Sunday, June 3, 2007

Sony's stepping up in the display race

With it's bendable thin screen. This screen is paper thin piece of plastic (well plastic thin then), so it won't break if dropped. And it is reminiscent of sci-fi movies such as minority report where the screens are transparent. This one however has the added bonus of being bendable. This means that all sorts of shapes can now be surrounded by pixelated real estate. Going beyond the clothing applications of such technology, with the introduction of a touchscreen panel this could go very far. Any surface becomes a tactile, interactive interface that can fulfil a purpose.
The technology involved in making these screens has been around for a while. I've heard of it about 5 years back when the Kodak labs were researching the capacity to emit luminescent colour from a chemical reaction generated by insects such as the firefly. It's only now that we are seeing some actual results. In fact it looks like these screens are brighter and more detailed then the conventional LCD. Because the technology here is chemical and organic in nature, researches have been having trouble increasing the size if these screens for a while, but it seems to be finally happening. The OLED screens that are emerging now should see that all our screens in the future are just a piece of plastic. Awesome.
Devices could range from patient health monitors to gaming industry's newest controller revolution: the hand. If there was a console (let's bank for PlayStation 5) that comes with 2 pieces of transparent plastic. This moulds to any surface, your forearm, leg, the couch, and it displays touchable controls that conform to a standard of course, but may be altered by the software to have additional buttons, sliders and controllers. This does take away from the whole 'button' experience, but I think it is adaptable. Hope it's better for the gaming RSI too.

No comments: