Computex: Toshiba’s Display Flexes to Zoom

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Many tech companies, such as Sony, are testing flexible display prototypes, but few have actually demonstrated a useful purpose for their bendable screens. Toshiba wants to change all of that with their flexible display that zooms in or out, depending on the direction you bend the screen. They demonstrated their new flexible LCD panel display on the Computex showroom floor this week in Taipei.t

In the following video, you can see a demonstration of Google Earth actually zooming in and out on demand, just by bending the screen. As the demonstrator bends the screen up, the image of the earth zooms in, and as he bends it back, the earth gets farther away.

The technology’s secret is a bend sensor which responds to the bending as its resistance value is changed. The sensor then sends instructions to the software. The LED-backlit LCD screen itself is 8.4 inches (800×600 pixels).

Like all of the current flexible screens, it is still attached to a much larger device that powers it and sends it the images. Over time, hardware manufacturers should be able to find a way to make an entirely flexible device. Otherwise, being able to bend a screen is pointless if it has to be attached to something that impedes mobility in order to receive its image.

Since this is early technology, there is not much more information on the screens, what they will be ultimately used for, or when we will start to see them. Nevertheless, it is definitely cool for the sake of being cool.

Tags: Computex, flexible display, Toshiba