Polymer Vision Produces 5" Rollable Displays 283
drquizas writes "Polymer Vision (associated with Philips) has produced a rollable display using organic electronic techniques. The display, currently measuring 5" diagonal and capable of displaying QVGA at 320x240, will eventually be targeted towards applications such as military uses (maps anyone?), newspapers and e-books."
Use (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:In a word; (Score:1, Interesting)
That way you can still flip the pages.
-Scott
Great for newspapers (Score:5, Interesting)
I realize this is already sort of possible with laptops/pda's, etc.. but there's something comforting about a convenient rolled up paper on the bus ride in. Plus it can be used to swat pesky mosquitos!
No more dead tree media (Score:3, Interesting)
Lifetime: months? (Score:5, Interesting)
Further, "the life of our organic electronics displays has been already prolonged from ?hours to months," [Bas van Rens, general manager at Polymer Vision] added.
I'm trying to figure this one out... is he saying that this cool roll-up display, with four shades of grey and readable as paper, will self destruct after a few months?
And they're so hard to produce, that he can only make 5000 a year? Just to have ten engineers running the line at $100k/yr (or one executive at $1m/yr) would make each one cost $500 bucks.
No wonder he's targeting the military. Nobody else can afford to spend $500-$1000 on displays that don't last much longer than a gallon of milk in a wet paper sack. But I can envision plenty of 100% valid military applications -- after all, if you're going to blow up a million-dollar cruise missile, why not give it a thousand-dollar configuration panel?
Ideally, of course, the military money helps get the screen into the production levels required for the consumer market. Extend the lifespan to six months and drop the cost to under $60 bucks, and people will pay $10/month for disposable e-books.
This could end up being a MAJOR problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
What about disposal? It is likely that if they are priced reasonably enough they may become just as disposable as newspaper (all right, not quite so bad) but even if only one in ten people disposed of these things after they became damaged (look how we treat our newspapers and tell me these things won't be piling up in the dump) how are we supposed to get rid of them? They likely contain a fair amount of material that is not decomposable within a reasonable amount of time. We already know that computers are adding quite a bulge to the normal waste, how would seveal million sheets of this stuff hold up (quite well I'm guessing, probably 100,000 - 500,000 years!)
This is of course only my perspective but it does give reason to pause.
Re:The only thing that worries me is SPAM (Score:3, Interesting)
[/sarcasm]
PDA Wrist Gauntlet (Score:5, Interesting)
Moving Pictures (Score:1, Interesting)
Finally what I needed. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:important factoid, (Score:3, Interesting)
Much like many newspapers
ah, but how many newspapers are 5" in diameter?
Re:Military maps? Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
Version 1.0.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Lifetime: months? (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree with you. I'm sure when they talk about "organics-based displays", they're not talking about the good kind [organicgardening.com] of "organic". The term "organic chemistry [wikipedia.org]" simply means that it's based on carbon instead of silicon. Unfortunately, the carbon compounds will be heavily doped with the same sort of toxic metals and other compounds that cause problems when disposing of traditional electronics.
But I do think the market will take off, given the right price point, for the same reason people talk on their disposable cell phones [verizon.com] while driving their modified military vehicles [ariannaonline.com]. (And as soon as you can figure out what that reason is, please let me know!)
Re:Military maps? Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
Without the map you are dead meat. With anything electronic I have to depend upon power, end of statment.
Yes we use technology. Yes it helps us. But when it counts, I want my compass and a map (and that tactical overlay).
Next step: Put the processor on flexible plastic (Score:3, Interesting)
Changing Bumper Stickers (Score:2, Interesting)
A product you might not have thought of... (Score:3, Interesting)
If you could get these things up to a lifespan of a decade, and get them in colour, you could panel a car with them.
You could also get by with pixels that are huge - say, 1 cm diameter, and still get some neat effects, like zebra stripes that move along the car in proportion to your speed.
Mimetic polycar (Score:3, Interesting)
A moving image on a moving object? Ergonomic nightmare -- that's dynamic camouflage. Guaranteed traffic accident. It'd be banned.
Mil Maps (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Military maps? Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
nice thing about solar in the desert... tends to charge batteries rather well.
invisibility cloak! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Military maps? Why? (Score:3, Interesting)
Remember too that the eInk soulutions will reduce power requirements accross the board...PDAs will use less batteries...and they are sunlite [flashlight?] readable...no battery-sucking backlights. Also, larger sizes will be soon available...far cheaper than LCDs...so you could have 36" x 36" rollable maps INSTEAD of a standard laptop or PDA screen! Remember too, an old-school palm can go almost a month on a pair of AAAs. And soon We'll have chemicaly, replentishable fuel-cells for electronics too...hopefully shipping later this year!
let the good times roll (Score:3, Interesting)
Missing the Biggest Advantage! (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously, with such a system reliability is going to be the biggest issue. The biggest advantage of these screens then is that they keep there last image even if power is lost. Thus, if there are any problems with the wifi link or power supply, they're still useful as a basic map. The biggest issue then is reduced to durability (i.e. dirt, water, shocks). While admittedly a big issue, the technology has serious potential now.