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LCD Screens Almost Paper-thin

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the dynamic-placemats dept.

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.

9 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Cool by Hadur · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not a flame here, but I would rther see the price of LCD screens go down than their size.

  2. Uses by brejc8 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
    1. Re:Uses by DJPenguin · · Score: 5, Funny

      At night it would turn into little moons and stars.
      In the morning it would reflect what the weather is like.

      Hmmm... that already happens in my room! OH! My mistake, I left the curtains open.

  3. Uses by darkov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At a refresh rate of 4Hz, it's not much use as a monitor, I think they currently use this stuff for signage displays and the like. It might be useful for a e-book sort of thing, where it's unlikely you'll be reading faster than four pages a second.

    The big question is how much does it cost and how durable/stable is it?

    --
    Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
  4. A cool use... by Flounder · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --

    No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova

  5. Why not an electronic newspaper? by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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 what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  6. My Use for This... by naelurec · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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 ....

  7. Clothes as displays? by vidnet · · Score: 5, Funny
    Similar technology could even make clothes that double as video screens.

    I hope they add an alpha channel to those!

  8. Not LCD.... by WareW01f · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is what the display is made of... And here is the last ./ story. Come on guys! Don't get my hopes up like that!

    As a side note, I was at Epcot and got to see Xerox's Gyricon (now marketed as 'SmartPaper') up close and personal. The only issue was that the person at the booth barely knew how the stuff worked and did not have so much as a magnet to show it change. Someday...