Samsung Claims Largest Flexible Screen LCD

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=25354' target='_blank'>http://www.anandtech.com/news/shown...ws.aspx?i=25354</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The folks over at Samsung claim that they have developed the world's largest flexible LCD screen. The screen measures 7" diagonally and has a resolution of 640x480. The flexible transparent plastic used in the TFT-LCD may allow the screens to be used in clothing (we're in for it now!!!)...The seven-inch, 640x480 (VGA-standard) flexible display uses a transparent plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more durable than the conventional LCD glass panels used today. Moreover, the full-color transmissive LCD panel maintains a constant thickness even when it is bent."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall-20051201-samsung.jpg" /><br /><br />Interesting reports of Samsung's new toy. I don't know about this one though - I can't think of a single piece of clothing that I'd want to put a screen in. After all, why would I ever want to sit around and watch my pants? :wink: Now put this thing into something useful, and I'll be drooling! :way to go:

[PDANEWBIE]

I wonder if it has any special wash instructions I.E. machine wash cold and only air dry?

Seriously though I can see a few applications - Advertising companies can use these to put on their promoters, People can start selling realestate space on their clothes (you know like the people that wrap their cars for money from the advertisers) - And so on and so fourth....

Make it 16:9 and add some higher resolution and you could have some bitchin movie parties - Lets all gather around Buffy and watch her chest. I hear she is going to play the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on it today ;)

In all not daily practical but still a nice idea for those 'special occassions".

[rhelwig]

I know a bunch of political types that would love to have t-shirts made with this.

One guy I know has enough sloganned t-shirts to cover him for more than a month.

Of course, I think it would be far more valuable as a screen extender for my PDA. Make it 16:9 as already suggested, and 1600x900 or so and you've really got something worth rolling up and carrying along.

[jmulder]

What about tents? 'Roughing it' has gotten considerable less rough, so why not put a large flexible screen into a tent wall?

Seat covers for cars?

Depending on the size, I could see convention centers putting up large screens without paying specialty moving companies not to break their precious 24 foot TV. Just roll up the screen and toss it in the van.

What about conference rooms that have InFocus' now? No InFocus, just the screen that could roll up.

The size needs to increase, but there are plenty of uses...

[cjhp]

If the size and quality are there why not use it in a laptop. Increased durability and lighter weight. Instead of carrying around an 8lb 15 inch widescreen laptop you could carry around a 6.5lb 15 inch wide screen laptop with a less fragile screen.

I like the tent idea but then all of the campsite are going to have to be wired for cable unless someone comes up with a fabric satellite. ;-)

[PDANEWBIE]

I like the tent idea but then all of the campsite are going to have to be wired for cable unless someone comes up with a fabric satellite.

I donno how far off this really could be from reality.. they have satellite TV for your car now, usually someone takes a vehicle with them camping, they also have in-door wireless TV where you have a base station that beams the channel you want to the TV. All you need is to tie the satellite of the car to the base station and then hook up the reciever portion to the video screen and BAM.... "Roughing it" watching The Golden Girls (that is roughing it BTW :) )

[PDANEWBIE]

If the size and quality are there why not use it in a laptop

Currently its not there with only VGA graphics... but if they made the graphics better I can easily see this falling into the laptop use catergory. Of course you never know what the manufacturing costs of this vrs standard LCD's are to help know if your going to have to actually pay MORE for a laptop with a more resiliant screen (I am assuming this is resiliant since its flexible).

[Felix Torres]

Sandwich it between two pieces of acrylic to create a tabletPC you can (safely) give to a four-year old. :)

[davea0511]

I don't think this was intended for use solely as apparel. In fact there are hundreds of reasons why a flexible panel like this should be useful - especially in ultra-rugged laptops and PDA's.

Plus it could redefine pen-computing, where the screen is rolled up in the pen.

It could make dualscreen technology on clamshells a breeze too, with no seam in the middle. Need to view that webpage in a larger format on your PDA? No problem, just pull that tab on the left to roll your 640x480 display out to an 800x600 display.

Then there's the whole round thing. PDA screens should be curved so they hug your thigh and don't look like a bulky brick. You can't do that with conventional screens - you need this.

wrap this screen all the way around a cell phone with a camera and both the person being pictured and you can see the resulting image at the same time.

the doors this opens are plentiful.

[Mark Johnson]

Think what this will do for flight simulators. I'm not talking about the cheap home-user ("Look ma, I can fly a cessa over the grand canyon on my Dell") stuff, I mean the kind that Boeing would have to mock-up a new plane.

Those "multi-million dollar" simulated cockpit mock-ups don't just have flat-screens that replace the windows directly, they have real windows with a big "dead space" on the outside and scenery displayed on screens further away. Getting multiple monitors/lcd projector to "seemlessly meet" on those "distant walls" has to be a really big challenge, so curved LCD's would be huge for this.