OLEDs: You May Not Know What They Are, But You'll Want One

OLEDs are to video display technologies what the printing press was to written communication. They are game changers. Here's a pop culture reference to drive home the power of this technology. If you've seen the Harry Potter movies, you've seen the magical newspapers with moving video playing on them. OLEDs will give muggles a shot at them.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. We're all familiar with LEDs. They're the little colored indicator lights we see in electonics everywhere, among other things. They are solid-state electronic components that give off light when an electrical current flows through them. OLEDs are different. The light emitting component here is not a solid-state element. It's a thin film of organic compounds. So you can use them to make very thin screens. Absurdly thin screens. Televisions the depth of playing cards. Like this screen, which is made of plastic, and is flexible.



How #$%* cool is that!? Pair that with printable electronics; organic electrical components that can be printed on paper, plastic and other non-conventional materials, and you can see how Harry Potter's magic paper isn't so magic. And I was thinking of other, more interesting uses for flexible display screens.

Imagine if the body of your car were coated in OLED display plastic. You could change the color and pattern of your car instantly. Constantly if you wanted to. Displaying ads on business vehicles would be a breeze, complete with moving video. Ultimately clothing could also be imprinted with video capabilities. You could eventually "paint" a television right onto your wall. Truly anything could function as a video display mechanism.

And, since, at their heart OLEDs are just lights, you could design some pretty wild home lighting options. Imagine window drapes treated with OLEDs that would glow at night and illuminate your living room. Or pressure sensitive OLED coated carpets that illuminate just the part of the room you're standing in. Or, if you were inclined, benches fitted with cameras that display a glowing image on their surface of the last person that sat on them.

OLEDs will revolutionize just about everything.