Bridgestone announces flexible touchscreen color e-reader

Posted in ebooks by Conner Flynn on October 27th, 2009

Bridgestone announces flexible touchscreen color e-readerBack in April we heard that Bridgestone was getting into the e-paper biz and it looks like they are still making progress. The company’s all-color touchscreen e-book reader is based on what Bridgestone calls Quick-response Liquid Powder and is about 5.8mm thick.

It features a 13.1-inch touch-sensitive e-paper display with 4,096 colors that has a refresh rate of about 0.8 seconds. It also boasts mobile phone connectivity. The biggest news here is that the entire thing is designed to bend. Everything from the circuit board, touchscreen, and housing.

Rubber OLED developed for flexible, stretchable screens

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on May 11th, 2009

Rubber OLED developed for flexible, stretchable screensElectrical engineering researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a flexible, stretchable OLED that acts like rubber. It doesn’t tear or break when stretched. They produce the material by spraying a layer of carbon nanotubes with a fluoro-rubber compound, which creates a rubbery, conducive material.

At 10-centimeters square, the current monochrome display prototype has a resolution of just 256 pixels and can apparently be folded about 1,000 times with out degrading, falling apart, or tearing. In short, our future may be filled with rubber bouncing balls that have OLED screens.

Shinoda flexible display

Posted in Television by Conner Flynn on May 7th, 2009

Shinoda flexible displayThe Shinoda flexible display is a unique display that is capable of High Definition video despite its curved shape. This is possible thanks to its underlying plasma tube (PTA) technology and the intricate stitching of panels together to form a nearly seamless 3:2 display, making it possible to reach the 720p vertical resolution.

The Shinoda flexible weighs just 16 pounds and they are very close to mass producing such panels. So hopefully we will be seeing these in homes very soon.

Wrist-worn flexible OLED prototype

Posted in OLED by Conner Flynn on January 6th, 2009

Wrist-worn flexible OLED prototypeFlexible OLED displays are becoming more commonplace everyday. They just need to make it into some of the devices we can buy. However long it may take, when that day arrives, Universal Display Corporation thinks something like the gadget above will be a part of it.

It’s a wearable, flexible, 4-inch prototype screen that CES attendees will be able to drool over, maybe even wipe clean and try on. Just don’t expect to wear it comfortably. It won’t be in stores anytime soon either. This one was developed with military applications in mind, but bendy consumer devices are on the way at some point. Give it a few years and we will start seeing them in passports, clothing, packaging etc.

Flexicord is a coiled HDMI Cable, always the perfect length

Posted in HDMI by Conner Flynn on December 29th, 2008

Flexicord is a coiled HDMI Cable, always the perfect lengthSometimes solutions are so simple and elegant, you wonder why no one figured it out until now. That’s the case with the Flexicord HDMI cable featuring a patented Memory Cord Technology. It will debut at CES 2009 and help consumers to always have the right cable length to hook up their gadgets.

Pretty novel idea. And simple too. Sometimes coiled cable can be a problem with too much slack, but the company says that it can bend anywhere along its length and hold the angle indefinitely. It’s like those bendy action figures. You know the ones you pose, that stay in whatever position you leave them in.

Nokia’s flexible cellphone rolls up, stretches

Posted in Concepts by Conner Flynn on February 25th, 2008

Nokia’s flexible cellphone
Nokia’s new Morph concept phone is a futuristic beauty. The idea is that it would use nanotechnology to give it a flexible body with a transparent display. It would feature the ability to re-shape itself to the user’s needs, which is a quantum leap away from today’s solid and chunky phones.

The electronics inside would be transparent and flexible as well, so that the whole phone could be twisted and stretched into bracelet shapes or even a tablet. Thanks to nanotech, it would even clean itself. It was developed with some help from Cambridge University, and can be seen at the MoMA in New York. One day even this will seem obsolete, but for now, it’s the future. The future looks awesome.





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