Researchers Create Bendable Touch Sensor

Researchers Create Affordable, Bendable Touch Sensor

Researchers at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, are working on flexible, stretchable touch sensors that could make the next generation of touchscreen devices bendable.

Sensors are already being used that can detect touch or a hovering finger, and there are also sensors that are foldable, transparent, and stretchable. The work at UBC combines all those features into one package.

To create the sensor, a highly conductive gel is inserted between layers of bendable silicone. The process casts an electrical field above the sensor that can detect touch even while bent. In addition, the materials used in the process are low in cost, making it attractive for use in a wide range of products.

The research, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, is part of a larger effort to create robotic skins that could make human-robot interactions safer.

This video (below) from the UBC Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers a closer look at the material used to create the sensor.

New Polymer Could Change E-Reading

E-reading may be about to take a giant step forward. Researchers in Sweden have created a new material called power paper that can be formed into thin flexible displays storing an enormous amount of content.

One sheet of power paper has the capacity to store as much as 1 farad, or the same amount of information store by supercapacitors currently on the market. In addition, the material can be recharged hundreds of times and recharging only takes seconds to complete.

The cellulose material already set a world record for simultaneous conductivity for ions and electrons. It still must be developed at industrial scale to be practical, but has the potential to be used in folding or rollable screens and horizontal display technology.

“We could end up with e-paper devices that are actually paper thin, foldable, or rollable, and yet still fully powered,” wrote Paul St. John Mackintosh in a blog post for TeleRead.

Graphene Back in Flexible-Display News

A new technique to manufacture graphene could lead to a new era for electronic displays, according to a report published by a team of researchers from the University of Glasgow. Graphene is a thin layer of carbon that is more than 200 times stronger than steel, conducts heat and electricity, and is nearly transparent.

By using the ultrasmooth copper foils found in lithium-ion batteries, researchers were able to drive down production costs from $115 per square meter to $1. Devices using the graphene sheets performed better in tests.

“Large-scale and low-cost synthesis of high-quality graphene films and the compatibility of our method to the roll-to-roll fabrication would open an avenue through the realization of graphene-based flexible optoelectronic systems such as cellphones with roll-up displays, e-paper, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, as well as medical patches that can be attached to the skin,” the researchers wrote in their report.

Graphene has been touted as the material that would become the e-reader display of the future before. The difference this time is the focus on display applications and the cost of the process, according to a report in TeleRead.

Graphene May Be Key to Flexible Electronics

Samsung may be on the verge of a game-changer when it comes to wearable technology. Researchers from the company reported in Science that they have discovered a way to create graphene in a single wafer layer.

Graphene is an ultrathin flexible material that is about 200 times stronger than steel, but also very expensive and difficult to produce, according to a report in VentureBeat. Prior to the Samsung discovery, graphene crystals had to be stacked to make large amounts, which also reduced its electrical conductivity.

An inexpensive method for producing graphene would make wearable devices stronger, thinner, and more flexible. It would also position Samsung at the front of the technology.

Graphene, discovered in 2004, is made by shaving simple graphite into transparent sheets of carbon atoms. One ounce is enough to cover 28 football fields and its possible uses are only limited by the imagination of the researcher.

There are also reports that Apple is on the graphene bandwagon, working with the material to power its next generation of iPhones or iPad smartcovers by integrating solar technology. 

Flexible Screen Technology on Display at CES

Plastic Logic and flexible-screen devices re-emerged last week during the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, although the technology still doesn’t appear to be ready for prime time. Plastic Logic and Intel partnered with the Queen’s University Human Media Lab to introduce PaperTab, a 10.7-in. tablet device that users control by moving or bending, according to a report in Campus Technology.

PaperTab can offer a viewing angle of nearly 180 degrees and can bend to act as if the user is turning a page. It also allows for more than one unit to transfer documents by touch or proximity and work together as windows of a single application. However, the device was only built as a model.

“PaperTab is a concept design created by Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab using Plastic Logic’s flexible displays,” a spokesperson for Plastic Logic told Campus Technology. “As such, it is not a finished device intended for release, but much more a vision of how computing will develop over the next three to five years.”

Samsung, a company that has been working on flexible-screen technology for more than a decade, also showed its Youm line of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display devices with wraparound screens that can be used as a smartphone and opened to form a tablet with twice the screen size. It also requires further research before coming to market because OLEDs can disintegrate when exposed to air and moisture.

“The difficulty isn’t making the screen work, it’s making it work well,” Rob Enderle, analyst for the Enderle Group, said in an article for TechNew World. “These screens break after being folded a few times but consumer products need to be able to last through thousands of times of being folded.”

Samsung's New Flexible Display on Video

Samsung releases videos of their new flexible display technology here.  The video is filled with transparent, flexible screens, and augmented reality that Samsung hopes to rival Apple.  At first, it appears unreal but Samsung plans to introduce this technology in the market in 2012. 

Color and Flexible e-book displays

The Economist recently had an interesting story that is a must-read for those interested in e-reader technology. They report that HP Labs, Arizona State, and E Ink have been successful at producing flexible electronic paper in long rolls -- bendy electronic paper, that can display words and images, and perhaps eventually replace paper books, newspapers and magazines. The new screens are both low-weight and have low power consumption. Early uses are expected to be in the military, who funded the project -- for purposes such as maps and receiving information. Consumer applications are likely a few years away.

The article goes on to talk about the two key barriers to the technology being successful -- a lack of color, and a refresh rate that enables moving images. But the new technology is substantively lighter, more reliable in production and use, and consumes less power -- all factors that will lead to the new technology surplanting the old. The breakthrough reported in the Economist article, though, is the ability to mass-produce flexible displays -- greatly reducing the cost. The article concludes with comments on different technologies that are emerging that may make color displays possible in the future.

A new e-reader -- gone mobile and flexible

Okay, here is a device I want. The Readius. Not only does it bring in the new highly flexible organic display technology -- but does so in a mobile phone! It is described as a merge of the Kindle or Sony reader and a mobile phone.

This is probably the first commercially available application of organic displays for e-readers, certainly in combination with mobile phone technology. It is being produced by Polymer Vision -- a Dutch company that spun off from Phillips.

You can see a video presentation of the technology via YouTube at the following location:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGhL34_32vY