that THE RESOLUTION OF THIS SCREEN IS THE SAME AS THE PSP!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?