Hasta La Gadget!

Make no mistake, wrapping your mind around the build of an OLED panel is mighty tough to do. Without getting you mired in technobabble, let’s just say that indium tin oxide (ITO) has generally been a mainstay in every single OLED that was produced commercially. Now, a team of researchers from AGFA-Gevaert, IMEC, Holst Centre and Philips have prototyped a 12- x 12-centimeter flexible OLED lighting panel that swaps out the ITO for highly-conductive transparent resin electrodes. You see, it’s been difficult for OLED builders to secure enough electrical conductivity of ITO in a low-temperature process, and this new methodology is perfectly suited for the coating method (which makes it ripe for printing). The resin itself is being dubbed Orgacon, and tests have shown it to have a 6x improvement over ITO in terms of electrical conductivity. Beyond that, the crews are keeping the secrets safe from the poachers of the world, but here’s hoping this amounts to more than just jovial celebration in a far off laboratory.

[Via OLED-Display]

Filed under: Displays

Resin replaces ITO in latest flexible OLED prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blue OLEDs may have been garnering the lion’s share of researchers’ attention as of late, but it looks like a group of researchers led by Akiyoshi Mikami of the Kanazawa Institute of Technology are doing their part to keep green side of things up to speed, and they’ve now announced that they’ve managed to more than double the efficiency of green phospor-based OLEDs. That was apparently achieved at least in part though the use of a 0.7mm-thick glass plate with a refraction index as high as 2.03, which was bonded to the substrate of the OLED, and apparently boosted the light-extraction efficiency 2.3 times all by itself. In terms of actual lumens, that translates to a light-emitting efficiency of 210lm/W, compared to just 94.3lm/W without the glass plate. Naturally, there’s no indication at all as to when the improved OLEDs might be applied to some actual products, but the researchers say there’s still room for even greater efficiency with some improvements to device manufacturing technology.

[Via OLED-Info]

Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets

Japanese researchers make green OLEDs more efficient than ever originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of our pet peeves with Sony gear has long been the software. Beautiful hardware matched with average to awful software can kill the user experience. Oh sure, there are exceptions in Sony’s broad product portfolio, but interfaces like XMB are bubbles on Sony’s otherwise festering UI sores. Sony knows this, they’ve admitted it with a promise of good things to come — and here’s a good example: Sony’s new X-series Walkman with 3-inch OLED. In the (controlled) promotional video (finally!) found after the break, the X-series Walkman seems to offer a sweet mix of hybrid touchscreen and physical controls conveniently positioned for use. The 3D animations also look fluid without being superfluous. Even Sony’s drag-and-drop Content Transfer Tool (updated to 1.1 last week) for quickly moving audio, video, and pictures onto the player looks dead simple to use. We’ll reserve final judgement until we get a unit in-house for a review. Until then, feel free to jump to your own conclusions in the comments.

[Via SonyInsider]

Continue reading Video: Sony NWZ-X1000 OLED touchscreen Walkman rightly promoted

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Video: Sony NWZ-X1000 OLED touchscreen Walkman rightly promoted originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still looking at another 3 to 5 years of development here, but transparent OLED lighting panels are definitely on the way. This 12-centimeter prototype panel developed by Philips Research is transparent until flipping the switch for illumination. Unfortunately, the panels are currently limited in size due to complexities in the manufacturing process that necessitate a clean-room environment. Ultimately though, larger panels will replace “dumb glass” in household windows and stall dividers in trendy Germany toilets. What, haven’t been to Berlin lately?

[Via OLED-Display]

Filed under: Household

Philips’ transparent OLED lighting for post-modern identity masking, toilets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re pretty comfortable with the idea of open source software running on computers and mobile phone — heck, even guitars — but cars? That one we’re still warming up to, but this concept vehicle from EDAG definitely helps. As its name implies, the Light Car – Open Source lets developers modify and / or improve upon the auto’s technologies — or at least put a SNES emulator on the back. The lithium ion-powered bubble car also sports an OLED-infused exterior for lights and signals that are supposedly useful both to the driver and other nearby motorists, but in actuality we suspect it’d just scare anyone tailing behind. No information on the interior, but we imagine a decked out dashboard and some futuristic chairs. It’s currently being shown off at the Geneva Motor Show; hit up the read link for more pics.

Filed under: Transportation

EDAG’s Light Car EV is open source, doused in OLEDs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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