Flexible Displays Closer to Reality, Thanks to U.S. Army

Oct. 30, 2008— -- Imagine a screen so thin, light and flexible that it can be rolled up and carried in your pocket, while consuming almost zero power.

That technology could become reality in two to three years, thanks to U.S. Army-backed research being done at Arizona State University's Flexible Display Center. According to Army researchers, the displays could be in field trials with soldiers as early as 2010 or 2011.

"The Army's motivation is to give soldiers the best situational awareness," says David Morton, U.S. Army research laboratory manager for the center. "Flexible display technology can enable us give soldiers information in ways we can't now."

These flexible displays have been the dream of science fiction authors, wearable-computing enthusiasts and the display industry for nearly a decade. LG Philips, Fujitsu and Sony have shown off prototypes of flexible-display systems, while startups such as Plastic Logic and E-Ink have talked about the possibility of putting their digital ink displays onto bendable backings. But so far the idea has remained more in the realm of Minority Report than the real world.

The research center, formed through a partnership between the the Army Research Laboratory and the university, has been working on creating flexible displays since 2004. So far, the U.S. Army has invested nearly $44 million toward the research.

"We are now at a point where we are making where making high quality tech demonstrative panels," says Gregory Raupp, director for the center.

The Army is interested in small displays that can be folded up, have very little weight and won't break. They will allow the military to send greater information to soldiers and replace many of the bulky devices that they carry currently.

For instance, a soldier in the field could get information about the surroundings, the position of enemies or the blueprint of a building he or she may be planning to enter. Other applications could include the use of the flexible displays as maps.

Flexible displays -- when they arrive -- will be a big leap from today's liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and even organic light-emitting diode-based displays (OLEDs).