Display Technologies

The popular science fiction series Black Mirror touches on the projections of the digital world on our lives in many of its published episodes. This anthological series, which tells how we will look at black screens in the near future, through stories with dark tones, foresees some technologies that are very prone to straying from the road.

I don't know how much we will see in the next 20 years, but we are on the verge of some changes that we can describe as a "revolution" on the black mirrors front. Curved, flexible and extendable (extendable, in fact) screens, which we have been talking about aloud for the last 10 years, are becoming products. Curved screens have been in our lives for several years, especially with TV and smart phones. However, the real big improvement is the productization of paper-thin and flexible screens.

 

3D, LED, OLED, 4K, UHD

A serious trend started in the television industry in 2012. Almost all of the TVs showcased at CES in Las Vegas that year included 3D capability. At the fair in 2013, manufacturers did not highlight almost any of the new models with this aspect. A year later it became clear that this fuss was in vain. Today, most of the world has accepted that 3D TVs have failed. Since it did not find a response for the user, the manufacturers also gave up on highlighting the 3D feature.

 

Touchscreen is just fine on pocket

The science fiction movie Minority Report was engraved in the minds with the image of the lead actor Tom Cruise directing transparent computer screens with hand gestures. This image must have impressed Microsoft employees so much that they came to the conclusion that the mice we've been using all this time are unnecessary.

I won't go into details about how the system works, but it turned out that doing Tom Cruise movements for long periods of time in front of the screen is tiring and we can do things more easily with the mouse most of the time. Designing its new operating system based on touchscreens at a time when almost no one owned a touchscreen monitor, Microsoft probably hoped that users who were affected by Windows 8 would soon be promoted to touchscreen desktops and laptops, but the result was not what they expected.

Touching smartphones and tablets makes sense, but for desktop computers, touchscreens don't make much sense. All in all, while touchscreens are a great success on mobile devices, they're a complete failure on computers.

 

Transition technology in 4K AND OLED?

What will be the next technology for manufacturers to try if they can't convince most consumers to buy 3D TVs or LCD touchscreen monitors? There are some promising innovations, as well as legacy options that are reheated and re-served.

4K resolution is one of them. The problem with 4K is that unless you're looking at a 56-inch TV from less than 2.5 meters away, it's very difficult to tell the difference in quality between a 1080p and a 4K panel. You can see the difference if you come closer than two meters, but most of the viewers are looking at the TV from farther away. These little details aren't slowing down TV manufacturers, and they all quickly become partners in the 4K stream, although it would take some expensive steps to quadruple the resolution.

Despite all the expectations, the breathtaking OLED screens by offering high color accuracy could not come to the fore. There are big-budget centers doing research to make it possible to produce OLED screens more cheaply, but the majority of such panels are only used for small screens in smartphones and digital cameras.

If costs are lowered, OLED panels could become cheaper in PC monitors and TVs. In the analysis made on smartphones using OLED screens, it is seen that only the cost of the panel is close to the sum of the other parts of the phone. Therefore, if the cost of OLED panel production can be reduced, the rate of use in all devices can increase rapidly.

 

Next step: Flexible displays

Paper-thick and self-updating newspaper pages can no longer be science fiction. Electronic paper has been adorning the dreams of technology enthusiasts since the first time the concept of "electronic ink" was introduced, which adds comfort to the lives of a wide range of users with e-book readers.

Flexible paper-like screens are projects that are often envisioned but never realized. One of the companies that comes closest to bringing it to life is Corning, which produces the extra durable Gorilla Glass for smartphones. The company's Willow Glass is a highly flexible, durable and incredibly thin display that can wrap around devices or whatever is desired. A screen that can, in theory, bend, fold and continue to display like paper. It's really hard to get it right, but Corning finally seems to have succeeded. Willow Glass is only 100 microns, which is the thickness of an average sheet of paper, and supports both organic LED and LCD display technologies.

Samsung and LG have also been making flamboyant promotions about flexible displays in recent years. The flexible display LG developed six years ago is very impressive in appearance, but it is not easy to implement this brilliant idea in a practical product. Last year, Samsung introduced the world's first flexible OLED display, measuring 9.1 inches. The company also received a new patent on flexible display last month. According to the designs in the patent, the company is working on a mobile phone-sized flexible display that covers both surfaces.

The expectation in the industry is that Samsung will launch the world's first flexible display phone in 2019. In fact, the name of this model is even mentioned: Samsung Galaxy X!