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LG Phillips Patents Oil and Water Display

jordanhh writes "Tech.co.uk reports that LG Phillips has filed a patent for a new type of thin, flexible display. 'The pixels are made from tiny plastic cells filled with minute amounts of oil and water. The oil floats on the surface of the water and shrouds the colored surface underneath it. When electricity is applied across the cell, the oil moves aside, changing the color of the pixel.'"

90 comments

  1. oil and water by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 2, Funny

    What? No vinegar?

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:oil and water by Applekid · · Score: 4, Funny

      What? No vinegar? Don't know about the display quality, but it's already clearly an inferior salad.
      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
    2. Re:oil and water by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you mean Vinegar & Water, I think that patent is already owned by Massengil.

    3. Re:oil and water by Hucko · · Score: 1

      Decreasing the average waist line measurement?

      --
      Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
    4. Re:oil and water by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      A little bit of caster sugar makes it yum!

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    5. Re:oil and water by Zaatxe · · Score: 1

      What? No vinegar?

      I'm taking your comment with a pinch of salt...

      --
      So say we all
  2. Heathens! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    You patented oil?!

    Bush is gonna invade the shit out of you!

    The bible says it's his & occasionally god tells him that he should do it. By the way, we need to stop Karl Rove from getting into that crawl space in the white house right above Bush's bedroom ...

  3. Confusing phrasing by c0d3h4x0r · · Score: 3, Funny

    Am I the only one who read this as LG Phillips Patents Oil and Water Display ?

    --
    Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
    1. Re:Confusing phrasing by slapmyass · · Score: 0

      no, you're not the only one!

    2. Re:Confusing phrasing by Anonymous+McCartneyf · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, that's what it actually says. The headline doesn't have boldface, though.
      At least it isn't "British Left Waffles on Falklands."

      --
      There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
    3. Re:Confusing phrasing by CodeShark · · Score: 1

      Yep. Just before the British navy made pancakes from Argentinians (jets, that is).

      Okay, that wasn't nice, I admit it.

      --
      ...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
    4. Re:Confusing phrasing by spun · · Score: 1

      That's almost as hilarious as the New York Daily News headline about the state bailout of the subway system in the 80s: 'Sick Transit's Glorious Monday.'

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    5. Re:Confusing phrasing by Kingrames · · Score: 3, Funny

      Another funny real headline:
      "Carpenter nails wife, kills self."

      The headline guy was fired for that one.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
    6. Re:Confusing phrasing by omnipresentbob · · Score: 1

      I know, me too! It should definitely be LG Phillips patents ((Oil and water) display) blarghy.

    7. Re:Confusing phrasing by orangepeel · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you liked that headline, you should check out this link (Google cache because I think the original site now requires registration).

      Two of my favorites:

      "Day gives daughters 1st-hand job experience"

      "Shooting spree spreads Christmas bliss"

      But the headlines are only part of the hilarity. Some of the stories posted on that page are an absolute riot.

      --
      Whoever designed level 61 in Frozen Bubble is a sadistic bastard.
    8. Re:Confusing phrasing by Gordonjcp · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Needs a little introduction, but here goes - there is a fairly low-end football team in Scotland called Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and a much much better team called Glasgow Celtic. Now as it happens, Inverness Caley were drawn against Celtic for a particular match, and things were, to be honest, looking like a bit of a foregone conclusion.

      A chap I know is one of the sports writers for the daily red-top rag, The Daily Record. Like most tabloids, about a quarter of it is sports pages, and what they do to get the issue out quickly is have two whole back pages set up - one talking about Celtic's win, one talking about Inverness Caley's win (should it happen). So they're sitting in the office the night before the match, writing up headlines to use for the next day. One of my mate's colleagues says "Oh, well it's never ever going to happen, but - 'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious'?"

      Celtic basically needn't have turned up. Inverness Caledonian beat them 4-1, and the headline went out.

    9. Re:Confusing phrasing by Zaatxe · · Score: 1

      The headline guy was fired for that one.

      Here in Brazil that news about lead in Mattel's toys painting got this headline:
      China-made toys cause brain damage

      --
      So say we all
    10. Re:Confusing phrasing by Fizzl · · Score: 1

      Offtopic, but I'll ask anyway..
      Do american companies really fire people left and right for simple mistakes? Or is it just an euphenism?
      Seems that I see "XXX was fired for XXX" all the time.

      Personally I don't know anyone who has ever been fired for anything but gross, willfull, bordering-the-law hazardous actions.

      Even if you are incompetent, the company that hired you tries to find easier work for you instead of firing. Even if you come to work drunk, you've given two weeks paid leave to get yourself in shape and perhaps some counseling. Never fired unless you really try to get yourself fired.

      (Finland says hi! _o/)

    11. Re:Confusing phrasing by nevvamind · · Score: 1

      now supermarkets will need LG licenses to *Display* "Evian" & "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" :)

    12. Re:Confusing phrasing by gharris · · Score: 1

      Even if you come to work drunk, you've given two weeks paid leave I think I need to move to Finland!

      --Glenn
    13. Re:Confusing phrasing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Am I the only one who read this as LG Phillips Patents Oil and Water Display ? Ok, colour me stupid, but how is that equivocal? "Water display" isn't a phrase ...

      Am I the only one who doesn't get this????
  4. Well this sucks by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 0, Troll

    The patent part anyway. The probably sunk millions into it but no one here thinks they should be able to profit from their innovation, right?

    1. Re:Well this sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They sunk millions into it and they haven't been able to get it to work yet (this is old old news). A fair amount of that money going to lawyers and work to avoid existing patents no doubt. Hell who knows, maybe they'd have been able to get it to work if random areas of science weren't cordoned off to engineers trying to create products.

    2. Re:Well this sucks by Lockejaw · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, so far it seems that nobody here has seen this done before and thinks it's a pretty neat idea. So, no, you just need to get the latest groupthink patch.

      --
      (IANAL)
    3. Re:Well this sucks by jaavaaguru · · Score: 1

      It's not a software patent ;-)

    4. Re:Well this sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      n the 1990s another type of electronic paper was invented by Joseph Jacobson, who later co-founded the corporation E Ink which formed a partnership with Philips Components two years later to develop and market the technology. In 2005, Philips sold the electronic paper business as well as its related patents to Prime View International. This used tiny microcapsules filled with electrically charged white particles suspended in a colored oil.[3] In early versions, the underlying circuitry controls whether the white particles were at the top of the capsule (so it looked white to the viewer) or at the bottom of the capsule (so the viewer saw the color of the oil). This was essentially a reintroduction of the well-known electrophoretic display technology, but the use of microcapsules allowed the display to be used on flexible plastic sheets instead of glass. ... From the wikipedia entry on Electronic paper ...

      It's most likely a tweaked version of the same.

    5. Re:Well this sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your strawman is starving to death, make sure you share your trollfood if anyone bites.

    6. Re:Well this sucks by jdigriz · · Score: 1

      Right, because everyone knows that's it's impossible to make a profit if other people have access to the same technology you do. Just like how nobody is able to make profits publishing materials in the public domain.

    7. Re:Well this sucks by heinousjay · · Score: 1

      The problem is not that nobody can profit. The problem is that people who had nothing invested in the creation get to profit obscenely because they don't have to put any work into it.

      --
      Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  5. "I can dig that..." by starglider29a · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, man... I saw something like that on the screen over the heads of the Jefferson Airplane back in '67. At least I THINK it was on the screen... oh... WOW!

  6. Sounds pretty slick! by darth_MALL · · Score: 1, Funny

    Thanks - I'll be here all night.

  7. Excellent Blacks by Innova · · Score: 5, Funny

    They expect to get excellent blacks (the bane of digital display technologies) by using motor oil from my 1999 Saturn.

    1. Re:Excellent Blacks by Starteck81 · · Score: 1

      So when I go to get rid of it 10 years later, do I take it to the electronics recycling facility or the motor oil recycling facility?

      --
      "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
    2. Re:Excellent Blacks by trolltalk.com · · Score: 1

      Neither -b bring it to McDoanlds - fatties want MORE of that "good old crusty fried-to-cholesterol-hell and bacK" taste.

    3. Re:Excellent Blacks by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Lucky you. When time to change my oil in my 97 Saturn SC2, I have but a single drop left!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    4. Re:Excellent Blacks by flappinbooger · · Score: 1

      Yeah, black like soot, right? IIRC, you didn't have to change the oil in those cars, cuz you were always adding new every time you filled it up with gas.

      --
      Flappinbooger isn't my real name
    5. Re:Excellent Blacks by Dave+Parrish · · Score: 1

      You mean like Morgan Freeman?

    6. Re:Excellent Blacks by n3tcat · · Score: 1

      Would you have to get the filter changed every 3000 episodes?

  8. Last Year? by bigtomrodney · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This was the big news from Philips/LG last year. Did they score another patent on this or is it the same one?

    --
    I never get used to these constant resurrections
  9. Well by ajenteks · · Score: 2, Funny

    That really paints the term "dead pixels" in a new light.

    1. Re:Well by zolf13 · · Score: 1

      Drowned pixels

    2. Re:Well by StarfishOne · · Score: 1

      They would be Dead in the Water

  10. Not very palatable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm waiting for Hidden Valley's research into a ranch-based display to pan out.

  11. Thanks for the link by oneiros27 · · Score: 2, Informative

    That makes much more sense. The one from tech.co.uk talks about floating, which would make it useless for the applications mentioned.

    ('street furniture' => 'bus stops') ie. vertical, not horizontal mounting

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  12. One "L"! by MaWeiTao · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's Philips with one "L", by the way.

  13. Prior art... by msauve · · Score: 2, Funny

    this is exactly like the light show I saw at a Dead concert once.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  14. Ah!! by Enuratique · · Score: 0
    --
    A black hole is where God divided by 0
    1. Re:Ah!! by zmollusc · · Score: 1

      i doubt it. i have been told that oil and water don't mix. You might get an excitingly crunchy mayonnaise, though.

      --
      They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
  15. Its just a multi-pixel lava lamp by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 1

    Groovy baby!

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:Its just a multi-pixel lava lamp by Anonymous+McCartneyf · · Score: 1

      No. Lava lamps use random mutations to make their patterns. These monitors, if made correctly, should use intelligent design for that. [grin]

      --
      There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
  16. Nice try LG, but *I* patented it first! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sincerely,

    Dr. Peter V. Boesen
    SP Technolgies

  17. Ugh by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pardon my pessimism, but I couldn't see this being very fast.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:Ugh by DerekLyons · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not every video application needs to be able to sustain high framerates.

    2. Re:Ugh by DavidHumus · · Score: 1

      It's especially slow on very cold days.

  18. Cue the Slashbots by Evilest+Doer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Now, cue the slashbots, all of whom will be saying "Haw! Haw! They patented oil and water???!!! So now they are going to sue every city that has oil slicks after a light rain? Patents suck! Information wants to be free! Buy a beowulf cluster of Macs that run Linux that only old people in Korea will use! In Soviet Russia, oil and water patents YOU! Profit! I for one, welcome our new oil and water overlords. Profit!"

    --
    I feel like death on a soda cracker.
  19. The question on everyone's minds... by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Will Linux support this?

    --
    The game.
    1. Re:The question on everyone's minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a retarded comment.

      This is entirely independent of operating system.

  20. Not a very smart thing to do... by Xtense · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ...with the world being on the brink of an Oil Peak and everything...

    --
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
    1. Re:Not a very smart thing to do... by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      ...with the world being on the brink of an Oil Peak and everything...
      --
      It uses liposuction wastes, so the fatter you are, the bigger the screen.

  21. Where's the "cheap" part? by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    The "E-paper" and "E-ink" crowd have been touting "cheap, flexible displays" for about fifteen years now. But all they ever seem to deliver are expensive, rigid displays inferior to other technologies.

    Electrostatic oil displacement has been used before, most notably in the Eidophor projection TV system. This is a technology first demonstrated in 1939, yet in use through 1993. Big, heavy, expensive, and complicated, but could project TV pictures brighter than film. The image medium was an oil film written by an electron beam, used as a reflector for a lamp.

    The basic idea is simple, but making it work required rotating smoothed oil film past the projection station, so there were big moving parts. All this had to happen in vacuum, but it wasn't a sealed unit, because the cathode had to be changed every 200 hours or so. So it needed high-vacuum pumps, vacuum locks, hours of startup, and a skilled operator.

    1. Re:Where's the "cheap" part? by scottrocket · · Score: 1

      making it work required rotating smoothed oil film past the projection station...
      Made me wonder-can this new display be vertical? Wouldn't the oil separate to the top, exposing water on the bottom (fine for horizontal use)?

    2. Re:Where's the "cheap" part? by Animats · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's a pixel-sized cell thing; each cell is sealed. At that scale, surface tension beats gravity, so orientation may not matter much.

    3. Re:Where's the "cheap" part? by Woek · · Score: 1

      ... and by fifteen years you mean two years, right?

    4. Re:Where's the "cheap" part? by vuffi_raa · · Score: 1

      no, I was in the sony store a couple of weeks ago and they have a $300 epaper reader there, and that is first gen so it is bound to go down from there

    5. Re:Where's the "cheap" part? by scottrocket · · Score: 1

      yeah, right after I replied, I thought of surface tension at that tiny size, being dominant!
      Still, it might be fun to shake it really hard & see what happens :)

    6. Re:Where's the "cheap" part? by Anonymous+McCartneyf · · Score: 1

      Just what everyone needs:
      A color Etch-a-Sketch monitor.

      --
      There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
  22. Just what we need... by E++99 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...something else to drive up the price of oil!

  23. Prior Art by skeeto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oil based displays have been in use for years. In fact, there is famous prior art.

    1. Re:Prior Art by Anonymous+McCartneyf · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but the burn-in rate for oil-on-canvas monitors is horrific.

      --
      There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
  24. Vertical or Horizontal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How exactly does oil float on the surface of water in a vertically-oriented display? Wouldn't the display have to lie flat like a table top in order for this to work?

  25. eink? by roman_mir · · Score: 1

    so is it that different from this tech? Eink has been around for quite a while now.

    1. Re:eink? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you think black and white is different from color, yes.

  26. OLEDs are the way to go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I that think OLEDs is the best solution. I thought that the oil is going too used up in the twenty years; give or take. If the manufacturing of OLED is to hot for the plastic to cure right; then they need to use a technology that cures plastic a cooler temperatures to make OLEDs and this process will make cheaper and better. http://www.riddletechnologies.com/ I believe it or not that this technology can be used for other applications as well.

  27. crap... by ItsLenny · · Score: 3, Interesting

    good as a toy if you're rich and wanna be like... "LOOK WHAT I GOT!!!"

    however they say they wanna use it for marketing purposes such as wrapping it around street furniture...

    HOWEVER it also says in this part that it needs to be viewed from 180 (straight on)... which would make it invisible to passing vehicles almost always and i'd imagine since it's "not as bright as a standard LCD" that the sun light will just wash it out anways...

    cool tech honestly.. but mostly useless I say

    --
    ----------
    Trying to fix or change something only guarantees and perpetuates it's existence
    1. Re:crap... by denidoom · · Score: 1

      But it looks light weight, which might prove useful. I think it's funny the first thing they think about is the Minority Report-like ad displays, but there are many more uses for this. As an artist, it would be cool to send my portfolio in one of these rather than a CD or something where someone has to make extra steps to load it into their computer, they just unroll this and the display starts. This being if they could get the price down enough for it to be treated in this kind of casual fashion. If it's sealed and meant for outdoor use, maybe it would be more weather proof, giving it possible uses in the field. Maybe in medical uses it could be used as a display for enhanced X-rays (I'm just thinking of floppy mylar things rambling)

      --
      Lane Myer: I have great fear of tools. I once made a birdhouse in woodshop and the fair housing committee condemned it.
    2. Re:crap... by Woek · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the text was confusing. They mean it has a viewing angle of 180 degrees. In other words: you can see it well from any direction as long as you're not looking at its back.

  28. Write out 50 times... by N7DR · · Score: 1
    Tech.co.uk reports that LG Phillips has filed a patent...

    No they don't. They report that LG Philips has done so. How hard is it to at least get the name of the subject company right?

    And it's not even right in the headline. Sometimes I despair.

  29. Salad Oil Display by mrmeval · · Score: 1

    First to name the old SOD.

    --
    I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
  30. Sharp by Loconut1389 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Looks like Sharp will have to rename their Aquos line!

  31. What use is this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A slow display, which freezes in sub zero temperatures, must be laid flat on a table, and does not work in zero gravity environments. Brilliant!

  32. Shakespeare, in the original Klingon by Thing+1 · · Score: 1

    Eink

    And what does that word mean, when translated from the German?

    --
    I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
  33. Oleo Display or OLEOD? by Easy2RememberNick · · Score: 1

    So this is the real OLED, an Oleo (oil) Display, or should that be OLEOD?

  34. Re: Re: Well this sucks (better informed) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This comment is well informed but has some important details wrong.
    What Philips did sell to PVI is a business that uses E-Ink http://www.eink.com/ technology. E-Ink uses an electrophoretic technology, where tiny capsules contain both black and white particles with opposite electrical charge and fluid. Applying a voltage across the capsules makes them look black, white or grey from the users side. No coloured oil involved.
    SiPix http://www.sipix.com/is similar, but uses only one kind of particle and a coloured liquid.

    A spin-off from Philips, namely Liquavista http://www.liquavista.com/, developed the oil and water based displays and is currently marketing and mass producing this type of display. This technology is also known as electro-wetting. The principle is that an electric field is used to change the surface tension and thereby change the pixel electrode from hydrophilic (loves water and will be covered in water) to hydrophobic (doesn't like water and will be covered with the oil). The material not covering the pixel electrode is stored in a small reservoir at the side of each pixel.

    What is new in the LG-Philips.LCD patent application, is not the oil and water idea, but the application and/or the exact implementation in a flexible display.

  35. Prior Art! by zblach · · Score: 1
    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i sheep | wc -l i can't sleep.
  36. I can see it now... by BrainBarker · · Score: 1

    These things will become popular, and someone at NASA will forget that they require gravity to function...

    "Shuttle to Mission Control: Orbital insertion in 3...2...1...ummmm.... Guys, we have a problem..."

    --
    "Dance like it hurts. Love like you need money. Work when people are watching." - Dogbert.
  37. Iconarama, the USAF's Etch-A-Sketch by Animats · · Score: 1

    Just what everyone needs: A color Etch-a-Sketch monitor.

    That's been tried. The Iconorama was a 1950s effort by the USAF to build a large-screen display. This was a computer-controlled Etch-a-Sketch like setup arranged as a projector. As with an Etch-A-Sketch, there was no selective erasing; when the image (which was mostly the tracks of attacking aircraft) became cluttered, the entire image was cleared and replaced with a newly drawn one. The previous big-screen attack plotting technology was an edge-lit Plexiglas map with people in on the back side plotting with grease pencils, so the Iconorama was a logical upgrade.

    This was a mechanical device. The thing really was etching lines on a projection slide. "Erasure" was accomplished with a slide change to a new blank slide. The Iconorama was usually installed as a pair of units, both for backup and so that slide changes could be accomplished without waiting for a redraw.

    I never actually saw one, but a 1970s evaluation of USAF large screen display systems once crossed my desk, and I recall the recommendation on the Iconorama being "Further systems of this type should not be procured."

    Ref: Schmidt, George WN "The Iconorama System," Datamation 11, no. 1 (January 1965)