The Foldable LCD Screen

[pimentoLoaf]

Toshiba has unveiled something a bit ... revolutionary (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,100643,00.asp).

The thought of removing from a shirt pocket a folded-up Apple Cinema Display is rather mind-boggling.

[agreenster]

Fascinating! I swear, humans are increasing their knowledge and ability by leaps and bounds nowadays. It wont be long until we have microchips as brain enhancers.....I can see it now:

Increase your speed and memory by 33 percent with the new iBrain!!

[Hemingray]

Man, and LCD's are fragile enough as they are! I can't imagine them making something even MORE fragile... sounds cool, but man... a foldable display? And you thought you had to handle your iPod carefully... :rolleyes:

[Solipsys]

I can't remember where I saw this (probably Wired), but there is a company making LCD "screens" that can be painted onto any surface. Somehow the molecules align themselves properly... like magnetically charged particles.

[ftaok]

Originally posted by Hemingray
Man, and LCD's are fragile enough as they are! I can't imagine them making something even MORE fragile... sounds cool, but man... a foldable display? And you thought you had to handle your iPod carefully... :rolleyes: LCD's aren't inherently fragile, it's the glass that they're attached too. They're finding ways to adhere (is that the right word???) the LCD to plastic so that you can do more stuff with LCDs. One example would be an LCD screen that you could bend around a column or something.

A competing technology (sort of) is OLEDs (Organic Light Eminating Diodes). There's people working on this as well. In the end, it'll mean lighter, more durable, cheaper, less power-consumming laptops for us.

It's a great time to be alive.

[Macmaniac]

Man what will they think of next? Don't answer that!

[Ensign Paris]

That is probably one of the coolest thing, now imagine that Apple made there Tablet (that maybe launched later this year) out of it and it was kind of a cloth tablet, that would be cool, But unlikely ;)

Ensign

[dongmin]

A while ago Frog Design, or IDEO I can't remember, did a speculative design of the future project and one of the new technologies they were predicting was a portable computer that could be rolled up into the form factor of a tubular pencil case. Unroll and you have an instant touch-sensitive screen. No need for keyboards or anything else. I thought then that it was a bit silly, but maybe they were right on the money.

[xelterran]

maby they should make a really big one so i can wrap it round my wall...

[firewire2001]

there was a company called e-ink that i heard about a while ago that made similar things ... it was a similar, but different, technology... they could make lcds (that were in testing) tyhat were as thin as pieces of paper.. havent heard about them for a while.

[Mr. Anderson]

LCDs are a dead end technology. This is just another iteration that adds some life to the product. The key problem is that it requires a plastic layer for the transistors and a glass plate that acts as the light source.

The technology that will replace this will get rid of the glass plate altogether, leaving you with only a thin plastic film of transistors that are their own light source. Its called OLED and you can do a search on it at google to get more info. Right now they're being put in digital cameras and cell phones, but in the years to come you'll be able to get huge sheets of them that you'll be able to roll up, not just bend like this one from Toshiba.

[Ensign Paris]

There is some info on this here:

http://www.poncacity.net/rmaxon/mp_news1200.html
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002mar/mac20020307010623.htm
http://www.litearray.com/newOLED.htm

Ensign

[Mr. Anderson]

Thanks for the links there Ensign. Yep, I can't wait to see OLEDs in the main stream. They'll be brighter, cheaper and eventually bigger than LCDs. Can you imagine a 4'x3' wall screen that is hung like a painting, not like the flat panels plasma displays today which are 4"-5" thick and weigh a ton, but somthing that's less than 1/2" when mounted? That and the new TiPB will have a little tube at the top that you'd just roll out the screen by its handle. Oh for the day that happens, now where'd I put the timemachine......

[ftaok]

Originally posted by dukestreet
LCDs are a dead end technology. This is just another iteration that adds some life to the product. The key problem is that it requires a plastic layer for the transistors and a glass plate that acts as the light source.

The technology that will replace this will get rid of the glass plate altogether, leaving you with only a thin plastic film of transistors that are their own light source. Its called OLED and you can do a search on it at google to get more info. Right now they're being put in digital cameras and cell phones, but in the years to come you'll be able to get huge sheets of them that you'll be able to roll up, not just bend like this one from Toshiba. ... 6 posts up.

One of the companies doing this is called Universal Display. A buddy of mine told me to invest in it about 2 years ago (the ticker is PANL for those interested). I never did, but I do track it from time to time.

[voicegy]

I've excitedly watched for this technology to become a reality (price wise and quality) for years. Every now and then one would hear progress of flexible displays, and how we would use them "In The Future."

Think of having a little display sewn into your jacket sleeve and having adverts broadcast to it so you'll never be absent from the long arm of Media.

Oh, glorious days await. But that won't happen, will it? I mean, that would be like, well, like advertising stuff in front of us in public places while we pee!! They'd never go that far...:rolleyes:

(anyone remember the David Bowie flick "Man Who Fell to Earth" who was an alien and "invented" all these new technologies...he kept in contact with his family on his home planet with a flexible roll-out "visual sheet"...technology marches on)

[eyelikeart]

all I can say is wow! :D

but how is this going to be useful on something like the PowerBook?!

or on any system for that matter...when do u guys find yourselves saying:

"damn...now if I could just bend the screen...." ;)

[ftaok]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
all I can say is wow! :D

but how is this going to be useful on something like the PowerBook?!

or on any system for that matter...when do u guys find yourselves saying:

"damn...now if I could just bend the screen...." ;) This technology will be useful for laptops because we'll have 15" screens that are super durable (plastic vs. glass), and super light.

Plus, they'll be so much cheaper than the current LCDs.

[macfreek57]

i don't think a flexible display would be useful for a laptop. i would think you would want it to be as straight and sturdy as possible. the only real, current applications that i can think of are in destop computers and pda's. but you'd really only need it if you really wanted to move around because to me a flat, hard pda display, while not as cool, works just fine and easier to write on.

another lcd technology that i'd heard of a few years ago was an lcd screen that is see-through when off. that would be cool to have a window that turns into a computer screen whenever you need it.

[macfreek57]

i guess a flexibl screen would be useful in a laptop if it was in a rigid frame and thus more substancial to impact than a rigid screen

[Mr. Anderson]

Look how thin the screen is on a TiPB. With OLED you could have it half as thick, still as rigid and weigh a lot less. But if you had a rolled up version of the screen that locks into a collapsible framework, you could get a 20" screen on your laptop. Now tell me, who wouldn't want that?

[pimentoLoaf]

Pair the foldable LCD with a miniturized TV tuner and....

You'd have that Newspad thingy from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[Choppaface]

hmmmm....LCD screen blanket. work on your computer all bundled up in bed!

[Anon]

Foldable screens wouldn't be used in a laptop. Think OQO

[macfreek57]

Originally posted by dukestreet
Look how thin the screen is on a TiPB. With OLED you could have it half as thick, still as rigid and weigh a lot less. But if you had a rolled up version of the screen that locks into a collapsible framework, you could get a 20" screen on your laptop. Now tell me, who wouldn't want that?

ok
think about this shape: __
as compared to this shape: 6
not very portable shaped
you'd have to make the computer itself rollable too

[threepod]

Portable GPS maps would be a great application. Didn't one of those Mars movies have one? I always thought that was cool.

[voicegy]

Flex screens would have a great home in offices...even though I'm on a 22" Cinema now, there's times that I could have used twice the space...now imagine a 5 foot long, rectangular curved screen at the edge of the desk where everything I need is always open and available.

Notes
Calendar
Spreadsheet
Web page(s)
My e-mail
Documents
Macrumors.;)

I'm certain I'll see this within (being safe here) 5 years

[Geert]

I saw a keyboard that can be rolled up like a newspaper.
So they only need to make a motherboard etc that can be folded.
so then together with the OLEDs you have a portable that can be rolled up like a newspaper, put in your pocket. and of you go.
Now that would be a great powerbook.

[boymerang]

They already have flexible key-boards. and i'm sure they could figure out a way to encase the actual internals of you computer into a more efficient shape/size. bear in mind that the current shape of laptops is really decided by two different things: the size and layout of the keyboard, and screen size. people like having as large a screen as they can, and they like having a full-size keyboard (because americans are fat, and their fingers get sloppy as the keyboard gets smaller). there are no real advantages to having a screen that's flimsy...aside from not breaking when you torture it - but it would also be subjected to environmental distortions (wind) which would really suck. the way around that would be to have a rigid framework...where do you store that when the screen's rolled up? i think a lot of you are starting to put into words these laptop ideas that lend more to tent construction than they do useful computer design.

bear in mind that your LCD, or OLED screens will never be 'foldable'. what would you do to get rid of the creases when you opened it up? iron it? how very convenient. if you wanted to roll it up when you were done with it - the roll could only be as short as the screen's shortist edge...so a 20" screen would be an ungainly 12" long. or it could 'bend' into a square shape...you'd just have to make sure that the 'creases' always maintained enough of a radius to prevent cracking. but i genuinely don't think you'll ever see a screen that can be folded-up origami style and put into your shirt-pocket - unless that screen was also disposable.

and of course OLED screens will eventually be cheaper than LCD screens are currently - LCD screens will eventually be cheaper than LCD screens are currently!

[Handmedia]

Oops! I ripped my LCD.

[encro]

LEP: Light Emitting Polymers. (ie. Plastic)

Now there is something to talk about.

Imagine printing up a new screen on your ink jet with a LEP cartridge.

I dont think resolution is quite there yet but when it is this technology will open up as the main display form in use. This is what foldable, disposable and flexible could be about...

bounce here for a look:
http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/

[ftaok]

Originally posted by boymerang
]and of course OLED screens will eventually be cheaper than LCD screens are currently - LCD screens will eventually be cheaper than LCD screens are currently! Well, once they perfect the OLED, it'll be a lot cheaper than LCDs because the materials are inherently cheaper. So when LCDs come down in price, OLEDs would still be much cheaper.

Plus, I think that OLEDs would last a lot longer. I base this only on the fact that LEDs last many many many years. So if OLEDs behave like LEDs, that's another plus.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by ftaok
Well, once they perfect the OLED, it'll be a lot cheaper than LCDs because the materials are inherently cheaper. So when LCDs come down in price, OLEDs would still be much cheaper.

Plus, I think that OLEDs would last a lot longer. I base this only on the fact that LEDs last many many many years. So if OLEDs behave like LEDs, that's another plus.

And LCDs require more material and separate layers. OLED is one layer and no glass. So it has many more advantages. OLEDs should eventually replace LCDs, but it will take several years.