Samsung,
at CES 2013, showed off several in-development Youm smartphone and tablet
screens made of thin, bendable plastic, rather than glass. Samsung, as
promised, used its time on stage at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show to show
off bendable-screen technology that's being developed with future smartphones,
tablets and more in mind. Microsoft was also on hand, showing a research
project for its Xbox Kinect that makes video games look like they extend beyond
the edges of a TV screen onto the walls and floor.
The
displays will be marketed under a new brand called "Youm," which
"doesn't just bend the rules of display technologies," a delighted
Stephen Woo, president of Samsung Device Solutions, told the audience during
the show's final major keynote. "It completely rewrites them."
Brian
Berkeley, senior vice president of the Samsung San Jose Display Lab, showed off
two Youm products. The first was a seemingly hard little square, out of which
came a thin, bendable piece of plastic—roughly the size of a smartphone
display—that acted as a crisp, bright screen on which advertising was running.
The plastic moved like a thick photo negative, bending one way and the other
and capable of being rolled up, but not designed to be bent.
Organic
light-emitting diode (OLED) displays compete with liquid crystal displays
(LCDs). OLEDs, said Berkeley, deliver a superior image quality, with "much
deeper blacks and more vivid colors." They're also super-thin and
lightweight, he explained, and because they produce their own light, they don't
need a backlight, which adds weight and depth to a device.
"Now,
they can be flexible, as well," said Berkeley, adding, "Our team was
able to make a high-resolution display on extremely thin plastic, instead of
glass, so it won't break, even if it's dropped." Berkeley returned the
first device to a large display area on the stage and then—smiling and pausing
for a moment, like a knowing, tech-world Neil Armstrong about to take a leap
for mankind—pulled from his pocket a small, tablet-like device, which featured
a screen that wrapped around the side of the device.
"With
this bended display, we have expanded the canvas available for content. Content
can now flow along the sides of the device," said Berkeley. "If I
receive an important message, I can see it come through while the device is
flat on the table in front of me. ... It opens up new lifestyle possibilities
... and will allow our partners to create a whole new ecosystem of devices with
blended, foldable and rollable screens."
Woo
then cued a playful short film in which Samsung offered ideas about products
that might emerge from the technology. One device looked similar to the Samsung
Galaxy S III smartphone—and could indeed be used as a phone—but was actually
something of a sandwich that, when opened and set down flat, became a tablet
with twice the viewing area of the smartphone.
Microsoft
is also getting in on the act. Eric Rudder, its chief technology strategy
officer, came on stage to show a Microsoft Research project called IllumiRoom,
which builds on its Xbox Kinect and projects light on the walls and floor of a
room, to make video games look like they extend beyond the edges of the screen.
A
second device resembled a thin digital recorder—or even the Nokia
"lipstick phone," for those with long memories. When it rang, its fashionable
young owner touched a button that sent a large, thin display—much like the one
Berkeley showed off, but bigger—shooting out the side. The devices won each of
their owners—the second replacing the first at a busy cafe table—the attentions
of a pretty patron sitting close by. Nokia and Apple have also been connected
to reports of flexible screens. Whichever company can bring one to market first
is likely to win.
