Wearable OLEDs - Introduction and Latest Industry News - Page 31

Apple OLED rumors never die. This time these are rather different rumors. According to a Chinese tech blog, Apple and Intel are jointly developing a bluetooth smart watch. This new iWatch (or whatever they'll call it) will have a 1.5" touch PMOLED, apparently made by RitDisplay.

I'm usually quite skeptic on Apple AMOLED rumors, because there's still not enough AMOLED capacity to be used in iPhone or iPod devices. But ramping up PMOLED capacity shouldn't' be a problem for RiTDisplay (which used to have larger capacity than today, but they shut down some lines due to financial problems). Anyway, if this is true, it's great news for my friends over at RiTDisplay.

Macy's just announced a new sweater (designed by Sean John) that includes an embedded OLED video tag on the sleeve. This seems to be the same tag made by Recom for their own video-tag products (a 2.8" 320x240 display) - back in 2009. It includes 2Gb of memory and can play back images and videos (the battery will last for 6-10 hours). The more I think about wearable displays, the less I like them, but if you like getting this kind of attention, maybe it's for you.

The sweater will soon be available at Macy's, we do not know the price yet.

Just before SID, the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU) announced that they managed to fabricate the world's largest (7.4") flexible (bendable) OLED using Mixed-Oxide TFTs. Those MO-TFTs deliver high performance (fast switching speeds and reduced power consumption), are quite cost-effective and can be produced on existing a-Si production lines. The FDC demonstrated this panel at SID.

This OLED panel was developed with funding from the US Army features 480x360 (81 ppi) resolution, has an Oxide-TFT (IGZO) backplane and is built on a PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) substrate. It was developed in collaboration with Universal Display, DuPont (Teijin film), Sunic and Henkel.

Universal Display and L-3 Display Systems have delivered an unbreakable plastic-based knee-mounted AMOLED display system prototype to the US Air Force. The project aims to build an ejection-safe electronic flight bag system designed to replace the paper maps and checklists traditionally held on the pilot’s knee.

The display (which uses UDC's PHOLED materials) is 4.3" in size and features 480x320 resolution on a plastic substrate system. This is the third product design that UDC and L-3 has developed. Back in October 2010, together with LG they delivered 8 flexible wrist-worn prototypes (also 4.3" but with lower resolution: 320x240). Interestingly, back in 2009 UDC was awarded $750,000 to develop an ejection-safe display for the US Air Force, but back then the project called for a 6" display.

Sony revealed that the HMZ-T1 OLED HMD will arrive in the US in November 2011 - for around $799. The HMZ-T1 is a head mounted display featuring dual 1280x720 0.7" OLED microdisplays - offering the same experience as watching a 750" display from 20 meters. The unit comes with an external processor box offering HDMI intput and output (you cannot use the HMD without the processor box).

American hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas went on stage on Paris on three shows, wearing clothes embroidered with LEDs and OLED lighting panels from Philips. Fergie had a 'leather cat woman' outfit that has 75 white Lumiblade OLED panels. The panels were controlled remotely - and were synchronized to the music and lighting sequences.

Philips' OLED panels (Lumiblades) were the first to be released back in 2009. Philips' panels come in different sizes, shapes and colors, not just white squares. Check out our hands-on review of the Lumiblade OLED lighting panels.

Blackbody is showing some interesting new OLED lighting designs including a flexible red OLED stripe inside what seems to be a glass, an OLED dress and an OLED chandelier:

Remember Recom Group's OLED Video-Name Tag? It's a 2.8" OLED display (320x240) that can show video for about 6 hours and can be used for advertising, waiters, promotores, etc. It costs $200. They have just announced a couple of accessories for this product - a wrist-band and a belt-buckle. Both the band and the buckel cost $79 (and the belt itself goes for $24).

Recom has been showing the name tag at CES - embedded in a hat, it was pretty neat:

Remember the man with the OLED hat at CES? He was showing Recom's OLED Video-Name Tag products (with a 2.8", 320x240 OLED display). Now we've found a video of this guy:

Recom's OLED tags last for about 6 hours and Recom thinks it'll be useful for waiters, business man, promoters, service reps,
advertising, etc. They cost $200 each.

CNet spotted someone walking around with an 'OLED hat' at the CES exhibition - actually a hat with several OLED displays (2.8", 320x240 each) on it. It seems that the Recom group is pushing their Video-Name Tag products...

Recom's OLED tags last for about 6 hours and Recom thinks it'll be useful for waiters, business man, promoters, service reps, advertising, etc. They cost $200, although at CES you could buy them for $150.