Six years ago this writer remembers picking up a book detailing the use of carbon nanotubes to measure structural integrity in materials. It all sounds very Star Trek, but now in the year 2011, take a look what Nokia has gone and done with this very same concept.
Dubbed as a 'Kinetic' display, shown at a recent Nokia event in London, not only has the company demonstrated yet another great example of flexible OLED technology, it's taken matters a step further and developed a device that can sense the twisting and flexing motions, using them as part of a new user interface.
The technology works by lining a flexible elastomer - bendy plastic - with carbon nanotubes, which are essentially rolled-up sheets of graphite on a nano scale. These tubes act as tiny wires; as the device and thus the tubes bend, their electrical resistance is altered slightly and this change can be picked up by passing a small electrical current along these tubes and detecting the change in voltage.
This is actually quite a simple principle and is employed in existing technology on a larger scale, however carbon nanotubes are both notoriously costly and difficult to work with and so we are only now seeing nanotube technology appear out in the open as prices drop and manufacturers learn to handle these miraculous tiny structures effectively.
Oddly enough back in 2006 it was predicted that we wouldn't see nano technology emerge commercially until 2012, and so from today's evidence, it appears as though these speculations may have not been far off.
Pairing perfectly with Nokia's demonstration and this prediction, Samsung announced today that it is looking to introduce flexible displays, though not necessarily flexible UIs, into the market, hopefully, in early 2012. At today's earnings announcement, Samsung spokesman Robert Yi said: "The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part... The application probably will start from the handset side."
There have been many mini-demonstrations and concept designs from Samsung involving flexible OLED displays over the past year or so but perhaps in only a few months we may see devices such as the Galaxy S III putting these concepts into practice? A more novel application of the technology has also emerged in fan-generated iPad 3 concepts where, in a similar fashion to Nokia's new Lumia 800, the edges of the screen are bent, and the screen is capable of running right up to and even slightly around the edges of the device.
We can't wait for all the new devices and possibilities that will come with this technology as it matures and look forward to bringing you the news on each and every one.
