Hitachi's OLED Tech Demo

Hitachi showed off their latest in Organic LED (OLED) display technology.  What's unique about this technology is that each pixel on the screen emits its own light so there is no need for a backlight like in traditional LCD displays.  The display on the show floor was looping video of bright, colorful scenes that Hitachi put together obviously attempting to show off the impressive color reproduction capability of the display.

The screen measured 7" diagonal with a WVGA resolution (854x480). The video being looped played smoothly with no indication of ghosting, although it did not include any fast motion scenes so we could not get a good idea of the response time.

Though the picture quality was good for a tech demo, what really impressed us was the thickness (or thinness, rather) of the screen.  The display was barely over an eighth of an inch thick and completely flat (excluding the stand).  Hitachi says they have no official plans to release any products using this technology yet, although considering how impressive the demo was, it's safe to assume we'll see this display being utilized in the next few years.

Motorola's In-Ear Bluetooth Headset Hitachi's LCD Display with LED Backlight
Comments Locked

38 Comments

View All Comments

  • highlandsun - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    These are edge-lit displays, i.e., the LEDs are all along one edge of the screen and lightguides are used to spread their light across the whole display surface. If you decrease the brightness of one or two LEDs that will cause a dark stripe. Probably not useful for most types of images.
  • Clauzii - Sunday, January 8, 2006 - link

    Hmm - bummer! Would have been nice though...each backlit....
  • Lyman42 - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    I agree, the rollable display is probably one of the most innovative things shown in the article. I also wish that AMD SFF PC would be for sale outside of Asia; it looks very cool. As for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (BR), anyone notice how ugly the HD-DVD box looks compared to BR's? I like that the Blu-Ray Boxes say 1080p right on the cover, great way to try and differentiate yourself from the competition for J6P.
  • psychobriggsy - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    I didn't like the design of most of the VIIV devices. Still too 'PC' like.

    That Dell VIIV device only had VGA output. Welcome to VGA resolution DRM video on your HDTV. Come on, a VIIV PC should have DVI with HDCP at least, and HDMI would be nice too.

    The Intel VIIV machine looked awful. What is it with PC manufacturers and the desire for ugly buttons and nasty smokey-black plastic panels?

    OTOH the OLED display looked great, amazingly thin. And the rollable display has a lot of promise for the future.
  • lexmark - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    great article. looks like intel is really pushing forward on its viiv platform. i really liked alot of the case designs on display.

    on the rollable paper idea, won't durability become a problem? something so thin and delicate looks easy to damage.

    oh yea AT, stumbled upon a typo while reading:
    The display was barely over an eighth of an inch "think"
  • Iv3RSoN - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    That AMD media center was sexii indeed.
  • skunkbuster - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    that rollable display looks really cool
  • KashGarinn - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    If anyone can find a link to a video of the thing, that'd be awesome.

    K.
  • longfred - Sunday, January 8, 2006 - link

    http://www.polymervision.com">www.polymervision.com technology -> download gives you pictures and a video.
  • xsilver - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link

    I think the idea of it keeping for months without power is pretty awesome, no cumbersome battery pack!

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now