Blog Posts Coming Soon to a Flexible Plastic Display Near You

Posted on December 7, 2005

The hope that blog posts may soon be viewable on flexible plastic displays may soon be realized. Plastic Logic has released a protoype of a flexible display using e-ink technology.

Simon Jones, VP of Business Development for Plastic Logic, says in a statement, "Glass based active-matrix displays like your laptop screen are heavy and fragile. They cannot address many applications in mobile devices and retail signage where there is a strong market demand for large, thin and unbreakable screens. Plastic Logic's approach of printing transistors on plastic is the first commercially attractive solution to meet this market need. The flexibility of the display even allows a pressure sensor to be placed under the screen to implement a touchscreen without compromising the optical performance of the display. Plastic Logic's new capability will trigger a wave of product innovation enabled by thin and flexible plastic displays."

Wired's Gear Factor blog says the new technology looks like it might almost match newsprint quality.

Plastic Logic announced this morning that it has produced the world's largest flexible display. Measuring 10 inches diagonally, this screen has a resolution of 600 x 800 pixels with four levels of grayscale, which -- judging from the image here -- ought to be just about enough to match the quality of black-and-white newsprint. As limited as this technology looks at the moment, we're impressed that it's come this far this fast.

Soon someone will get your latest blog post on a funky flexible display. It may take this type of technology to reach the demographic that doesn't bother surfing the web for blogs -- those lazy daily newspaper readers. E-Ink is also working on flexible displays using electronic ink.