By Clay Dillow Posted 05.26.2010 at 10:44 am 16 Comments

Sony's Organic Thin-Film Transistor Screen Roll up the screen, and the video keeps on playing. Sony

We're putting things that used to be on paper on video devices, things usually associated with large video screens onto pocket-sized devices, and now Sony is putting video on a flexible OLED screen thin enough to be rolled around a pencil like a sheet of paper, without interrupting the video.

The 80-microns-thick (that's 80 millionths of a meter, or about as thick as a human hair) full-color display can be rolled up and unfurled repeatedly without degrading picture quality. It was made possible by a breakthrough in OLED tech, in which Sony researchers created organic thin-film transistors with 8 times the performance of conventional OTFTs.

More details will emerge Thursday when Sony presents the technology to Society for Information Display's 2010 symposium in Seattle. But suffice it to say, such technology points to a future where everything, even media usually associated with paper like newspapers and magazines, have the capacity to handle full color digital media. See it in action below.


16 Comments

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heinstrom
05/26/10 at 11:08 am

Didn't Samsung do this a while back?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbTO5VM6s-4

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ajohnson1986

from Sioux Falls, South Dakota

05/26/10 at 12:49 pm

Not to bash this at all because the picture quality is great and the ability to roll it like that is awesome, but what are those lines in the display? From both angles you can see different colored lines running through the display. I'd still love to have something with that capability even with the lines but they could be a bit of a distraction over time.

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saqibimran
05/26/10 at 1:05 pm

this one of my best blog i have been to , i will definitely bookmark you . thanks a lot

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polymath87
05/26/10 at 1:18 pm

Make this into a touch screen and you could take over the world. Who remembers the tv show 'Andromeda'?

Wow... I really am a SciFi dork.

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FrogOutOfaWell
05/26/10 at 1:25 pm

@Isaacnd200 link looks genuine,i.e Samsung

This look s like CG. i mean why a servo motor n all the contraption to fold the screen why not with hands as in youtube link....

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extremechiton
05/26/10 at 1:43 pm

AWESOME.

now we can have real electronic paper!
and clothes that all we have to do is download whatever graphic or color we want. THIS IS A REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!

sry... tooo much cofffeeeeeeeeee..

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All4it
05/26/10 at 1:54 pm

@FrogOutOfaWell, the servos are for endurance testing. Imagine trying to do 5 years worth of opening and closing by hand!

The technology is excellent. It's time to get it into the hands of developers.

The funny thing about all this is that all we seem to be doing is creating new and sometimes exciting ways...to do the same thing.

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FrogOutOfaWell
05/26/10 at 2:03 pm

@All4it.ok agreed
but video looks too CG,did u check out the youtube link???

Note:m not saying its not possible

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All4it
05/26/10 at 2:51 pm

@FrogOutOfaWell,

I've never seen OLED in real life so it looks real to me. In the video from 00:27 sec it seems like what I would expect a rolled up OLED to look like. The Sony and Samsung may be using slightly different manufacturing techniques.

The footage from this article is clearly of early testing and development. The Samsung looks like Beta testing or production . The durable laminate covering the Samsung may also have something to do with it's appearance.

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V3RTIGO
05/26/10 at 5:30 pm

Anybody thinking Red Planet holo-map?

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Tor
05/26/10 at 6:00 pm

Yes!!! Val Kilmer saves the day with it! Er.. well, saves himself anyhow.

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mitEj
05/27/10 at 8:00 am

@polymath87

I think you mean "Earth Final Contact" ( also by Roddenberry) and are referring to the Global hand held device, which we are getting closer to every day.

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Brian P.
05/27/10 at 10:34 am

That would be nice to have a TV/Phone/Computer that could unroll from something the size of a pen and then roll it back up and put it in your pocket! I'd buy something like that if they ever made one.

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nerd-gasm
05/29/10 at 3:00 pm

@ heinstorm

actually, samsung did create an oled screen, but not a bendable one. samsung made a transperent oled screen that was sandwich'd between to thin panes of glass. cool screen. they put it in one of their mp3 players.

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tcolguin
06/08/10 at 9:10 pm

Now if they can make them cheap, and BIG, it would be wonderful.

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starwars9671
07/01/10 at 12:26 pm

Can't wait for it to hit the shelves XD (Probably 1000s of dollars)


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