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Sony Shows Off Paper-Thin Color Display

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

May 25, 2007, 4:37 PM

Sony debuted an innovative new bendable 2.5-inch display, one that is less than 0.01 inch thick -- not much thicker than a piece of paper -- and can display full-color video.

Sony's Paper-thin Color Display The Japanese electronics maker released video of its latest innovation on Friday, showing the flexibility and capabilities of the display. Sony isn't quite sure how it will be used, but it could have a variety of applications.

Displays could be integrated into signs and advertisements, or worn like clothing. The displays could even help today's multimedia playback devices shrink even further. No commercial applications have been officially announced.

Sony researchers say that the screen is virtually unbreakable, and the elasticity of the device is what makes it so innovative. Neither LCD nor plasma screen technologies in their current form can reproduce the display's characteristics.

Paper-thin display technologies are nothing new. A host of other companies are working on such projects for a variety of uses, such as updatable newspapers and the like. However, it appears Sony's entrant is the first to be able to incorporate a full-color display.

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By horsecharles

posted May 30, 2007 - 8:02 AM

Ooh, this is just what we need to win decisively in Iraq.

Score: 0

By nightops

posted May 29, 2007 - 11:35 AM

YES! Now I can wipe my arse with Nancy Pelosi!

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted May 29, 2007 - 12:54 PM

Now there's a use I can get behind. :p

Score: 0

By PostDeals

posted May 28, 2007 - 7:25 PM

So how much money are we betting it catches on fire? Please don't incorporate the display on T-Shirts otherwise you will truly have "people on fire"

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 29, 2007 - 6:45 AM

Actually, that's a point.
How does this thing get its power?

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted May 28, 2007 - 2:23 AM

This tech has been up-and-coming for a while now: it would be great if someone actually got it off the ground and started mass-marketing. Who's better at marketing than Sony? (other than Microsoft ;))

This demo is a little low on the resolution (160x120) and has some imperfections, but really shows the potential of the technology. I'm only thinking 'small', but what I'd really want to buy is one of Sony's OLED fixed screens: either for PC use or TV. Question remains as the whether Sony can create high-resolution screens with OLED yet, or whether they'll attack the low-res TV market first.

Score: 0

By indoguys

edited May 28, 2007 - 1:22 AM

What about LCD spray or paint?
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/6/5/2/1

Or this one

http://www.geckoandfly.c...gphilips-paper-thin-lcd/

Score: 0

By Pachilles

posted Jun 5, 2007 - 5:55 PM

ooh! An LCD tattoo comes to mind!

Score: 0

By ladylust

posted May 27, 2007 - 6:44 PM

Everyone is talking MP3 and Cellphones.. How about Entire Walls covered in this stuff... Even if the response time is slow - It would be amazing for Full walls with shifting wallpapers and such.

Score: 0

By melkor

posted May 27, 2007 - 2:17 PM

Depending how quickly it updates it might be useful for a HUD.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted May 27, 2007 - 2:04 AM

I never thought I'd say this but hats off to Sony. That is absolutely amazing.

Score: 0

By Frostek

edited May 27, 2007 - 7:18 AM

Sony isn't really one company. For the people who hate Sony, I generally ask "Which division?".

A very small example - Sony Music sells CDs, which their electronics branch can copy with their burning technology. Do you think their music branch likes that?

Many branches are so diverse that they have been in competition with each other for some decades now.

Score: 0

By Neoprimal

posted May 27, 2007 - 1:56 AM

This will be revolutionary for mobile devices if Sony chooses to license the technology. Very, very cool.

Score: 0

By Babylon2x

posted May 26, 2007 - 10:15 PM

You know me, I'm a critic of just about everyone and everything... and I think this is brilliant.

Score: 0

By foxfyre

posted May 26, 2007 - 6:04 PM

I can't(sic) wait for the Tshirts...

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted May 26, 2007 - 10:49 AM

smarterthanyou has a good point below--LCD's break easily enough, these "paper-thin" displays will break easily. Just another sony innovation that is awesome on paper (pardon the pun), but sucks in reality.

Score: 0

By pspnerdnick25

edited May 28, 2007 - 11:50 AM

you're a total noob. they were bending the entire screen you idiot. Also, what sony products do you think sucked? i think sony is amazing

Score: 0

By dlab21

posted May 26, 2007 - 2:02 PM

did you read it or just read the comments and make up an opinon?
"Sony researchers say that the screen is virtually unbreakable, and the elasticity of the device is what makes it so innovative."
yea i guess it'll crack if winds hits it... foolish sony with trying to be innovative... new formats.. new hardware.. what are they thinking?

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted May 29, 2007 - 2:22 PM

Sure. The virtually unbreakable part I do find hard to believe, but it can still be scratched easily I'd imagine.

If it's paper-thin, it'll break easily. Not even silk is hard to break when it's 0.01 inches thick.

Score: 0

By klavc

edited May 26, 2007 - 6:25 AM

i feel quite bad for your limited imagination for what cool things such technology could be used... displays, monitors, tvs,... come one is that really all you can come up with? thing big! what about having all of your car exterior (what is normally painted) coved with such a display layer. or why stop by a small car, why not the full house or even bigger, the full office building... :D some cool and "live" design ideas come in to my mind... ;)

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 26, 2007 - 7:05 AM

See my comment.

Make stuff invisible.

Score: 0

By klavc

edited May 26, 2007 - 10:16 AM

yes, that is an more exciting idea indeed, personally however i don't know how this could be done. having some thin to display a picture is one thing, but how would you get the exact picture of the environment behind it. ok with an camera, of course :) but IMO that would still not be very realistic or at least you would get an good "invisible" effect only from one angle (straight forward). IMO the big problem here is to get different picture from different point of view (angle) and i have some doubts that this is possible to do.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 26, 2007 - 11:51 AM

Everything's possible (tm)

Score: 0

By bigsexy022870

posted May 26, 2007 - 2:43 AM

There really may be no limit to what this can be used for. Once the tech is perfected it could replace tv altogether. Forget have a projector like some do. But give it a few to many years to get the ball rolling.

Score: 0

By smarterthanyou

posted May 26, 2007 - 1:47 AM

Wouldn't an OLED screen scratch easier than LCD?

Score: 0

By lvthunder

posted May 26, 2007 - 1:28 AM

Yeah I think this is headed for cell phones. How many people do you know have cracked the screen on the phone. If they are low enough power you might also see them in those digital picture frames too.

Score: 0

By Hellcat_M

posted May 25, 2007 - 10:59 PM

I was thinking more of communication devices. Having a phone that the screen rolls out. Anyone remember the communication devices they used on Earth Final Conflict?

Score: 0

By _jaz_

posted May 25, 2007 - 6:27 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7QbQugXy1A (It's the demonstration of it, or at least one of them)

Score: 0

By Steve Austin

posted May 25, 2007 - 5:54 PM

Hang on, where is the Sony slagging??

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted May 27, 2007 - 2:52 AM

Steve, Go over and hang out with DaveBG over at blu-ray.com. The posts he makes over there are worse than the ones he makes here. You would fit in perfectly over there.

Score: 0

By siryak

posted May 26, 2007 - 11:30 AM

Umm....Looks like a cool technology. I will be interested to see what it can do.

Not everybody is a rabid fanboy like you Steve. I judge by the product not the company.

Score: 0

By kashin

posted May 26, 2007 - 4:26 AM

Just because a lot of people hate the PS3 and the Blu-ray crap attached to it, doesn't mean they hate EVERYTHING Sony makes. Stop trying to make it seem like you either have to hate everything about Sony or you have to be a Sony cheerleader. There *is* a middle ground.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 25, 2007 - 6:12 PM

Hehe. I thought that too.
It's far too funny coming from you though.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited May 25, 2007 - 5:30 PM

refresh?

response time??

Hello???

There's very little news here, folks.

Must...have....more....info....

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 25, 2007 - 5:14 PM

0.254mm

Goodness.

We could be seeing the whole invisible man thing soon, with projections of what's behind the person on the front of their clothes.

/glee

Score: 0

By Diam0nd

posted May 25, 2007 - 4:58 PM

omfg

Score: 0

By phenomnaruto

posted May 25, 2007 - 4:50 PM

wow that could be used in the implementation of close to razor thing laptops .... take that apple.

Score: 0

By wout000

edited May 27, 2007 - 12:48 PM

Already there mate....

http://www.businessweek....7/tc20070523_272039.htm

Score: 0

By NULLedge

posted May 25, 2007 - 5:57 PM

laptops? try mp3 players. its a 2.5" display. this would be far more useful for something you'd put in your pocket that you drop a lot. iphone ready? would be super cool to have an even thinner iphone or video ipod width a larger display. maybe they made it to shrink their next gen PSP. who knows. At that size and for the durability comments, I don't think laptops are the intended application, but more so the pocket sized gizmos of tomorrow

Score: 0

By ptksr

posted May 26, 2007 - 10:25 PM

I can see this for those applications, initially. Then they'd end up replacing regular full-sized LCD screens, I'm sure. (assuming nothing else is on its way) Of course that depends on power usage and life of the screen, among other things that PC_Tool said.

Score: 0

By shicaca

posted May 27, 2007 - 12:22 AM

We kind of also have to see how fast they can update ... if it's something that takes three seconds to realign the pixels, then it's not going to be the optimal item for anything but MP3 players/the like. ... laptops would be absolutely out of the question -- unless it's a laptop that is ONLY for business items.

Score: 0

By Mikey21001

posted May 27, 2007 - 11:40 PM

One thing to keep in mind for these displays is that they are NEW.. as they refine them, and go into 2nd gen and 3rd the refresh rates will increase, and the dpi on them will increase.. this is something to watch closely, as 1st gen of pretty much ANYTHING is the "Look at me!" stage..

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted May 29, 2007 - 9:19 AM

the refresh rates will increase, and the dpi on them will increase..

Increase from what???

That's my point. We don't even know what it is yet on these things. Ya know, the kind of info that would make this a news story instead of a PR release.

Score: 0

By ptksr

posted May 27, 2007 - 2:37 AM

Hence my "along with the other things PC_Tool said", those being: "refresh?; response time??"

Score: 0

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