Flexible Screen Technologies

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2008 Horizon.au Short List

2008 Horizon.au Short List pdf.gif

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

Critical Challenges

Key Trends

Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years

Computer displays continue to develop in all dimensions – resolution, size (wall-size and hand-held), compactness – and now new flexible screens that can wrap around surfaces are in prototype. Related to this is the concept of electronic paper: a sheet of flexible material that both accepts input via touch and displays content. If developed fully, integrated interactive display devices like electronic paper would combine input and output in a single interface. Such technologies promise greater portability, ease of use, and economy for educational materials like textbooks and multimedia resources.

Manufacturers like Sony, Phillips, and Samsung are experimenting with prototypes of flexible and ultra-thin screens based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, in which the pixels emit their own light. The screens can be thinner, and embedded in plastic, because no separate light source is required. The technology is being used now to deliver slim television screens, but printing on flexible plastic is still in the very early prototype stage.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression

Flexible screens and electronic paper could well be paradigm-shifting developments that redefine our view of a computer, but our review of the literature indicates that they are not yet in production, and the timeline for their entry into the marketplace is unclear. At this very early stage, we could find no direct examples of how they might affect teaching and learning.

Examples

For Further Reading

Articles on Engadget Tagged with “OLED”
http://www.engadget.com/tag/oled
The articles cover prototype projects and future goals; a few products are on the market now, but they all involve slim televisions rather than flexible screens or electronic paper.

OLED-Info
http://www.oled-info.com
(Ron Mertens, editor). Established in 2004, OLED-Info is a portal for articles, research, and information about OLED technology.

Tripping the Lights Organic
http://news.cnet.com/Tripping-the-lights-organic/2100-1008_3-6111872.html
(Michael Kanellos, CNET News.com, 5 September 2006). As early as 2006, manufacturers were experimenting with OLED technology as a possible replacement for standard light bulbs.



Sandbox Discussion (July-August 2008)

Computer displays continue to develop in all dimensions -- resolution, size (wall-size and hand-held), compactness -- and now, even flexible screens that can wrap around surfaces. Related to this is the concept of electronic paper – a sheet of flexible material that both accepts input via touch and displays content. Integrated interactive display devices like electronic paper combine input and output in a single interface. Such technologies promise greater portability, ease of use, and economy for educational materials like textbooks and multimedia resources.


Why is this topic relevant to teaching, learning or creative expression?

  • Along with alternative input devices this is the other half of generating group or larger scale collaboration and interaction. (PM)
  • 3D projection - great possibilities for engineers studying objects (machines, manufactured items etc) - they can rotate and examine
  • add your thoughts here [LJ]

Please list links to local or international projects that are experimenting with or implementing this technology.

  • Folding Plica concept phone "this foldable cellie opens up to reveal a pair of touchscreens just begging to be used for web browsing, texting and photo viewing. There's also a mini-USB port and a headphone jack..."
  • HP unveils paper-thin flexible screen technology "Researchers from HP's Bristol labs have unveiled prototypes of a new display technology today that they claim can lead to very large high resolution colour displays printed on plastic. "We feel this is a substantial advance in the development of the thin, flexible displays we're all looking for," Huw Robson, manager of the Digital Media Department of HP Labs Bristol, told ZDNet UK." This was 2004-- whats happened???

Please provide links to any local or international reports, papers, or articles that either help define the topic, or that provide detailed information about it.

  • add your resource links here [LJ]

Please add any other information that may be helpful to the staff as they write up this topic.

  • Flat plastic screens that capture and share and that allow physical manipulation
  • Integrated Interactive Display Devices - e.g., MS Surface, video wall Holographic projections
  • Consolidate presence, interact in realistic situation, simulator to enhance immersive environments for example phsyical education or surgery, e-ink technologies - the progression of e-ink style technologies, and what this will mean for ease of use, transportability, economics of educational material such as textbooks, etc
  • Interactive tables and walls - for learning spaces , such as putting a computer or device on table, then it becomes the interface where groups can collaborate and work together on the physical space as interface
  • add your ideas or information here [LJ]
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