Pretty soon setting up a TV will be as easy as unrolling a poster, if LG has anything to say about it.
The Korean electronics manufacturer unveiled a new kind of big-screen display that is ultra-thin and rolls up, and it expects to put the tech into TVs by 2017.
Flexible displays have been around for years, but LG Display has taken the concept up a couple of notches with these two new 18-inch OLED panels, each with 1,200 x 800 resolution. Not only are they relatively large, but each can be rolled up tightly to a radius of just 1.2 inches without affecting the display at all.
A roll-up set could have a tremendous impact on TV shipping and storage. Today, big-screen TVs are often shipped via cargo services since they’re too big to be delivered affordably by regular mail.
“Flexible TVs could be delivered in tubes.”
One of the displays is even transparent. Again, this isn’t the first transparent screen, but LG says it’s achieved an impressive 30% transmittance, which is a step up from the 10% transmittance of previous transparent screens based on LCD tech. That means users will be able to see objects behind the display more clearly, which could be useful in some situations.
LG was able to build the bodacious bendy displays by using a polymer as the backplane of the panel instead of conventional plastic. The polymer both increased the flexibility of the OLED panel and reduced its thickness.
With the new tech LG says it’s confident it’ll be able to build a 60-inch 4K TV that’s both transparent and flexible by 2017. While building something and bringing it to market are two different things, the company’s new tech is a big step forward on the road to thinner, transparent and flexible screens. And maybe someday soon, lifting a big-screen TV onto a stand will no loner be a two-man job.
Leave a reply