When I started doing digital photography, a 240 MB IBM microdrive was well over $150. Now, an 8 gig smart card is $15 or so. It also went from mechanical parts to no moving parts. A lot of this article was over my head, but if I understood it correctly, manufacturing would be able to align molecules with different capacitive capabilities so that the device would be a single piece. Visually, the inside would look like a potato. Also, they believe you'll be able to have a 3d "printer" that will allow you to download and "print" a three dimensional electronic device.
It's hard for me to wrap my head around something like a flexible newspaper page that functions like a touchscreen, but that's probably where we're going.
I don't know how old you are, but I remember when Pong first came out. People would stand around and operate the dial just because it was so incredible to be able to manipulate what was going on on a television screen.
Times, they are a-changin! I think something like a flexible screen will completely re-write how we interact with our devices. Voice command is getting scary-good; it’s how I interact exclusively with my phone when on the road - press my Bluetooth headset button, the phone “dings” me a second later, and just talk.
The changes that cheap silicon have wrought are bringing us to the land of science fiction at breakneck speed!
Now where the heck is my flying car...:)
PS: Pong? Loved that game! And one of my early memories was of a birthday party/sleepover for a friend. His dad owned a local pizza joint, and had JUST GOT a new Asteroids game. We had pizza and played Asteroids all night (yeah, we even slept the night at the restaurant). The way it worked, the challenge, the whole ‘thrill’ of imagination...
And now we have places like Intellectual Ventures (I’m one of their inventors) that uses lasers to pick off individual mosquitoes!
The one big thing holding back OLED is the batteries. What’s the point in having a flexible screen if the battery isn’t?
I wish battery tech would advance quicker. I like that they are getting wireless power it would be cool if we got to the point where your car could beam power to all the devices and the power supply/converter on the device was nanotech so it was very small and you didn’t even notice it. Combine that with oled and now you have something.