FlexibleDisplays
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LG gets patent for mobile UI that reacts to flexible displays, encourages origami
As often as companies love to toy with flexible displays, we're seldom told how we'd control that newfound freedom. Are we supposed to make e-paper cranes? Credit LG for some forward thinking -- it's just receiving a US patent for a 2008-era user interface invention that would use a bending screen to its advantage. The implementation includes two displays, one of which flexes while the other accepts touch; bend or fold the first display, and the touchscreen changes to suit the context. Having two closely linked displays would also let the panels run either in unity or independently. Suffice it to say that the technology is unlikely to roll out as-is on a smartphone, if ever: LG's attention has swung towards having one big touchscreen as of late. However, the interface does give the Korean firm a place to start if it develops devices to match its new flexible batteries.
Plastic Logic demoes flexible color display for e-readers (video)
Plastic Logic has getting by with some eastern love since last year, when RUSNANO's $700 million investment helped the e-reader maker land its Plastic Logic 100 in Russian schools. The latest fruit of that partnership is a prototype of its first flexible color e-reader display, which delivers 4,000-plus hues at a resolution of 75 ppi. The screen contains some 1.2 million plastic transistors, and it's able to bend without distorting images thanks to a top filter and a 150-ppi display below that flex at the same rate. Skip past the break for a demo clip of the tech in action, appropriately featuring some Matryoshka dolls.
Korean bendy memory could make plenty of trendy tech
Flexible displays aren't much good unless there's flexible memory alongside. It's been attempted before, but bending memory pushes the individual transistors so close that they begin to interfere with one another -- causing degradation and shortening the device lifespan to just a single day. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has solved the problem by pairing transistors with memristors, which are immune to such annoyances. By fixing both inside a flexible substrate, you can push them as near as you like without any electo-radiation spanners jamming up the works. This also means that the flexible RRAM behaves just like flash memory; maybe in the future it won't just be antennas sewn into our clothes.
Toshiba flexes its paper-thin LCD muscle, moves the world (video)
Toshiba's found an interesting use for flexible LCD technology: user input. At SID 2010, the Japanese display manufacturer showed off an 8.4-inch wide, 0.1mm thick SVGA panel that could be grabbed and physically bent to zoom in or out using Google Earth. While it's a far cry from 6DOF and perhaps not as entertaining as controlling the time-space continuum with forefinger and thumb, the bend sensor seems like an obvious addition to the gamut of crisp, rollable, data storing, energy generating flexible tech already in development. It's also worth noting that Toshiba isn't the only one working on the idea; IBM filed a patent application for "flexible displays as an input device" back in 2006. Video after the break. [Thanks, Lennart]
LG flexible display patent application includes fever-dreams of future devices
We're still a ways out from real-world applications of flexible displays, but LG is preparing for the future: it's just filed a patent application that details changing a flexible display's touch sensitivity depending on the state of the display, and it's included some intriguing drawings of potential devices with the application. Specifically, the patent application includes claims referencing cylindrical, prism, folding, "rolling," "freestyle," and "hybrid" body shapes, which all sound pretty intense -- especially the hybrid body, which is a "combination of the folding body and rolling body." Of course, patent applications don't always turn into granted patents, let alone shipping products, but if you're in the mood to stare wistfully at line art and dream about the future, the full PDF is at the source link.
Bridgestone's super-thin QR-LPD e-paper
Everyone and their cat is working on flexible e-ink displays these days, so it takes a pretty special bit of e-paper to stand out from the crowd, and Bridgestone thinks its new quarter-millimeter-thick, two-color model will do just that. Being billed as the world's thinnest sheet of electronic paper (for its size) (and sparsity of colors), the so-called Quick Response Liquid Powder Display (QR-LPD) performs all the same neat tricks as devices shown off by other companies, including the ability to maintain an image when bent or powered down. And because its from Bridgestone, there's a good chance that you'll soon be able to score a set of customizable tires to match your classy PimpStar rims.[Via Akihabara News]
