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Roll-Up Monitors A Step Closer To Reality 218

Posted by timothy from the working-toward-the-veldt dept.
gwernol writes "CNN are covering the merger of two of the leading companies in the field of OLEDs. This brings the dream of flexible plastic monitors and TVs a step closer to fruition. You can find out more at Cambridge Display Technology who have acquired Opsys. CDT's technology paper on light emitting polymers (in the Research & Technology section of their site) is interesting reading."
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Roll-Up Monitors A Step Closer To Reality More

Roll-Up Monitors A Step Closer To Reality

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  • Sweet! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mysticalfruit ( 533341 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:35PM (#4549911) Homepage Journal
    I can't wait until this stuff can be put like wall paper and connected to the house backbone. Just a quick calibration so it can map images to it properly and presto. Just imagine all the cool stuff you could do with it. I still think having a camera pointed at the sky out in the middle of the pacific so you could have a truely starry night on your ceiling would be amazing!

    • How soon? (Score:3, Funny)

      by t0qer ( 230538 )
      Before I can build a predator suit out of OLED's?

      • Re:How soon? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by saider ( 177166 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:57PM (#4550182)
        How soon before Tommy Hilfiger makes a shirt that has a spinning or flaming logo on it?

        How long before Tommy lets you download your own images to the shirt?

        How soon before that system is cracked and you're walking down the street with a picture of a guy f%^king a chicken on your back?

        It should be an interesting ride on the subway in a few years.

      • A "predator suit" would need to reflect differently to different angles, which no pixel system can do.

        You could use some form of sensor ($5 webcam mounted on a helmet) to detect the location of a single viewer and match the image to their location based upon the current shape of the suit, but you couldn't match the image to more than one viewpoint with this technology.

        Adjusting the image to account for viewer focus would be another design consideration.
        • You could use some form of sensor ($5 webcam mounted on a helmet) to detect the location of a single viewer and match the image to their location based upon the current shape of the suit, but you couldn't match the image to more than one viewpoint with this technology.

          Holographic displays have been developed. (Shitty ones, anyway) But to render a panoramic 3d image around your whole body would take more computing power than Deep Blue. (Note: I'm not talking about the 3d monitors that are available now. This is true 3d which changes perspective as you change your angle.)
    • And waking up to spam in the middle of the night because you know they'll find out how to do it.

      Stars replaced by Nigerian offers and penis implants! And life-size pr0n pop-ups...

      I can't wait!
    • Imagine you combine this with the 3D display technology. Presto, all of a sudden your house would be a holodeck (minus the tactile feedback).

      DROOOooooooooooool.
    • Oh great. I change my computer desktop wallpaper every other day. Now I have to redecorate my house every other day when I change a room's wallpaper. Joy.
    • Yeah, and then every 5 minutes a loud blaring ad would come on for a new Chevy Trailblazer, followed by an Ad for Herpes medication, and followed up with a Burger King ad..

      I mean really - look what happened to the net...LOL
    • Finally, I'll be able to shove porn down my pants!!! Super-sweet!!

  • Heh (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Find love Online ( 619756 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:35PM (#4549916) Homepage
    CDT's technology paper on light emitting polymers

    When I first read that, I thought they had invented some way to put OLEDs on paper not written a paper about OLEDs :P

    Well, one can dream, can't that? (Actualy, that can't be to far off. IIRC you can 'print' plastic on paper, and people have made electrically conductive plastic, if they could be merged with OLEDs....)

    Hehe, how cool would it be to be able to buy a off-the-shelf ink jet printer and print electrical circuits, with built in OLED displays and all kinds of other craziness :)

  • they were prophetic... (Score:3, Funny)

    by p_rotator ( 617988 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:35PM (#4549917)
    Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you - just one word.
    Ben: Yes sir.
    Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
    Ben: Yes I am.
    Mr. McGuire: 'Plastics.'
    Ben: Exactly how do you mean?
    Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
    Ben: Yes I will.
    Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said. That's a deal.
  • This one truly has me excited.

    The potential uses for roll up displays are just about endless. I've had a dream of pulling up the "monitor" from my laptop for just about as long as I can remember.

    Can't wait to see full wall panels made. IMAX at home baby. Slashdot can follow me through the house. Yum.

    And if you want true excitement, porn everyewhere! (not like it wasn't there already)
    • My monitor is as thin as a sheet - in fact, it IS a sheet! All you need is a cheap (or expensive, depending on the size of your wallet) projector and a bedsheet and you've got yourself a screen you can fold up and iron!

  • These OLEDs technologies are pretty promising (Score:4, Insightful)

    by f97tosc ( 578893 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:37PM (#4549935)
    but the article fails to explain why this merger is such an important step in the development of new display technologies.

    Tor
  • Does this remind anyone of Back to the Future 2? I could easily envision this as becoming a "picture window" type device in every home.
    • "Does this remind anyone of Back to the Future 2?"


      I can already see the headline:

      <b>Fox sues Cambridge Display Technology for patent infringement, copy right, and prior art. Addtional suits pending against Hasbro for hover board.</b>


    • Not likely... (Score:3, Informative)

      by PseudoThink ( 576121 )
      Some things I learned about displays in Psych 342 at Cornell: Display quality can be primarily measured by luminence, resolution, refresh rate, color gamut, and contrast ratio. While it is relatively easy to produce the necessary refresh rate to fool the human eye and display resolution is improving (also depends on how far from display you are), the rest are hard. DLP probably does the best job of current displays, and it maxes out at about 1000:1 contrast ratio, but it doesn't really count since it operates by reflecting light, and this thread is about flat-panel displays. I forget the exact values for daylight-level luminence and contrast ratio, but they are at least two orders of magnitude larger than what is currently available in CRTs or LCDs.
    • >rm -rf /bin/laden
      rm: /bin/laden not found
  • "Remember scouts, now that we've got these roller-lcd's, we can bring our computer games with us camping!".. "and i swear to god i'll frag your little asses all night!" doesn't quite seem to be as authentic as a tent and sleeping bag

  • Requests and uses (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tcd004 ( 134130 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:40PM (#4549972) Homepage
    Make an ultra-durable polymer version that I could use as a cutting surface with an X-acto knife.

    A semitransparent version for use in tracing.

    Clothing - afterall, if you can make a sheet of this stuff, you could conceiveably make a fiber out of it, no?

    Just thinking out loud.

    tcd004
    If I had my own oil company, I would... [lostbrain.com]

  • If they make these really energy effiecient it will give new meaning to "Rolling a green one".

  • What s the deal with light only going in one direction. I thought that displays where supposed to beam light in multple directions so that you could see it from different angles. I don't see how not haveing an active matrix screen is an advantage of this technology.
    • Damn you, you stole my post idea. In fact, if all light goes in one direction, all you will see is one spot at a time. I smell something very wrong here...

      Perhaps it's just meant to be cool. After all, if all light from it goes in only one direction, people will see a reflection of the stuff on the screen on your face, just like in movies :-).
    • I imagine you can see it from different angles. If it only shined light out in one direction, it would be fully coherent light, and OLEDs would make great lasers. It owuld also make a fairly worthless screen, because you could only see a few pixels per eye at any moment - it would be hard to read.

      I think the "one direction" refers to back and front as opposed to side to side.

      But then, maybe I'm ill-informed.

  • How long? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How long until some whack job duct-tapes a bunch of these to a blow-up doll for his personal pleasure?
  • "...some of whom have just opened factories for the first generation of monochrome OLED displays used in cellphones and razors."

    Razors?

    Umm.. did I miss something?

  • Problems (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Jus ad Bellum ( 592236 ) <terminus999@@@hotmail...com> on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:43PM (#4550012)
    So are there any problems with these like the 20-30 year delay that it took to get a decent blue LED???

    I'm sure back in the day they were talking about LED TV and it wasn't until the past 5 or so years that the technology was there. Not that I would't mind a high res, super thin, and sexy monitor/tv. It sure would be a killer app for most TV's out there, and a good way to combine a coumputer station and TV...
    • Yes, blue is the colour that they have the most problem with - it's the most unstable. In the labs they have blue up to 1000's of hours lifetime. But to compete with consumer goods like TV's and monitors they need much better performance.

      Imagine your TV is on for 4 hours a day, and you keep it for 10 years. That's 14600 hours, with no margin of error.

      It is quite likely that they will overcome the problem with blue...at the moment there isn't a full theoretical model for why Light Emitting Polymers work, and progress is through empirical testing.

  • Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by johnalex ( 147270 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:43PM (#4550014) Homepage
    I can't believe this - my 3rd post to /. in one day. Must be a slow Monday...

    Back in 1994, I attended a demo of the newest Apple hardware: the PowerMac 6100, 7100, and 8100. Those PowerPC 601 processors just blew me away! :-)

    As part of the demo, the Apple guys showed us a video of upcoming technology, including a computer that folded like a book. The computer used an "avatar" that the user controlled by speaking naturally, as if to a person.

    The Apple guys then asked us what was the missing link preventing anyone from producing the contraption. The answer: "folding glass." Of course, we know now (and probably did then, just we didn't want to admit it) that the CPU's and graphics processors of the time would have choked on the OS needed to pull off the magic.
    • The computer used an "avatar" that the user controlled by speaking naturally, as if to a person.

      You're sure that it wasn't just a dream about Ask Jeeves again?

    • Re:Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by phillymjs ( 234426 ) <slashdot@sta[ ].org ['ngo' in gap]> on Monday October 28, 2002 @03:04PM (#4550241) Homepage Journal
      As part of the demo, the Apple guys showed us a video of upcoming technology, including a computer that folded like a book. The computer used an "avatar" that the user controlled by speaking naturally, as if to a person.

      Ah, that would be "Knowledge Navigator," [billzarchy.com] John Sculley's attempt at being a visionary. KN was what he wanted the Newton to eventually become. The video was originally made in the late 80's-- now it's almost 20 years later, and we're still quite a bit away from a device that can do what KN is capable of.

      ~Philly
      • Bill Nye the Science Guy's early work!

      • just like in "Lain"... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ultramk ( 470198 )
        i was struck, when watching Lain [animefu.com] for the first time, just how much the creators must have loved Scully-era Apple dreams of the future. ("Navi" stood for "Knowledge Navigator", and ran something futuristic called "Copland OS", i.e. what was going to be Apple's new modern OS before they canned the project and bought NExT, begetting OS X)

        The machines in Lain are surprisingly close to the newest Palm handhelds, and Copland OS looks a lot like OS X (ok, maybe a bit more 3-D).

        m-
    • The Apple guys then asked us what was the missing link preventing anyone from producing the contraption. The answer: "folding glass." Of course, we know now (and probably did then, just we didn't want to admit it) that the CPU's and graphics processors of the time would have choked on the OS needed to pull off the magic.

      What I don't understand is why people think controlling your computer by talking to it is a good idea. Information transfer is more precise and (often) faster via keyboard (and that's ignoring mouse-based tasks that have no easy verbal-command equivalents).

      Even on a PDA, I have a hard time believing that verbal commands are faster than stylus gestures. Perhaps as a very limited set of shortcuts...

      Remember when touch-screens were going to be the new thing in input devices for desktop computers? Remember how ergonomics rapidly ripped that idea to shreds? Same deal. Use input modes only where they make sense.

      [Another ObNitpick: They should have worried more about speech recognition, which is still only a partly-solved problem. A pair of rigid screens is an adequate, if annoying, solution to the folding problem.]

      [Last ObNitpick: Good luck getting any computer that's not sapient to understand and appropriately react to naturally-spoken English, as opposed to rigidly defined commands.]

  • Scary. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:44PM (#4550031)
    We hear lots of hype regarding this great new technology. Companies developing the technology start acquiring each other before there is even a deliverable. Stocks soar....

    Then, the bubble bursts leaving no real technology, thousands holding worthless stock and a CEO retiring in the Caribbean.

    Haven't we seen this before????

  • *yawn* wake me when this is real (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is it just my imagining, or has this story been seen about once a month for the last couple of years? OK, not necessarily on /., but I'd swear I've been seeing "Cambridge Display Technologies to have flexible screens Real-Soon-Now" stories for a LONG time. Followed, every time, by the obligatory "gee wow, I can't wait to get a screen I can roll up when I'm not using it" comments. Unfortunately, I'm feeling too lazy/tired at the moment to go searching for previous stories - so if all this is my imagining, slap me down to -5 Offtopic :-)
    I'll get excited about this technology when it actually ships in a usable form. Until then, I just see these periodic "newsvertisements" as a means for CDT to raise their public profile and raise a few more investor $$$....

  • I don't dream of them being roll up so much... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TerryAtWork ( 598364 ) <research@aceretail.com> on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:45PM (#4550049)
    as excellent, large and cheap.

    Any signs of progress of THAT front?

  • Reuters Article (Score:5, Informative)

    by nekdut ( 74793 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:47PM (#4550073) Journal
    Reuters has an article regarding this technology as well:

    Reuters Link [reuters.com]
  • As funny as it would be for voyeurs to pull down the shades to get a peep, I think that this would probably end up being abused by advertisers.

    In an era where you have fuzzy hat pitchers on your television because of superimposed images behind home plate, I can see people in high rise buildings being paid to display stuff in their windows, perhaps even in a cooperative fashion.

    (for the record, an exhibitionist, not a voyeur :)

  • Very good to hear! (Score:4, Informative)

    by PhysicsScholar ( 617526 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:48PM (#4550089) Homepage Journal
    Even though most folks think that LCD monitors are the paramount devices through which to interact and view data on computer machinery, they're wrong.

    This isn't bad, however, because the up-and-coming OLEDs (as detailed in the introduction to this particle story) are much cheaper to produce and should mature faster than LCDs did in the 1990s, which was their early testing period.

    With OLEDs, one also finds a much-increased video brightness, faster response times (no ghosts while gaming or watching DivX ;-) rips), much enhanced durability, and lighter, to boot!

    Finally, these run much hotter but are much less prone to being affected by temperature fluctuations. This means it could easily serve as a server monitor in a 100 degree PowerEdge server closet or as the primary video output terminal at a physics laboratory in Iceland (where I study in the summer).

  • Already done -- in prototype (Score:5, Informative)

    by mfago ( 514801 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:48PM (#4550090)
    Check out the image [universaldisplay.com] at the lower left.

    They used to have a movie of this screen being flexed while an animation played on it. Really awesome. Clicking on the link now leads to a much less impressive movie...

    • The better video link.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:51PM (#4550110)
      http://www.universaldisplay.com/foled.php
    • well - I dont know - that is still pretty cool. Except you can tell that its really not *that* flexible... the person was being very careful with that thing.

      I love these though. but I would like to start legislation now preventing advertisments on clothing.

      I want to make a nightclub and have the whole floor covered in that stuff - then have a thick plexiglass false floor about 6 feet above that - then project airiel views, space views and satellite images over the whole floor. and do that zoom in thing from the matrix.

      Although the only problem is that it would cause the place to be the most popular for the LSD & E popping kids who just show up to lay on the floor and feel like they are flying...

      Still would be fun though.
  • Although it sounds like this may be several years off, this could revoultionize LAN parties!!

    Just think, no more strained backs while carrying you're 21" rolled up monitor to your buddies garage!

    I also wonder how these things will deal with creases, fading, glare, etc ... Hopefully better than a LCD does ....

  • Next logical step... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hayzeus ( 596826 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:51PM (#4550121) Homepage
    Fold up and edible! I could watch Beverly Hillbillies reruns on a bean burrito! Play Quake on a Hot Pocket! Quick -- somebody get me a DARPA grant...

  • Mmm... Edible displays... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mad Bad Rabbit ( 539142 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:55PM (#4550158)

    No, really! The OLEDs are supposedly nontoxic, and capable of being printed onto edible substrates, like rice
    paper or fruit leather. Edible gold foil could be used for the wiring. The battery and control chips would of course need to be in a separate module, clearly labelled "Do Not Eat."



    <;K

  • company mergers != products closer to reality (Score:4, Interesting)

    by AugstWest ( 79042 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @02:58PM (#4550187)
    Consolidation doesn't mean progress is happening, or that consumer products will make it to store shelves, nor does the fact that they're making very cool, very usable products. History is littered with companies that were about to produce amazing things that never came to fruition and imploded.

    What consolidation often means is that noone is investing in the idea, or that one of the companies couldn't survive long enough to get an actual product out the door.

  • Fahrenheit 451 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by theCat ( 36907 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @03:17PM (#4550349) Journal
    I notice that the /. crowd has already taken up the call for wall-sized monitors. I hasten to direct anyone with such notions to the Ray Bradbury classic "Fahrenheit 451". It is a disturbing work on many levels, and you can Google a lot of analytical treatments of the themes in the book.

    Particular to the current thread, in the book there are wall-sized display devices used in the predictable fashion; not to view above the sky full of live stars or weather a la Hogwarts in Harry Potter (which sounds delightful) but to take a small room and create a large, totally synthetic environment with an extended synthespian family, all via subscription service. And there you sit all day, listening to their dramatic, interesting lives while your own dull, wasted existance drains away. So if you like, views into a crafted world with fake people, custom made for unneeded people. Homeowners in the book measure themselves successful based on how many walls they own; four walls is just enough.

    Entertainment is emmersive enough. Do we really want to be flood with non-reality? Or Unreal Tourny, for that matter? The stars overhead sound good, and so does an "invisible wall" that projects an outside view of your backyard, or anywhere else in the world for that matter (the crater of an active volacanoe sounds nice!) But that's NOT where this is headed, you know. People historically ignore nature and real people and embrace entertainment instead.
    • This is already happening - and what funny is that when I mentioned this to some people i know - they totally disagreed and couldnt believe that I was saying what I was saying.

      It was with regards to the show the "osbournes"

      I was asked by some co-worker if I watched it. I said hell no - and I cant believe that anyone would watch that crap. If you watch it for more than 5 minutes it makes you feel like the biggest fscking loser alive. Why waste my time watching some complete fscking moron who cant even manage to open a packaged DVD, sit in his huge house making 20 million for doing nothing but being his lame ass washed up self - all the while my valuable time and life tick away must-see after must-see moment on the tube.

      Anyone who watches any of these "reality" shows should take not and take a look at what the real reality is.

      The reality is that you are letting you life tick away while you watch other people live thier lives - and you waste your precious life and time doing absolutely nothing but rot.

      Kill your TV!

      • Re:Fahrenheit 451 (Score:3, Insightful)

        by koreth ( 409849 )
        Burn your books while you're at it -- you could be out doing something rather than sitting on your ass reading about it.

        And if your friend starts to tell you about his day at work... what are you doing standing there idle while he yammers? Life is too short to waste time listening to other people go on about their banal, petty little lives.

        People who want to waste time winding down rather than accomplishing something useful every second of their lives are all losers who deserve to be ridiculed and belittled.

        Kill your campfire storyteller!

        • HEHEHE - ok so maybe I sounded a little extreme there.

          I just really dont like the osbournes/real world/big brother/survivor type shows at all.

          They make me feel ill....

          but yes as the other poster says - some of it is funny - I just prefer not to watch any of those shows at all.

          but I agree Down with the campfire story teller!!
    • but to take a small room and create a large, totally synthetic environment with an extended synthespian family, all via subscription service. And there you sit all day, listening to their dramatic, interesting lives while your own dull, wasted existance drains away.

      It'd be an interesting exercise with the Sims. Watch them walk around and interact with each other... see sims from the neighbour's house come over.
  • Does anyone else see a comparison between this technology and the "telescreens" in 1984??

    Call me paranoid, but suddenly, the words "Big Brother is Watching You" keep spinning through my mind.....
  • The magical "five years to market saturation" phrase has been quoted since oh, about 1993. There's nothing new here, people. Please go about your business.
  • who said you could find out "more" at http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/


    what a lousy site! i couldn't find much at all...

  • The Printer is Gorgeous (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NeuroManson ( 214835 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @03:22PM (#4550394) Homepage
    After visiting the Litrix website, I'm impressed by the sheer scale of the hardware involved with making the displays. For an adequate comparison, imagine two 2-drawer filing cabinets side by side. This means something spectacular; Anyone who can purchase the machinery can produce a display, and due to the sheer size, can even produce displays in a store front setting under their own brand stamping.

    This opens up a huge boon to the small computer retailer. Want to sell displays? Print 'em! Save a bundle on the costs of shipping heavy glass CRTs, and the risk of shipping fragile TFT displays.

    Due to pre and post printing processes, the likelihood of being able to "print your own" display are slim, since more than likely you still would need to test the leads to the polymer substrate, calibrate the individual displays, test for bad pixels, and laminate the whole pile together. In other words, don't expect to save a bundle by buying the fabrication hardware and doing it yourself, at least not until Avery or some other mainstream paper manufacturer comes out with a "EZ LEP" package, complete with inks you could only use once (logically, by the time the display dies, the ink cart will be dried out).

    Still, this does a good deal for both online retailers and brick and mortar shops, and opens up a world of possibilities.
  • "Flexible plastic monitors and TVs"!!!
    Do you know what I would do with a flexible plastic monitor? Here's my top ten list:
    1. Roll it up like a newspaper and hit you upside the head with it! Endless fun for the whole family.
    2. Attempt to tack it to my wall, because the damn thing keeps draping over itself. The result is mild electrocution, and a non-working flexible plastic TV / monitor.
    3. Jury-rig a make-shift laptop by rubber cementing the flexible plastic monitor to a folded cardboard box, gluing a small-form keyboard to the other folded half. The monitor and keyboard lines recede into a large briefcase I carry with me.
    4. Laminate several flexible plastic TVs into one large tablecloth. Tired of the same old design? Downloadable "themes" allow for endless variety in your dining experience!
    5. Rig my pirate ship with flexible plastic TVs instead of pirate flags -- then, I can change to "friendly" colors (for the purposes of dupement) without having to re-rig. Added bonus: the looks on people's faces is even more astounding when all our flags suddenly "morph" into that scary-looking pirate thing than it is usually, after we board and hand out business cards.
    6. Affix flexible plastic monitors back-to-back, fold the whole mess over itself to creat four pages (two physical pages), and bind a bunch of these monstrosities, with some smart software, into the next Killer Application. Peddle outside cafes and bookshops.
    7. Because flexible plastic monitors are light-weight, and because, like LCD's, they're "always-on", as opposed to each pixel being on only for an instant, you can create a row of flexible plastic monitors along the diameter of a "huge spinning thing" (details proprietary), and, with creative software and timing, get your effective screen size increaesd by a factor of pi, impressing geeks everywhere in the process. (Also, there's money in it, if you set up the web site you make about it to go into "banner-mode" whenever the slashdotting starts to rev up.)
    8. Get an MIT scientist with too much time on her hands or his to design for you a saddle-shaped form factor such that when your flexible plastic monitor is pressed into the shape, it creates an area directly in front of the opening (occupied by the horse on an actual horse saddle) from which each eye sees a disjoint set of pixels on the screen. (Some pixels on the "other" side will be visible, but from an angle in which they don't really emit light.) Design clever software, or find an overeager MIT grad student to design for you clever software, to take advantage of this unique form to create breathtaking 3D effects. Extra points for eye-tracking and on-the-fly adjustment to the precise location of your head, so that you can view the 3D worlds within the saddle from a range of angles. Make millions. (That's step 3; step 2 is a patent-pending business plan, currently trade secret.)
    9. After mastering origami, astound the world by solving NP-hard problems in topology in linear time. Disappoint the world again by telling them that you can't actually see the answer, but it's in there. (Astound them again by telling them that there is, however, free ice cream for everyone! etc[1])
    10. Be a travelling slashbot, regaling slashdotters the world over with your wit and humor. Accrue mod points for fun and profit. Then, spend it all on flexible plastic monitors or TVs, plastering a spare room with them until you have your very own holodeck! (special glasses required; no other objects may be present.)

    And remember -- the suggestions above are just the beginning -- with your own flexible plastic monitor or TV the possibilities are endless!

    Enjoy responsibly!!!

    [1] but the ice cream is poisoned (that's bad). But it comes with your choice of free toppings! (that's good) the toppings are also poisoned. (that's bad.)
  • Wow. With headlines like "Roll-up TV screens to hit living rooms" and "This brings the dream of flexible plastic monitors and TVs a step closer to fruition", you'd think that these are ready to be rolled off the shelf. Actually, it doesn't. It simply means that instead of fighting with each other, they'll now work together and thus hopefully save some money. However, imagine if you will, that betamax and vhs joined forces before the marketplace was well defined? Who would win? Exactly, it wouldn't matter because the winner would already be decided and we'd all have betamax players. So this is probably not seen as a good thing because a) these companies will no longer compete (something I'm sure all /.ers see as a negative) and b) they will carve up/patent this technology and innovation will stagnate (HDTV) and c) it will ripple to other technologies which may or may not rely on this in the future because they will have a stranglehold on the technology. Finally, when companies merge with similar products and or technologies, the resulting product-lines are often lowest-common denominators of the two. A little research and you'll find business history littered with just such examples.....
  • Whoa!

    To hell with folding laptop monitors!

    With this, you could make electric silly-putty!

    -- Terry

  • You CAN wait for your lightweight laptop... (Score:3, Informative)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @03:58PM (#4550777)
    you've been doing it for over 5 years now..

    or did you all miss the fact that their first press release - which reads amazingly similar to their latest ones (without the patent listings) came out in 1997?

    http://www.universaldisplay.com/newsroom.php?pr= 19 97-08-05

    until i can buy a monitor based on this technology, i'm putting it up there with 10 GB sugarcube sized holoraphic memory, a actual Windows/Mac desktop-replacement Linux, and 3G.

  • Why is lifetime of screens important? Replace em! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @04:10PM (#4550897)
    If a screen only lasts a year or two with the current OLED technology, why is that a big deal?

    Make the screens replaceable. I mean, this technology makes it sound like they're pretty cheap to make since they are built using a modified (granted, more complex) inkjet technolgy. You've also now got a whole new after-market for laptop screens.

    Don't need super-hgh rez - get a cheaper one.

    Want to have a tri-fold-out screen at the office, and a lighter, energy efficient one for on the plane?

    So what if the screen goes out if you can just buy a new screen for a few benjamins?

    If i could get a lot more battery life, have a much more rugged screen, and it was mch brighter - i'd pay $200 for a newer screen(with higher rez, of course) every year and a half.
  • This sounds almost like it could be incorporated into clothing.

    Great business idea: instead of logo'ed clothing, how about clothing with annoying flashing, pulsating, scrolling advertisements on the back and front!

  • Hype vs. reality (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @04:38PM (#4551148) Homepage
    When you actually read through the site, you find that all they can actually make is a cellphone-sized greyscale display, using technology they license from Kodak.

    There are many display technologies that don't scale. This may be another one. The whole point of this technology is that it's supposed to be cheaper to fabricate in large sizes. If it doesn't scale up, it's not helpful.

    Non-silicon semiconductor inventors are notorious for claiming their technology will be really cheap, but to date, they haven't delivered. Even amorphous silicon has never lived up to the low-cost claims of decades ago, even though it really works.

    What bugs me about these guys is that they can't make a cheap one or a big one, yet they're on CNN. To succeed, they have to do both, yet they can't do either. If they had a wall-sized demo TV that cost $100,000, that would be a step forward. Or if they had a postage-stamp sized one that cost $1, that would be something. But all they have is some promising chemistry. That should be good for half a column in Electronic Design, not worldwide publicity.

  • It won't be long before we see people imatating... (Score:3, Funny)

    by cmdrwhitewolf ( 580710 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @05:25PM (#4551489)
    The road runner and using this to plaster a fake image of a tunnel enterance over a some brick wall, in hopes that some poor schelp will try running through it...

    (And it'll probably be a terrorist too!)

  • Don't hold your breath (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bozovision ( 107228 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @05:56PM (#4551753) Homepage
    In September we (Cambridge Hi-Tech Association of Small Enterprises [chase.org.uk]) had CDT talk to us. (CHASE is a club for people interested in technology and business and is based in Cambridge, UK. Come and visit the site, but not all at once.)

    The head of technology and strategic planning spoke. Despite the hype-ticle on CNN, it was clear from what he said that you shouldn't expect flexible displays any time soon - probably not inside 10 years. I don't get a T-shirt with space invaders on it any time soon. You can expect conformable displays within a few years - i.e. rigid, shaped screens. However it's likely that you will see other companies building these; CDT is an IP company. They hold fundamental patents on light emmiting polymers. They aren't just a holding company; they do develop technology, but their basic strategy is to licence to others. They will have bought Opsys to strengthen their patent portfolio.

    If you are currently building hardware that needs small mono screens you should definitely check out CDT. Their displays have superb characteristics - an almost 180 degree viewing angle, bright even in sunlight, and very low power requirements. The examples of the technology that he showed were very 'version 1.0', but show brilliant promise.

    Next CHASE meeting - 12 Nov - Invisible Networks are building community broadband networks in rural villages around Cambridge. Currently using 802.11.

    Jeff Veit
    www.tanasity.com and www.tangledtime.com

  • At last ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Mind Socket ( 180517 ) on Monday October 28, 2002 @06:07PM (#4551836) Homepage
    The good ol' days of the pr0n centerfold return.

    Never thought the pages of my monitor would get mysteriously "glued" together, but once again, technology has an answer.
  • ...a monitor I can roll up and put in my pocket. That will be SO much more convenient to carry around than a PDA, huh?

    "Is that a Pentium in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

  • get the picture? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by phallen ( 145919 )
    I can't help but notice that, in all the articles that I've seen on this over the past year, including the 3 links listed by /., there is not a single photo or computer-generated example of this so-called "roll-up TV".

    I'm suspiciouse of any physical product that get's this kind of press, but still cannot show some sort of demo, hell, even some FakeWare cardboard cutout or something! I mean, my God... it's a TV -- show it to me. You'd think if they were making real progress that they would be all over showing people the future, rather than talking about it.
  • Ehmm. can anybody tell me why I would like to roll up my screen? My laptop has a big rigid part, and the screen fits right along the top. My worstation has a flat screen sitting on top of the desk. Now if the screen would be higher quality than either, I can see myself rolling it up and taking it home. But for me to be rolling up screens they have to be cheap. You don't just do that with an expensive screen, do you? But if they are cheap I'll just buy one for at home and one for at work.

    I just don't see a combination of cheap/expensive and usefulness that would make the "able to roll it up" feature essential.

    Now there are a bunch of geeky things you can do with a rolable screen. But that's just geeky. Nothing really very useful.

    If these things would become very, very cheap, then maybe. However, as they are going to have to have adressable pixels, you will have to have per-pixel electronics, and even when the price of those drops below 0.01 cents per pixel, you still want more than a million of them. And it's not pretty if there is a "dead" one. On a digital camera, you can map the dead pixels out. Nobody is going to notice. But on a screen there is not much you can do about a dead pixel.... Getting a million pixels "just right" is going to stay tricky and expensive.

    Roger.
    • Nothing usefull? What about my PDA? Ever try using an LCD screen in the sunlight (you know, that bigass lightbulb outside) ? Not pretty...it's either e-ink or oled which'll fix that.

      Also, what about wrap around workspaces? That's basically a monitor that spans your desk and curves...too expensive to do with solid screens. And of course there's all the other fun, as-of-yet unthought of stuff which will appear.
  • When was the last time you said to yourself, "I would really like to roll up my display and carry it with me."

    Do we roll up paper work now? The only thing I can think of is newspapers and large prints that go through the mail. Everything is layed flat and secured as such.

    Now, covering a wall or ceiling in these things ... that's uber cool (: I've always wanted a wall that I could change the decore of on a regular and effortless basis (:

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