LCD Screens Almost Paper-thin

DarklordSatin writes "Nature.com has an article up about new LCDs that are thin enough to roll up and can display black and white at 96 dpi. More coverage by Wired and Scientific American. Thanks go to Arstechnica for the heads up." Wow. Let the speculation for new uses begin! Update: 05/10 14:59 GMT by CN : Whoops, this is really a dupe of an older story that slipped through because I only searched for LCDs. Ah well, it's still cool.

Comments

yeah coool

[lexcyber]

What is the primary appliance for this device?

Re:yeah coool

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a wireless pocket sized computer, something like that that Personal Server Intel touted a while back. You could use a thin-film flexible circuit and transceiver to "talk" to it. Super-thin touchscreens won't be too far off either. Then you can add wireless broadband 'net access to the Personal Server, and you've effective got the world in your pocket.

Uses

[brejc8]

Let the speculation for new uses begin!
I always wanted to wallpaper my house with something that I could change at a flick of a swich.
At night it would turn into little moons and stars.
In the morning it would reflect what the weather is like.
During the day I could watch tv or browse the web on any wall in the house.
Or even implant cameras in the other rooms so it would look like you have see through walls.

Ah well back to the reals world.

Two Words

[Anonymous Coward]

Dynamic Wallpaper. And not the kind on your computer desktop either.

Imagine being surrounded by thousands of ever-changing images of Bettie Page all the time.

mmmm

A cool use...

[Flounder]

Walls covered with these displays on the inside that can display anything. No need for windows, just make the displays show what's outside. The appearance of glass walls without the privacy issues. The only thing missing will be natural sunlight and opening a window for a breeze. But you can make any s**thole apartment seem to be a cabin in the woods, or beachfront property, or floating 150 miles above the planet's surface.

Why not an electronic newspaper?

[Oculus Habent]

Sure, you can't fold it, but you could roll it up in to a 1" tube that contains batteries, communications, etc. Carry a 1-foot long 1" diameter tube that rolls out into a 19" screen. And it could be much smaller if you wanted.

This would be perfect for "paperback" e-books. Even with the quarter-second refresh time on the screen it would acceptable for "turning the page". Or you could produce a book of the screens, and have the pages fill in with whatever you are reading.

How about electronic blueprints? Dynamic wall art that you can move around easily? Status displays on pillars in the airport?

If they can reduce the refresh time it would be incredible. Imagine a roll-up 19" screen for crowded server closets.

That was NOT offtopic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Off topic? I beg to differ.

This tech has huge potential to change the way we use media. Currently, you can subscribe to an "online" edition of your daily news paper, but people don't because they like to have A Paper to read. But Imagine if you could buy the media once, then have a daily update downloaded to your e-Paper each morning. Think how many Real Trees could that save on a larger scale.

That's just one application, same applies to magazines, and texts as well. No more obsolete classroom books - just buy and download the update from the publisher. Getting the best of both the electronic and old-skool media worlds has loads of benefits. Saving trees may be one of them.

This is a Good Thing.

/poorboy.

My Use for This...

[naelurec]

I am a musician (pianist) ... Currently I play at a church and for each service, I have to pull music from 5 different books + sheet music, etc..etc..

Needless to say, first, its a pain to carry around those books with me, flipping through them during a service, finding particular songs, etc...

So back in 1999 when I bought my Visor Deluxe PDA, I thought it would be cool to scan in all of that sheet music and have the PDA hooked up to some e-paper sheets (probably two of them) and then use a foot switch to "turn the pages" ..

The setup would be very cool, small and portable. Before a service, I'd simply download the lineup into the system and everything would be ready to go. No carrying around the books, no page flipping, etc.. Heck .. given the way I play the piano (music laying flat on top of the piano), it could possibly make it look like I memorized all the music to the congregation :-)

Of course, I heard about e-paper back then as well.. and so far, no products.. so by the time it *IS* released, i might already use something like a tablet PC ....

Farewell Horizontal

[handy_vandal]

How about programmable animated tattoos using skin-mountable biofoil?

The idea appears in K.W. Jeter's Farewell Horizontal, an engaging novel about motorcycle gang warfare on the outer face of a miles-high cylinder.

Re:Is it just me?

[MikeFM]

I usually see these new tech articles and think to myself "Wow, things will be really different in 5-10 years." Asking for it to change dramaticly in even 2-3 years is asking a lot. Also as you say a lot of the changes are incremental so you fail to notice they are taking place. It's now pretty affordable for the average yokel (me) to have a terabyte of disk space at home, a tiny computer that is quiet, a nice lcd screen, and broadband. For the most part 3 years ago that stuff was available but cost a lot more. These new technologies are creeping out the door - mostly being sold to other companies - but they are emerging as real products. They still tend to cost a lot and be hard to find but they are showing up.

Also it should be noted with development guys that they either take one of two personalities.. the cautious "It'll be ready in 30 years." guys and the gungho "Tomorrow we're all going to have jet packs." guys. Obviously the later make more interesting news sources because only ubergeeks plan 30 years into the future. I guess I'm both. I'm very gungho about what I'm doing now but am already looking into what I might be working on in 30 years. Nobody quotes me for articles though. :)