Posted on 12/08/2011 1:33:29 PM PST by texas_mrs
While tablets are at the cutting edge of modern technology, Samsung Mobile Display wants to make the iPad look about as modern as the Ford Model T. This week we got our hands on a Samsung commercial released in Korea for a see-through, flexible tablet that's unlike anything we've ever seen here at This Could Be Big, and we knew we had to find out more. The big question is, could this thing be real? Looking at the commercial it looks like it's out of a preview for the new Mission Impossible movie. It's a thin piece of glass that's as flexible as jell-o and can be rolled up like a newspaper. It's also expandable, 3-D and can be used as a real time translator. Samsung Mobile Display is keeping their lips sealed for now, but expect more from them at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. For now, to help uncover the mystery, we spoke with technology journalist Joanna Stern from the TheVerge.com to shine some light on this futuristic technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I know I’d constantly be looking for the damn thing.
There were lots of "iPod-killers" to come down the pike.
Yet another "iPad-killer" comes along.
Get real. It's a neat fantasy. But it's a fantasy.
Did you watch the video at the link?
Sounds like they never translated the commercial to see what was actually being offered. Either that, or (more likely) the writers are just pimping the company.
the commercial is pure CG and the thing is pure vapor
i could see a semi flexible, transparent display... but when it was ‘shown’ to stretch and display a hologram on top ... pure CG
of course, you could have a visual overlay via contacts or glasses that could appear that way to you... but others would not see it. that tech is 5+ years away for contacts, closer for glasses
Apparently, they have a transparent display. Great.
And a transparent, flexible processor chip.
And a transparent, flexible battery.
And transparent wires to connect it all.
I remember discussing this technology with a friend a couple years ago, I believe its amoled or something like that. And that was in regards to Apple. You can be sure that Apple has been working on this technology, but keeping it under wraps until its doable. Personally, I foresaw something like this thirty years ago, but I was thinking you can buy a flexible sheet of a dozen, peel them off and adhere them to your fingernails for browsing the internet. Disposable fingernail computers. I was probably drinking at the time. With this amoled tech, you can make a face mask to look like anyone with a full range of expressions - I’m talking cute female robots. Lots of possibilities.
the video is fake
I’m underwhelmed. I went to an IPAD and Android outlet with my ancient XT DOS operated HP200LX with a freeware program from the early nineties and said: “Look, your toy is unbeatable, but I make a living inputting text (translating)... Give me something as fast and efficient as this old piece of superannuated, eye-destroying junk and I’ll pay you double for it.”
I showed them what I could do with the little clamshell... No, I couldn’t download Lady Gaga and play angry birds and fly in formation with a friend in Singapore... but I could get the work done 5 times faster.
I have a tablet and I love it... but not for work... they’re toys... and now they’ll be transparent, 3D, flirt-with-the-french-girl toys.
in the recent fighting robots movie (based on the toy), there were hp future computers which were transparent and had build in sensors for parts analysis.
Was thinking about skipping it this year but now I don't know.
I’m holding out for Stark Industries to make JARVIS publicly available.
The HP Slate looked pretty spiffy in the promo video, too, way better than an iPad. Reality was a different matter, if there ever was a reality for the HP Slate. Don’t think there was.
Samsung has a flexible display. Flexible wires exist and are common in portable devices.
From the video, it’s never crumpled into a ball, it’s simply flexible - certainly possible to design a circuit board with components that can exist within the arc the video shows the device bending with current technology.
All it needs is a series of miniaturized cameras on the back (ubiquitous on cell phones) to give the illusion of transparency. Surely if faking 3D is possible on a smartphone, faking transparency is possible on a tablet of this nature, even if it doesn’t have a piece of fruit pasted to the outside.
pure CG?
sorry, computer graphics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_graphics
basically, computer rendered scenes overlaid on top of normal video. it’s much easier when the image you are creating is a foreground overlay.
basically, film the background shot normally... stitch together the video pieces into one stream... then create the foreground video with hands holding the device rendering a green screen in the background. then just replace the green screen with the previously rendered video with video splicing software
AMOLEDS have real potential. (Remember the ChiCom Olympics opening ceremony?)
But that vid was pure eyewash...
Looks pretty cool if it’s real. Otherwise, it’s the emperor’s new tablet.
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