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GE Announces OLED Manufacturing Breakthrough

Posted by kdawson on from the cheap-and-bright dept.

bughunter writes "Today GE announced the successful demonstration of the world's first roll-to-roll manufactured organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting devices (press release). This demonstration is a key step toward making OLEDs and other high-performance organic electronics products at dramatically lower costs than what is possible today. The green crowd is thrilled as well. Personally, as the parent of a 3-year-old technophile, I'm dreading the animated cereal boxes." Now can I get my Optimus Keyboard for less than $1,299?

12 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Ok, so how about this idea... by keineobachtubersie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Personally, as the parent of a 3-year-old technophile, I'm dreading the animated cereal boxes

    Ok, then don't buy them.

    1. Re:Ok, so how about this idea... by keineobachtubersie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "and you'll either have to buy 'em or deal with the crazed screaming/whining/sulking that will ensue."

      I see, you prefer to pay them off instead of parenting them. And we wonder where all the consumerism comes from...

    2. Re:Ok, so how about this idea... by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh, and this happens every single time you go to the store. Like clockwork.

      Simple solution - don't take your kids out if he's being a shit.

      You will cave in. You don't know you will, but trust me--and every other parent out there--you will cave, and buy it whatever it wants to just shut it up.

      No, I will punish the behavior.

      --
      "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
    3. Re:Ok, so how about this idea... by PitaBred · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Amazing. I never did that when I was a kid. And if you show them that you won't tolerate it in the first place, it'll stop happening. Promise. Kids aren't stupid, they know what works. They know they'll get what they want if they just keep at it, and there is NO DOWNSIDE to them. No punishment that I hear you implementing, no going without, nothing. Try it... hold them accountable, and they'll act accountably.

      --
      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
    4. Re:Ok, so how about this idea... by EMB+Numbers · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are obviously a wide range of natural temperaments among young children. However, as the father of three, I assure you that not all children behave as described, and I suspect that almost all children can be trained not to behave as described. (Some mental illness or developmental disability might preclude such training).

      The reason that bystanders stare in horror at seriously misbehaving children and parents is that such behavior is NOT normal and is therefore unexpected/shocking. People also stare when adults are abusive or disruptive or antisocial. Any behavior outside normal conventions will prompt staring.

      My advise is that young children like to have rules and behavioral boundaries. Clear rules make them feel socially confident and reduce anxiety. Children test the boundaries when they feel insecure, and the best response is to reinforce the previously established boundaries. That makes them feel like the world is stable and sensible. When a parent moves the boundaries or the child can't find the boundaries, nobody will be happy - least of all the child. Interestingly, the exact same guidance applies to puppies.

    5. Re:Ok, so how about this idea... by RevDigger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Personally, as the parent of a 4-year-old...

      Reward the behavior you like, and punish the behavior you don't like. Never deviate from this, ever. Behavior that is rewarded will be repeated, and behavior that is punished will (eventually!) cease. I mean, I know exactly where you are coming from. I know how much tantrums at the store suck. You may have to sit through a few of them before it works. If it's bad enough, just exit the store and deposit the kid with someone else, while you shop solo. Trade sleep for time to shop if you have to, but never reward bad behavior. YOU are in charge.

      Also, I suspect a lot of the gimme gimme tantrums are tv-related. It sucks to think you paid someone (TV purchase, cable subscription) to induce tantrums in your kid. Maybe turn that crap off too.

      Mmm, slashdot parenting. This crowd is getting old.

    6. Re:Ok, so how about this idea... by madmaxx · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're insane. You don't have to cave in: it's always your fucking choice.

      --
      mx
  2. Our ugly future by sm62704 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Personally, as the parent of a 3-year-old technophile, I'm dreading the animated cereal boxes.

    In another twenty years there will likely not be a surface anywhere that isn't animated. The animated billboards and signs are already here.

    As if having blinking shiney flashey crap on the internet isn't bad enough now we're subjected to it in meatspace.

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  3. Reason to be excited by StreetStealth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would be excited ... if there were more details convincing me this is a 'breakthrough.'
    The one thing that I think sets this apart from most "breakthroughs" is that they're demonstrating a prototype of an actual fabrication process rather than a prototype of a product that would then require plenty more research to figure out how to fabricate it.

    In other words, it's one thing to demonstrate a prototype product, but an entirely other thing to demonstrate how you actually plan to mass produce that product, which this is!

    Of course, it's yet another thing to actually produce your production equipment and drive adoption among manufacturers, but this announement is still one major step beyond most next-gen display announcements (SED, I'm looking at you...).
    --
    Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
  4. Re:Is this for lighting or displays? by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

    a number of additional technology issues will still need to be worked out for OLED's to get widespread application usage...
    "Cheap" is a cure-all for a lot of applications. If I can swap in a new screen for $25 and 5 minutes (like a toner cartridge), then 10K hours isn't so low.
  5. Re:What Was the Cost? by Linux_ho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they say they have a production process for making something in quantity, they probably do.

    The OP wasn't arguing that GE doesn't have the production process. He/she just wasn't convinced that the process was "a breakthrough." The photo I saw looked like the LEDs were about 1 inch square each, and the attached article suggested that they were about twice as efficient per lumen as incandescent lighting. The efficiency of incandescent lighting isn't exactly hard to beat.

    Would you consider a new process for manufacturing buggy whips to be a "breakthrough?" I'm not saying it's NOT a breakthrough, (obviously this could lead to amazing display technology) but I agree with the point the OP was trying to make: it would be nice to have more details.

    --
    include $sig;
    1;
  6. Re:Organic != 'Green' by polar+red · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The problem with that equation is in calculating the true cost of something. If you just use straight dollars, the equation doesn't work. For instance, if I were to choose a fuel for my car, I'd almost certainly choose gasoline because it is cheap - but it is hard to argue that pumping non-renewable toxic goo out of the ground, spending a ton of energy refining it, and then burning it is "ecological" :) It's also much cheaper in dollars to just burn coal without any kind of pollution scrubbing... Well, that's why I included a statement about offloading onto society ... putting toxins into the air certainly has a health cost ...
    --
    Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?