The Future of Computing – Part 1: OLEDs, LEPs, & OLEs

Hardware and software manufacturers have to be on the cutting edge of product innovation.

It seems there is always someone out there trying to outdo what someone else has done, but, that’s how capitalism works.

The end result is that the consumer reaps the technology benefits, the companies reap the financial benefits, and the capitalistic merry-go-round spins on.

One interesting trend I and others have noticed is that hardware and software companies are focusing less on the personal computing experience and more on personal computer technology as a jumping off point for everyday, life changing technologies.

I’m talking about HP’s TouchSmart PC, Microsoft’s Home of the Future, Organic Light-emitting Diodes (OLEDs), and software such as Windows Home Server.

How will these technologies work together and what does it mean for the future of personal computing? I’m going to discuss these topics and what I like and dislike about these technologies in a series of articles entitled "The Future of Computing".

I definitely want to hear what you think so read on about OLEDS, post a comment and stay tuned for more related articles that build on each other and will tie everything together.

OLEDs, LEPs, and OLEs

The alphabet soup in the above title is referring to Organic Light-emitting Diodes, Light-emitting Polymers, and Organic Electric Luminescence.

What are these? The basic definition of an LED is a semiconductor diode that emits light when an electrical current is applied in the forward direction of the device. So, OLEDs, LEPs, and OLEs are any light-emitting diode whose emissive electroluminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds.

What?

I looked these definitions up to make sure I had a succinct description of what these were and it seriously said, "The basic definition …" I’d hate to see the technical definition.

The easiest way to put it is that OLEDs are the future and (in the case of some cell phones and GPS devices) the present of monitors, televisions, cell phone screens, GPS device screens, and any other type of portable display.

What makes these types of displays different from the already fairly decent Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs)?

Why Will LCDs be Obsolete?

First of all, OLEDs can be printed from an Inkjet printer or even a screen printer onto pretty much any substrate (material on which images are printed) available. This makes manufacturing OLEDs an incredibly speedy and efficient process and in theory would be much cheaper than the manufacturing of an LCD screen or a plasma screen.

The cool thing about being able to print OLEDs on anything is the advent of rollup displays. Can you imagine a TV screen you could roll up like a poster?

That’s just one of the innovations on the horizon. I think one of my favorite ideas is OLEDs printed out on a t-shirt. I’m just imagining my Mr. T t-shirt that says "Yo Sucka" in a million-to-one contrast.

Second of all, OLEDs emit their own light. The way an LCD screen works is it has a backlight that shows the colors, which because of this is unable to show true black. Because OLEDs emit their own light, they are able to show a wider range of colors and better brightness.

Another advantage of OLEDs emitting their own light is that there is a better viewing angle of the display. When you get off to either side of an LCD screen the picture gets distorted and the colors become inconsistent.

I remember attending a packed Super Bowl party, sitting off to the side of an LCD TV for Super Bowl XXXVIII (38) in 2004. I couldn’t tell if Tom Brady had a wardrobe malfunction during the halftime show or if Janet Jackson scored a touchdown. If this was an OLED TV I would have been able to see everything clearly even though I was sitting at a nearly 90 degree angle from the TV.

Another interesting improvement over LCD is that OLEDs refresh at a rate nearly 1000 times faster than LCDs. This type of refresh rate could allow devices using an OLED display to change information at near real time speed. This will allow video images to be constantly updated and breaking news could be up on your PDA as it’s happening.

LCD screens also use quite a bit of power in comparison to OLED screens. OLEDs actually power themselves using an electric charge so that power consumption is minimal.

In fact, when an OLED screen is shut off it uses no power at all. Also, LCD screens have to use polarizers that filter out about nearly half of the light the backlight emits and wastes quite a bit of energy.

This all sounds pretty cool, so what’s stopping you from tossing out your LCD screen and going OLED?

Don’t Get Rid of That LCD Screen Just Yet

As with anything, there are limitations when it comes to OLEDs, so you better hang onto to your LCD screens for a little bit longer.

There’s a reason you’ve only seen OLEDs used in small screens on cell phones and GPS devices. Right now the stuff is just too expensive to manufacture.

Do you remember when computers that had about as much functionality as a Game Boy cost about 5 large? Well, that’s the same type of thing we’re looking at with OLED screens.

Sony put an OLED TV into production in 2007 and released it to consumers in Japan only.

For a paltry 200,000 Yen (that’s about $1700 US) you can purchase the Sony 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TV.

I think the last time I looked at a screen that small was on my cell phone (that’s not true by the way; an 11-inch cell phone screen is just ridiculous, but the TV is small, I think is what I’m getting at here).

One other big problem with OLEDs is that blue organics (they’re split up into red, green and blue) have a life span of about 14,000 hours.

Let me do some quick math for you here.

If you use your OLED TV or computer monitor on average 8 hours a day it will be fully functional for less than 5 years (4.79 years to be exact) before the blue organics kick the bucket.

I don’t know about you but if I’m dropping $1700 on a TV that could fit in my pocket I definitely want it to last more than 5 years. The lifetime of a typical LCD screen is around 60,000 hours, which with the same use would last about 20 years 6 months.

Now, this is a problem that is definitely being worked on. Scientists have created experimental Polymer Light-emitting Diodes, which give blue a lifetime of somewhere around 62,000 hours. I haven’t mentioned the other colors here because they last significantly longer whether they are Organic or Polymers.

Another problem that developers have encountered is that water basically destroys the organics. Coming up with a proper sealant is key to being able to mass produce OLED screens.

Think about if you accidently spritzed water on your LCD computer monitor right now. Wipe it off with a paper towel and it’s no worse for wear. However, if you spritzed water on an OLED screen, you will have basically ruined it.

We need a way to seal the organics without compromising the amazing detail they provide, and we’re definitely a ways off from accomplishing that.

As with everything, eventually the cost to produce OLEDs will go down and products that use this technology will be more available to the consumer at a reasonable price.

Samsung has recently developed a 40 inch OLED TV prototype. Also, the Japanese government is backing several electronics manufacturers including Sony and Samsung to put into production a 40 inch OLED TV by 2015.

Personally, I think we may see something sooner than that but until that time nears you should definitely hang on to your LCD screen and don’t be afraid to purchase LCD screens because they are still going to be viable for quite some time.

Other OLED Uses

The good thing is that OLEDs can be utilized in a variety of ways beyond their application in TV screens, computer monitors, cell phones and other displays.

One application that is being developed is an OLED keyboard. These would be great for notebooks and rollout models could be produced for desktops as well.

Imagine a keyboard that could change the way it looked based on the game you were playing. The Optimus Maximus keyboard does just that.

If you’re not a gamer then this would be particularly useful for certain types of software applications that require you to use certain keyboard shortcuts and configurations, such as Photoshop.

The international applications for this type of keyboard is tantalizing because you could change the keys between different languages as needed. Each key is its own individual display, which allows you to completely customize every individual key.

You can order it here for only $1877.43. Wait, you think that’s a bit too expensive for a keyboard? Well you already bought your $1700 11-inch TV, so what’s another $1800 on a keyboard?

Think about it, how many people can say they own the most expensive computer keyboard in the history of the world? My guess is: not too many.

A Bit Down the Road …

Another interesting application for this technology is wallpaper and posters.

Imagine your wallpaper depicting a sunset on the beach scene and changing to a field of grass scene at the touch of a button. This is on the horizon and I will delve deeper into this idea in a coming article.

What I think would be cool is to be able to buy maybe four OLED posters that could cycle through five different pictures each. You could have twenty different posters hanging on your walls that you could change as you saw fit. This type of technology will be implemented for signs and billboards as well.

Here’s one use that I find particularly interesting. You could purchase one OLED newspaper and it could update throughout the day in real time. Since it’s OLED you’ll be able to fold it up and stick it in your brief case or even in your back pocket.

Also, you wouldn’t be confined to one newspaper, you could choose which paper you’d like to read and switch from one to the other as you’d like. The thing that makes this viable is that it’s more portable than a notebook computer because it can be folded.

I’m pretty sure this was something that was used in the futuristic world in the movie "Minority Report". Anyone remember that movie? Me neither.

One thing is for sure; we will see OLEDs playing a bigger part in our everyday lives in the near future.

Be sure to leave me some questions or comments on this topic. Also, make sure you check out the next newsletter to see the follow up to this article that will discuss the new HP SmartTouch PC.

 

Related Posts:

• The Future of Computing — Part 2: TouchSmart PC & Windows 7
• Cisco at SC06 Super Computing Conference
• Windows Server 2008 IPv6 — The Future of Internet Protocol
• Microsoft Certifications — Past and Future
• Forget Unicast, Broadcast, & Anycast … the Future is Multicast
• Smaller Than a Tablet PC?

 

4 Responses to “The Future of Computing – Part 1: OLEDs, LEPs, & OLEs”

• CPU Solutions Says:

  July 30th, 2008 at 11:29 am

  Interesting article. I especially liked the screenshot of the Optimus Maximus keyboard setup for gaming.

  I have been really amazed by how quickly display technology has been advancing in the past 3 years. I have seen many different articles about competing display technologies and it will be interesting to see which one becomes the next big thing.

• Zach Says:

  July 30th, 2008 at 11:34 am

  I was pretty impressed with the keyboard as well. I’m also interested to see where we go from here with high end displays but I definitely think that OLEDs are going to revolutionize things along the way.

• nicole Says:

  July 31st, 2008 at 12:12 am

  OLED is not only for displays, OLED lighting is also one of the important applications for OLED.

  Although OLEDs used in lighting applications are not expected to become popular in the next few years and will initially target niche markets, the technology has several advantages over that of conventional lighting.

  Check out this OLED Info website:
  http://www.oled-displa.net

• Crossi Says:

  June 20th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

  OLEDs can be used everywhere,from clothes to TV and lighting. Check out http://www.oledgadgets.com

Leave A Comment:

Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website