Well, what do you know? Nearly four years after Arizona State University opened its
very own flexible display center comes this, a prototype device that's purportedly easy to manufactur, easy on the environment and practically as strong as Thor. HP and ASU have teamed up to demonstrate the fresh e-displays, which are constructed almost entirely of plastic and consume far less power than traditional computer monitors. The "unbreakable displays" were crafted using self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL) technology invented in HP Labs, and while we'd love to see this in a
pliable laptop at CES 2009, we suspect it'll be a few years yet before these slither out to the commercial realm.
Update: HP Labs pinged us with this tidbit on the image above. "This image from the Flexible Display Center at ASU represents what the flexible display, a paper-like computer display made entirely of plastic, could look like in the future."
posted December 8th 2008 10:30AM
so back to scrolls we go
lol
Of course we don't have to go back to scrolls; I'd like to see a hat made from this.
I'd be quite happy to go back to scrolls, this new stuff can be problematic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ
In the movie babylon ad Vin Diesel looks at a map which of course is sicence fiction but this is dangoulsly simular.
@zioncat: this tech has been featured in scifi for years. Red Planet is another movie that features this tech.
"...dangoulsly simular."
I'm so sorry.
Except now we can have scrolls with self destructing messages.
Paper planes just got a lot cooler.
on a related note, how tight of a bend could be put in these displays before causing damage? i'm guessing a right angle crease wouldn't work well.
There are so many news about sweet paper like displays like this one, how comes I still can't get one for Christmas?
Because santa does no like you.
I have definitely been naughty, your mom can confirm that!
Wow, his mom actually did confirm it. She was the one who caught Vianon being 'naughty' with the barnyard animals. Whadda ya know!
you can always wait for flexible coal.
I like where this is going. Can I have my video thinkgeek tee shirt now?
Now i can use electronics to swat flies.. woo hoo
My back pocket can break any gadget...
Lose some weight on that fat arse then.
I was referring to my tightly fit jeans...
besides, you don't know my arse!!!!
No, but what comes out of your mouth gives us a pretty good indication of what it's like.
you know i always figured you looked something like that
@ iEye
We could enjoy (or not) a picture of you instead of your present mac'ish one to judge that by facts.
so you're an emo kid?
You sure it isn't just your iPhone's screen?
I can't even begin to imagine the pain and suffering that your iPhone must go through.
And if you're heavy enough to break any gadget, You would probably have a hard time finding pant's that are not extremely tight.
@iEye new picture:
Haha! This new picture fits just right with your comment style. Perfect!
Can we please get this technology into vehicles? Perfect for navigation and night vision in the car.
I'm going to play the devils advocate here a bit:
What practical use does this have?
Think of Vegas. Instead of being assaulted on every street corner by people in yellow t-shirst handing out hooker flers, you can be assaulted on every street corner by people wearing obnoxious, flexible billboards that constantly scroll the available hooker options for your viewing enjoyment. Oh, they'll still try to hand out the fliers, mind you, but the billboard shirts will be interesting too.
Also, think of "look at me girl" and how a couple of pulsating arrows with the headline "Look at these!" will forever change how she gets men to stare at her tits.
Endless possibilities, my friend.
This is a good step towards a really serious palm-top computer - it'd make a great peripheral for a smartphone for business travelers. I can use Office on my current smartphone, but if I can only see fifteen cells in Excel, there's a real limit to what I can accomplish. I'd love to be able to manipulate entire spreadsheets or presentations on a normal size screen, or see maps.
It would also be a neat attachment to a iPod or similar portable media player. When you're on a plane, imagine unrolling a 17" screen and clipping it to the seat in front of you to watch your movies. Granted, battery life is a major obstacle, but it's improving and there are temporary solutions.
We could have Futurama-like money. Hopefully we'll be able to ditch Nixon, though.
Way to go Buzzkillington, bring practicality into the conversation. Next you'll be suggesting that Americans live below their means.
I'm thinking more of your favorite big-screen phone easily to have its screen enlarged. Would be great if it worked with touches... Then I'd really enjoy the news in the touch-screen phones area. Exciting times are going to come in 2 years.
I'd like to have a small screen for status, and then "Enlarge to unlock." thing going on.
Add touch sensing to make a small potable, scrollable, keyboard+screen extension to any smartphone.
Good play on words, devils advocate... ASU Sun Devils... Also lets think about how awesome cereal boxes would be. Instead of trying to do those difficult puzzles, you can just watch cartoons.
how about a truly small and portable eBook reader, which actually looks sexy?
or a wide screen, portable media player, so you don't have to get out your laptop or stare at a little device screen, this could be just like a scroll with a flash drive in the main body, and a head phone port, it would be great for sitting on the train etc...
or (and i know this is a bit ott and personally wouldn't support it) but cubicles are schools which surround the child with a display to discourage children from not being productive. the same could go for an office space, forget having a multiple displays set up, why not just have one of these bend into the appropriate areas where you need it?
if they find a way to add touch responses to this, that will make it a killer device. I would significantly cut the cost of making your own (or producing for a consumer market) touch screen table, as the main cost in making one is the projector. it would literally be a frame, some leds, this display and a web cam and you have a touch screen surface.
so many possibilities.
Think watches? possibly?
Does anyone else think of Johnny Mnemonic when they see this?
Or A Scanner Darkly, maybe?
I think of that Val Kilmer movie ..... Red Planet or Mission to Mars was it? Or was that the one with the Mars face? But the whole movie he busts out his little map which looked alot like the picture......
it reminds me more of the newspapers in Minority Report. First the awesome hand gesture operated computer and now this? Anyone wanna swap eyeballs?
i know kung fu
Easy to manufactur indeed.
Or easy to manufacTHOR!
Looks strikingly similar to what Val Kilmer used in Red Planet. A nice example of how fiction becomes fact.
In the movie Val Kilmer used the flexible see-through map to find his location, by overlaying the image on the landscape.
I think there are plenty of good uses for this, other than the very obvious portability and flexibility, and if it is indeed cheap to manufacture, then all the better.
Displays that can conform to the environment, other than vice-versa. Displays that don't break from a bit of abuse. Displays that are see-through, so that you can overlay the data on maps and other things. The possibilities are great, and you don't really need to think that hard to find practical applications.
Imagine this with google streetview
nothings unbreakable
Bruce Willis.
Im pretty excited about this. Im crazy about tablets and such so any kind of paper thin and the like display and I go nuts thinking of when itll be editable and writable and such.... Mmmmmm delicious......