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Paintable LCDs

frambooz writes "Nature Magazine has an article about a team from the Eindhoven University of Technology and Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, who discovered a way to create 1 layer paintable LCD-screens. It can be used on glass and plastic already, and fabric in the near future. 'Homes of the future could change their wallpaper from cream to cornflower blue at the touch of a button, says Dirk Broer. His team has developed paint-on liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that offer the technology. (...) The technique could create giant TV screens, digital billboards and walls that change colour. Slim, plastic LCDs sewn into fabric could display e-mail or text messages on your sleeve.' Which leads to another problem: with an LCD-suit, where would you put which app?" There's also an AP article.

23 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. LCD Suit... by nob · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...with an LCD-suit, where would you put which app?

    Well, Windows XP could go on my wife's butt. They're both unnecessarily big and bloated, and despite what some people say, they can be trimmed down with some work.

    --
    daed si luap
    1. Re:LCD Suit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but your wife's butt only has one hole...

  2. Obligatory Joke by SplendidIsolatn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slim, plastic LCDs sewn into fabric could display e-mail or text messages on your sleeve.' Which leads to another problem: with an LCD-suit, where would you put which app?"

    Lets see...
    Front of pants, PKUnZip
    Back of pants, DownloadAccelerator
    options are endless....

    --
    sig--we don't need no goddamn sig
    1. Re:Obligatory Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Front of pants, Magnify.exe

  3. invisibility by Fucky+the+troll · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You could use this stuff on fabric along with tiny video cameras to create predator-style invisibility.

    --






    Roadkill is yummy.
  4. Club heads by Mattygfunk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    An LCD outfit would be a hit at raves and clubs. Your gear would become the ultimate glowstick. Set your clothes to change colour with the beat of the music and set up some cool visulizations and your away.

  5. I know what I would do... by SkyLeach · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would put small cameras in front and behind me which displayed their images on the opposite side of the suite.

    It may not be invisibility but it's damned close.

    The problem I see is: what about backlighting? LCD required backlighting to work doesn't it? If the colors (colours for you brits :-) are dense enough to reflect light realistically then perhaps that isn't a problem for some applicaitons: the invisibility application, however, presents a problem.

    --
    My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so :-p
    1. Re:I know what I would do... by tswinzig · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The problem I see is: what about backlighting? LCD required backlighting to work doesn't it? If the colors (colours for you brits :-) are dense enough to reflect light realistically then perhaps that isn't a problem for some applicaitons: the invisibility application, however, presents a problem.

      I read an article on eInk a while back on their full-color screens that do not emit light. In other words, you need an external light source to see the screen. Sounds like a perfect match for this technology.

      --

      "And like that ... he's gone."
    2. Re:I know what I would do... by Dephex+Twin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, as far as distortion, I don't think this would solve it.

      Let's say you have an image on your front and it matches up with what's behind you. I'm looking at you from straight ahead. Now you move your right leg forward towards me. Either that distorts the image on your leg (as it is now angled), or there is some complex mechanism that can account for all body movements and provide the reverse of this distortion in order to cancel it out and make it look normal from head on.

      That's kind of tough to explain, did it make sense?

      Not to mention the fact that I would have to be looking at you from head on.

      mark

      --

      If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
  6. Where would you put your apps? by isa-kuruption · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just a general rule, I would recommend not placing any M$ product near your anus.

  7. LCD suit would be the perfect camoflauge by mister7 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are military contractor already on this one, but they're using flat panels. A camera could capture the image behind you and project that image on the front part of your 'suit'. Doesn't need to be a sharp, perfectly aligned image either. Just get the color and intensity right. The US Army already wants this one...--> http://www.aro.army.mil/phys/Nanoscience/sec4nano. htm

  8. Fahrenheit 451? by GT_Alias · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The technique could create giant TV screens

    Holy buh-jeezus! Did anyone else read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury?

    It was scary enough when they brought out those flat-panel plasma screens (not that I'm complaining), but now that you could paint all 4 walls w/ television screens...

    This combined with the advent of Aibo (remeber the mechanical dog in the firehouse?), seems to me Bradbury was dead on.

  9. Email on your sleeve? by Wrexen · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slim, plastic LCDs sewn into fabric could display e-mail or text messages on your sleeve.'

    Just great, the next MS email virus is going to spam my shirt sleeve with "--> IDIOT HERE -->" text to let everyone know I'm not using a secure email client :(

  10. It gets Worse! by Alien54 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Great, now I'm going to have nightmares about being chased down supermarket aisles by a box of Cherrios shrieking "Buyyyy Meeeee!"

    and it gets worse.

    Since this stuff can be embedded into fabric, obviously you can have T-shirts, etc. Obviously, You know someone will add wireless capability for continous updates, etc.

    The free car program where you get a free car because it has Advertising on it can now have cars that are updated monthly.

    The visual equivalent of pop-up ads everywhere, as you drive or walk down the street.

    Then add in your occasional prankster. Your room mate configures the back of your jacket to display pr0n as you walk down the street.

    And we call this progress. just a simple extrapolation of the spammer mentality to the use of the new media forms

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  11. Walls by truthsearch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've always wanted a video wall at home. That way I'm really using the available "real estate" to it's maximum capability. It would be great to have video on my cubicle walls at work. No monitor... a little to my right is my e-mail, touch the app window in front of me to bring my word processor into focus. It would be cool to have touch-support on video walls at work, along with a keyboard. Drag documents around... no more white board with smelly markers, just open a blank "window" and draw, no scanning needed to save it... have the video phone display to my left... drag a doc onto the other person's face to let them see it...

    Damn, now I'm just staring at my boring cube walls and monitor for the rest of the day. Thanks /. for building my dreams while I still have to suffer in this world! ;-)

  12. Re:Cars? by hagardtroll · · Score: 3, Funny

    Remember Mood Rings?

    You could have a mood car. One that changes color depending on how aggressive driver you are. Your car computer could detect your mood from your driving style.

    Red for 'Get Outta my way.',
    Blue for 'I'm driving the speed limit.'
    Green for 'I'm on vacation.'
    Flashing Yellow/Red for 'I'm driving erratically.'

  13. Always wanted a programmable globe by Tri0de · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Tried to design one a few years ago, but this might make it possible. Imagine a globe that could be updated via the web or disc, could illustrate the route of a voyabe or flight paths or tectonic drift, or weather, satellite orbits....

    --
    "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
  14. wearable e-mail by waldeaux · · Score: 3, Funny
    Which leads to another problem: with an LCD-suit, where would you put which app?"

    Well, I know where the e-mail SPAM would appear... :-)

  15. Re:Not new. Imagine a roll-up screen. by Drachemorder · · Score: 5, Funny
    Now imagine a paint-on wall-size screen.

    "I told you never to call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!"

  16. Re:give it to me now by Glytch · · Score: 3, Funny

    As legal counsel for Cafe Press, I object to this blatant disregard for the rights of business owners. Your idea is obviously a circumvention device designed to destroy free-market capitalism and encourage piracy of Cafe Press' intellectual property.

  17. Re:Cars? by Xaoswolf · · Score: 3, Interesting
    as heard over the police band radio "Attention all units, I'm in hot pursuit of a red station wagon... make that a blue... no green... ok now it's plaid... well at least it's a station wagon."

    The only other improvement I would want, is an LCD liscense plate...

  18. xplanet rocks! by isaac · · Score: 3, Informative

    Be sure to check out xplanet (xplanet.sourceforge.net) - it is basically XEarth++, and it is awesome. Works in *nix and windoze, and with simple scripts it will download near-live satellite cloud imagery (updated every ~6 hrs, I think) for rendering the earth. It also supports loading and displaying weather data from the net (like XEarth displays city names), which in combination with the live clouds makes for a fun way to get an intuitive grasp of weather and weather forecasting by watching the whole world over time.

    Slick stuff.

    -Isaac

    --
    I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
  19. Paintable LCD's and Blonde Jokes by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 3, Funny

    Blond joke

    Q: How do you tell if a blonde is using a computer:
    A: There's white-out on the screen

    Geek joke

    Q:How do you tell if a geek is writing on a piece of paper.
    A:There's screen on his white-out.

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!