If you’ve ever seen a wacky display, there’s a good chance it was made by LG. The company calls itself the “world’s leading innovator of display technologies,” and after its latest announcement, I’m inclined to believe them.
LG debuted the most stretchable display made to date at LG Science Park in Seoul on November 8.
This flexible 12-inch display can be stretched up to 50%, turning it into a maximum 18-inch display. Compared to the first stretchable display’s elongation rate of 20%, that’s a pretty major jump.
LG says stretchable displays are the “ultimate free-form screen technology because they can be freely transformed into any shape, including by stretching, folding, and twisting.” In the photo above, you can see just how flexible the display is.
Despite its liquid-like nature, the 12-inch display looks pretty great. It delivers a high 100ppi (pixels per inch) resolution and full RGB color. It’s also quite durable, able to “be repeatedly stretched over 10,000 times,” thanks to using a micro-LED light source of up to 40 micrometers.
This impressively bendy display likely won’t be available to consumers on its own, but we’ll likely see it pop up in various industries over the next few years.
Where would a stretchable display even be useful?
While this thin, lightweight display has positive implications for thinner displays on laptops and tablets in the future, its most impressive feature is its ability to stretch, bend, and twist.
LG says this makes stretchable displays very “capable of adhering to irregularly curved surfaces like clothing and skin.” One of the concepts LG showed was a wearable display attached to firefighters’ uniforms that provides real-time information. Another concept suggested it could be used as an automotive display panel, stretched out into a convex shape.
What if heated blankets in the future have flexible displays with touch controls? What if you could check your messages or answer a call by tapping a small display on your hoodie sleeve? How about a display on your backpack?
While a lot of the applications for a stretchy display are cloth-forward, LG says they’re “expected to be widely applied in various industries, from fashion and wearables to mobility.”
There’s no estimate on when LG’s stretchable displays might hit the market and in which products, so for now, all we can do is marvel at this technological wonder.
