More On Flexible Transistors

kryzx writes "MIT Technology Review has a piece on recent developments in flexible transistors. " The applicability of the flexible transistor, at least from the article's point of view, is the applications in everyday life - it's interesting to see how things are developing.

Comments

Couple of recent articles on printed transistors

[warmcat]

This article at EETimes discusses plastic transistors being used as a display device, and this story is about a startup offering a transistor printing process.

ubiquitous computing

[Proud Geek]

People who aren't familiar with ubiquitous computing might wonder what the advantages of these are. I know that I had a very difficult time explaining to my father what it is at all.

Ubiquitous means that the computer is always around you, always there. It becomes a part of your lifestyle, to consult the computer just as you consult your wristwatch. Perhaps like a mobile phone, but the goal is that a ubiquitous computer is much more transparent to the user than that.

My father said, "When I'm walking in the woods, I don't want a computer; it would just be an annoying distraction." But even there, how many times have you wondered what something was, or made a mental note about something you later forgot. The idea is that it does not take over your life, but fits seamlessly into it.

In that contest, a flexible transistor is a great benefit. Current wearable computers are very small (for a general purpose computer), but they still are not good things to wear. By making electronics flexible, it becomes much easier to embed them into clothing or other things that are carried around.

As well as the MIT group, check out Steve Mann's work for more information about wearable computers. They are very cool!

Way to go, to the groups mentioned in the article, and I hope they succeed very soon.

Clothing? Newspapers?

[smoon]

Soooo... if IBM comes out with a computerized shirt, then Microsoft will upstage them with a computerized jacket. And where will that take us? "Oh, sorry, my jacket seems to have crashed, let me take it off and put it back on again..."

Of course the really killer app will be computerized condoms (digital technology for her pleasure). This would of course bring a whole new meaning to PKI.

The paint-on display concept would be great for cabs -- imagine times square driving down every street...

Re:Clothing? Newspapers?

[Hard_Code]

Hey, I'm over a week late, but so what...:

if IBM comes out with a computerized shirt, then Microsoft will upstage them with a computerized jacket.

And then comes inevitable "bloat". Microsoft will then come out with a computerized trench coat, and then tundra coat, and space suit. Linus will then come out with a super mega-coat which is actually constructed by thousands of patches of different materials zippered together, each patch individually removable and configurable. We will trumpet it as being more "free" and allowing "choice" in wearable computing. ;)

Re:Is this really useful?

[DeepDarkSky]

Are you that used to technology moving quickly that you don't realize that technology takes time to apply? Even as it is, it will take them time to make the printed transistors faster, smaller, cheaper, and more efficient. Will it be useful? Of course. If you don't see our lives changing because you look and don't see. LCD screens make cell phones more expensive? Sure, but aren't they (arguably) more useful? Won't they be even more useful in the future when even more high-res versions or HUD versions make them as useful as PC browser screens?

Is this technology necessary? Is ANY technology REALLY necessary? The printed transistor technology is not so much necessary as it is revolutionary in the progress of making ubiquitous computing possible.

The one piece of crap comment that bothers me is, what does any of this have anything to do with worthiness of this story/technology on Slashdot? I suppose if Slashdot continues to have short-sighted people who pretend to be knowledgeable and forward-thinking but instead are only elitist, then methinks that Slashdot is not worthy of the story.

Floppy Processors?

[SuperJ]

Would this be possible? Make a processor that's around the size of 3.5 in disk, and created a drive that interfaces it to the motherboard. Then you could have removable processor slots! Want to upgrade? Just eject the old processor and stick in the new one? Eventually you'll be able to buy processors in packs, they'll come in red, green, yellow and blue. AOL will send out processor disks that render your computer useless except for connecting to AOL. Just imagine whipping out your disk holder and saying "Hey baby, check out my Beowulf cluster..."