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OK, very quick post as just about purely B-E-A-utiful technology. Below is the newest prototype OLED screen from Sony, as recently (today) mentioned on GIZMODO.com.

STUNNING. At 0.01inches thick and a still impressive resolution of 960×540, it makes me, quite frankly, sick.

Read more at GIZMODO.

interestedinscience.com © 2008

Ha ha! At last some certifiable published research/progress on the flat-screen/organic electronics-printing front (sorry for that appauling intro…it’s early).

Japanese scientists have published in PNAS (see citation at bottom - next edition) a method to reliably print flat screen panels using a fancy new inkjet style printer (see also BBC News). The technique allows them to circumvent the problems of todays silicon-based flat panel printing processes which in order to obtain maximum purities and performances have yielded to higher processing temperatures, increased manufacturing costs, and thus a higher price for the consumer - exactly what plastic electronic technology is designed to help combat.

The inkjet printers are able to print dots of 1 micron (a millionth of a meter, 1×10-6m, a thousandth of a millimeter…very small!) on to a flexible organic semiconductor. Current printing techniques are limited in their abilities to replicate the resolutions achieved by silicon-based devices and other lithographic techniques for several reasons - one being surface tension of the inks. This new printing technique allows droplet volumes of less than 1 femtolitre - a millionth that which recent techniques allowed.

All in all…yes! Very happy with this development.
See citation below for full article…

Sekitani, T., Noguchi, Y., Zschieschang, U., Klauk, H., Someya, T. (2008). Organic transistors manufactured using inkjet technology with subfemtoliter accuracy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0708340105

interestedinscience.com © 2008

OK, so you may not count wall paper as a fabric, but go with it…

NewScientists latest inventions feed has reported on the design by Phillips of new wallpaper that contains strips of electrically conducting wire. Their intention is incase you want to change your lighting arrangements you can just stick new lights in at different spots on your wall without having to peel the paper off, remove the plaster, place cables, mount sockets, replas…yawn. I applaud the idea - especially if other devices can use the same principles - TOTALLY wireless devices!!!….As long as they are stuck into a wall…

I am curious to see how a wall of minimalist magnolia would look with loads of pin holes in it from multiple movements of lights though….hmmm.

Nice idea - few wrinkles to iron out though I think.

For more see the NeScientist inventions blog (linked above) - absolutely worth a read anyway!

interestedinscience.com © 2008

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Ok, so the last but one post was about a new touch screen technology being developed by a lab in the UK under Microsoft. Well, I wasn’t a massive fan and I said as much in my post. The idea of a touch screen laptop with multi-touch sensing is fantastic, but the demonstration video (posted in the blog) didn’t show the technology too well, and I don’t think the design was too intuitive.

Well, I was searching the old youtube.com this morning quite idly, and found this amazing video from a technology conference in the States. The chap doing the demonstration is Jeff Han and must be a professor (says he works at NYU) in computer design/software/hardware GUI application or something. The screen he is using is a 36″ tablet, which allows multi-touch sensing and manipulation of graphics in such an intuitive way that it seems so natural what he was doing nothing was a surprise. Well, there was obviously some surprise at the smoothness of the graphics and the fact that it was such an intuitive system - but the input methods were so obvious it really is a pleasure to watch. So here it is, enjoy!

I will be first in line to buy one of these - I just hope it’s Mac compatible!

interestedinscience.com © 2007

We’ve all played on them. Well, I say played, but the fun that can be had with a touch screen is rather limited. You don’t have a keyboard - everything is inputted through pressing the correct part of the screen and the computer reads this input. The touch screen technology is about a decade old, and relies on good old electronic circuit principles to work (metallic layers are pressed together upon touching the screen, which closes a circuit at a pressure point, telling the computer exactly where the screen was touched; very clever but simple).

Well, now there is a new toy under development.

Hands up who has seen Minority Report?

Me too. It’s ok. Nice idea if a bit far fetched, whimsical, and in violation - I am positive - of several human rights laws. Anyway. The screens are the obvious link in this little post; in the film Tom Cruise is seen flicking windows and files and images around on the screen with his hands in some special gloves. Extremely neat, and given the fact touch screen technology has been around for a few years, it’s suprising the idea hasn’t caught on and been flaunted by Apple or some major hardware manufacturer.

Well, now it is becoming more of a reality! And from labs in the UK. And labs run by Microsoft! Bravo.

Here is a link to the film on YouTube which demonstrates it:

I have watched it, and it looks good. However, I have also watched a video of the iPhone….and I’m not taking sides, I’m really not…but it doesn’t look an awful lot different to this new technology. Obviously there are a few cool new aspects coming with the new microsoft screen, namely the sensors ability to ’see’ objects within ~ 1cm away; but in all honesty I don’t know if there’s something to be excited about here yet.

There is more on this at NewScientist.co.uk or, obviously, on YouTube, at the above link.

interestedinscience.com © 2007

I love my mac. I write this blog on a very nice, 6 month old macbook pro which I adore because it is fast, easy to use, and keeps me warm when I use it as a laptop (it gets very hot, but never crashes…well, it hasn’t yet!!)

I love the colour. I love the screen. I love how thin it is (closed it is thinner than just the base part of my girlfriend’s laptop - a non-mac).

The reason I didn’t buy the iMac when I was looking to buy was because I wanted something portable, but even if I hadn’t, it would have taken me some persuasion to buy something which looks a bit toy-like.

The new iMac could engender no such reservations. Check out this puppy here…and here:

I love it.

Well done to everyone at Apple for yet another b-e-a-utiful piece of engineering. I realise that when you design and build a computer and operating system that go together automatically it must be a little easier than designing an operating system which can go with a plethora of hardware. Equally, PC designers, it must be difficult to design a system as thin and efficient as the macs being unveiled so regularly….I don’t know why it’s so difficult, but it must be because it hasn’t been achieved yet!!!???!!! So, no hard feelings.

Anyway. The new iMac. Love it. Good choice going brushed metal too. And the keyboards!? Seriously, how do you do it?

interestedinscience.com © 2007

This gadget is superb. I can’t vouch for the quality of the screens produced, the resolution is stated but I wouldn’t like to even offer an opinion on them, but they look fantastic!

A friend of mine who is a bit of a computer-boff told me about the keyboard a couple of weeks ago, but I’d clean forgot about them until I was just surfing whilst waiting on a reaction to heat up

Here are the image and links to where these amazing devices can be purchased from.

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

It looks the part…and unfortunately will probably cost more than the computer with which you’re using it. But oh good god it’s a piece of style.

For the record I am not in the employment of the designers or sellers of this keyboard - I actually believe that these keyboards need no selling, as they sell themselves quite well I reckon!

If anyone who reads this blog has one or has ordered one, please leave a review when you’ve seen just how good it is!

interestedinscience.com © 2007