Roll Up TV & LCD Screens

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040805.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040805.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Some futures take longer to arrive than others. Back in 2001, I wrote about a company called Rolltronics that was working on adapting roll-to-roll printing technology to the production of amorphous semiconductors on plastic films. Their goal was a $15 PC that could literally be printed on a press like a newspaper with different layers for battery, motherboard, graphics controller, display, keyboard, etc. Well, the company is still working toward that dream, but the more variables you try to change at once, the longer it takes and the more risk you have to accept. So on its way to the future, Rolltronics decided to make a few bucks by applying some of these ideas just to displays and the results look to be amazing.<br /><br />We're talking not just about displays that are cheaper to make (perhaps a third the cost of current technology), but that are flexible and paper-thin. Lower prices can lead to market acceptance, but what people really like is something that looks brand new and opens up new application possibilities, and the new Rolltronics displays promise to do that. Imagine an HDTV you take home under your arm in a cardboard shipping tube and attach to your wall with thumbtacks or carpet tape."<br /><br />I've read about flexible screens before, but I didn't realize how close we are to seeing them come to market. Most of this article is above my head (I heard several "whooshing" sounds when I was reading it), but the basic premise is clear, and if it comes to pass (always a big "if" in the tech world), display technology will never be the same again - we'll have "stick" PDAs and phones with a roll-out screen, massive HDTV screens that take up hardly any space at all...the possibilities are enormous. This is some very cool stuff!

[David Horn]

It's not so much the fact that it's roll-upable to me, it's that it's bi-stable. That means no power is required to hold the image, unlike modern TFT displays. (Possible exception being the SPV Smartphone, mine would hold about half the content if you whipped the battery off.)

Imagine a Pocket PC that's "on" all the time. Just fire it up for a few microseconds to update the screen every ten minutes, and it will show your schedule throughout the entire day; easily readable if there's sufficient light around. Also, if power is only needed to flip aspects of the display, you'd increase your battery costs substantially, as unless you're playing a game or watching a movie, a Pocket PC screen stays predominantly the same colour.

[Crocuta]

It's not so much the fact that it's roll-upable to me, it's that it's bi-stable. That means no power is required to hold the image, unlike modern TFT displays. (Possible exception being the SPV Smartphone, mine would hold about half the content if you whipped the battery off.)

Yeah, that part caught my attention to. I have this image of putting a beautiful picture up on my wall-sized TV just before turning it off and having it stay that way until I turn it on again with no impact on my power bill. Or perhaps they'll just build in something that turns it on every couple of hours, changes the image, and turns it back off.

Plus having the marginal cost per unit area decline with size is an incredible thing for consumers. (Right now it increases geometrically.) Of course that doesn't mean a larger one will cost less than a smaller one in absolute terms, but it would change all of your purchasing decisions if the difference between 50" and 60" were less than the difference between 40" and 50", etc. If this stuff pans out (okay, a big 'if'), we could all be watching small theater size, plasma quality movies in our homes within a decade... and using communications devices that fold away like the ones on Earth: Final Conflict. 0X