Flexible Flash Memory Gets Us One Step Closer to Bendy Computing [Flash]

This organic flash memory from researchers at the University of Tokyo has got me dreaming in flex-o-vision.
Takeyo Someya, Tsuyoshi Sekitani and their team have placed memory cells on a polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) sheet that can bend with a curvature radius up to 6mm before causing any mechanical or electrical degradation. We're still pretty far from seeing this research being used in practical applications—in its current form, the organic flash memory has a memory retention of only a day. But at some point, the researchers say, we'll be seeing it used for large-area sensors, electronic paper and other large-area electronic devices. [Gizmodo via Tech-On via Engadget]

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Tire maker Bridgestone shows world’s first flexible e-book reader

Tire maker Bridgestone isn’t the first company that comes to mind when thinking about electronic paper, but the company has been experimenting in this field for quite some time now. Today, Bridgestone claimed that it has developed the world’s first flexible e-book reader [JP]. The device, which is pictured above, uses electronic paper (instead of, say, an LCD) and will display the content on the screen even after you turn it off.
Bridgestone says the prototype has a 10.7-inch-screen, is just 5.8mm thick (Kindle 2: 9.1mm) and can display color pages. The device can be bent to some extent since the circuit board and the electronic paper are flexible.
First tests with end consumers will begin in spring of next year, but Bridgestone already said it doesn’t plan to commercialize the e-book reader at this point.

The company also unveiled another device that features a 13.1-inch e-paper (touch screen) that can display up to 4,096 colors, communicate with cell phones and comes with a reaction rate of 0.8sec (that’s how long it takes to refresh a screen). It’s pictured above.
[CrunchGear]

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Samsung Screen Resists Merciless Hammering Without a Scratch [Displays]

Color me impressed. Watch as this guy relentlessly beats this new Samsung flexible screen with a mallet. Amazingly, the 2.8-inch active matrix OLED—only 0.01 ounces, and 20 micrometers thick—keeps running happily, without a single scratch.
[Gizmodo via Gadget Lab]

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Unfurl The Rolltop (The Flexible OLED Display Laptop)! [Concept]

Holy crap, one day I could roll my laptop up just like my yoga mat?! I don't care if this is just a concept for now, Orkin Design's Rolltop is freaking awesome.
The video shows it all but the 'laptop' has a flexible OLED display that is also capable of multitouch. When rolled out it becomes a 17-inch flat screen but can also be folded into a 13-inch tablet of sorts. I'd like to think that by the time we see something like the Rolltop we will have wireless power, but the detachable stand stores the tablet's stylus, power adapter and USB ports. I will never look at my yoga mat the same way.

[Gizmodo via Orkin Design]

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Sony’s new, super-thin OLED display wraps around a pencil [OLED]

OLEDs, which are said to lead the next wave of innovation in the TV space (after back-lit LCDs and 3D displays), come with plenty of advantages: they produce gorgeous images, they are self-luminous, light, and they’re flexible – very flexible. Case in point: a super-thin, Sony-made 4.1-inch OLED that actually wraps around a pencil, shown today in Japan.

The display is just 80μm thick, offers 432 x 240 resolution (121 ppi), a contrast ratio of around 1,000:1, and produces 100 cd/m2 brightness. Sony says the OLED can be wrapped around a pencil with just a 4mm radius. And the OLED can actually continue to display images and video while being rolled up, which is (according to Sony) a world’s first.



Unfortunately, the OLED is just a prototype, but those of you who attend the SID event in Seattle this week will be able to see the screen in action. All the others can drool over the display in the short (but pretty cool) video embedded below.




[TechCrunch]

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LG shows off newspaper-sized flexible e-ink display

Whoa, LG, why didn't you show us this flexible e-ink display at CES? For whatever reason, the Korean company decided to break the news now of this 19-inch-wide display, about the size of a regular newspaper page. At a thin 0.3mm, it's slightly thicker than a piece of paper (about 0.06mm), and its 4.5-ounce weight will feel a lot heftier than a newspaper.
LG accomplishes this trick by mounting the e-ink screen on metal foil instead of the usual glass or plastic we've seen in other e-ink displays. It's similar to the thicker Skiff display we saw at CES, which has a slightly flexible display mounted in a non-flexible reader. LG's big 19-inch prototype is obviously designed to capture our attention, but LG plans to actually mass produce smaller 11.5-inch flexible-ink displays by the end of June.
Too bad this breakthrough didn't happen a year earlier, because even though the current crop of computer tablets aren't flexible yet, they'll probably elbow e-paper technology aside. That is, until the e-ink is bright and colorful — but we'll have to wait a few more years for that Minority Report future to arrive.
[DVICE via Digitimes]

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