Sony on a Roll

So you fancy rolling out a screen so thin it can be wrapped around a pencil?



Sony has announced a rollable full colour 4.1" OLED display that can be wrapped around a cylinder. The screen is so flexible and robust it can be repeatedly rolled up and has a resolution of 432x240 pixels.

The new OLED screens are coming but the question now is whether they can be touch sensetive or have to be fixed to a keyboard. Sony has the technology but has yet to show its application within the mobile device market. Imagine a small mobile that rolls out to be a big media player and still fits into the pocked. Its interesting that as technology gets better and smaller and applications improve we still have this fixed size screen, desire to key in.

Light Up Everything With OLED

We have reported several times on OLED (organic light emitting diodes) technology and how it could outperform eInk. So it was very interesting to read today about OLED being used to create "light emitting wallpaper" that could replace traditional light bulbs in a few years!

LOMOX, a Welsh company has been developing the technology and has been awarded a £454,000 grant from the Carbon Trust to get it into use in homes, business and on even on the roads.

The technology has wide usages such as televisions, computers and mobile phone displays but can also be coated onto a thin flexible film to cover walls like wallpaper. It needs a very low operating voltage and can be powered by solar panels or batteries. It is expected that outdoor applications could be the first to appear and remove the need for signs to be powered by the mains.

Lomox has developed chemicals which they believe can allow low-energy devices to be developed at economic rates which should replace existing technology. They claim that you can paint it on a wall or wallpaper and enable it to glow with light. It could make the phrase ceiling lighting real!

With close to 20% of all the UK's electricity being used for lighting and with OLEDs offering significant efficient over standard energy-saving lightbulbs the real potential is significant.

eInk and Chips

Today the cost of eInk devices is still high and although it is falling the drop is not sufficient to engage mass adoption. The devices are gaining consumer visibility, however when we look hard at them they clearly lack that iPod , Walkman iconic moment a point not lost on the consumer. The true tipping point toward eInk and the myriad of ‘lookie likie’ devices is becoming less likely as we see hybrid devices that combine two screens, the emergence of the Google online model and the emergence of better screen quality and applications on mobiles. This is nothing to do with ebooks it is to do with the devices or how we expect consumers to read them.

This week E Ink Corp., the prime developer of the greyscale "electronic paper" technology used in the majority of the current eBooks and Freescale Semiconductor, the Austin-Texas-based provider of eBook processors and have announced that they are collaborating. The objective is to develop a chip solution which integrates Freescale's i.MX processor technology with E Ink's Vizplex display controller.

Why this is important is that it starts to shift the economics of much of the technology into mass production and creates a standard base that can both lower cost of units and facilitate further innovation re tablet, laptop notebook PCs. However, the question is still whether eInk is a long term solution or a short term fix. Will technologies such as OLED overtake it? Will it ever produce acceptable levels of colour? Will the current crop of eReaders be sitting in landfill sites in 5 years time?

Sony Flexible Full Color Paper Screen

For those who have yet to see OLED flexible screen technology