OPTIMIZED SYSTEMS

Smarter Organics-Based Displays Provide Visual Realism

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 06-09-11 | Comments

Unparalleled visual realism is being created by smarter electronic displays using organics, as demonstrated by the new spherical mega-display in Japan.

Just as organics are driving the development of future semiconductor microchips that can achieve feats not possible today�such as printing circuits on flexible plastic�organics are likewise creating unparalleled visual realism in displays. If you are in Japan this weekend, check out world's first large-scale organic display at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Tokyo).

Today's screens are mostly flat, inorganic, liquid crystal displays, which offer excellent color and contrast�that is, until you compare them side-by-side with organic light-emitting diode displays. OLEDs are thinner and lighter than LCDs, can be deposited on flexible plastic substrates and can display almost perfect blacks, since they do not use backlights. Instead, they provide their own internal illumination for each pixel (which can be turned completely off for super-high contrast ratios).

OLEDs can also be viewed from almost any angle with very little change in luminosity and almost no color shift, making them perfect for large-scale displays in public places where people will be viewing them from nearly any angle.

The premiere example of OLEDs� capabilities will be put on public display this weekend (June 11, 2011) at Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. At that time, the museum will unveil a 20-foot diameter spherical globe (suspended 60 feet above the lobby floor) whose OLED surface displays the entire Earth.

The world�s largest globe, covered with over 10,000 organic displays, hangs 60 feet above the lobby floor in Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. (Source: Mitsubishi)

Crafted by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., the giant globe is covered with over 10,000 four-inch square OLED displays. Each display will be responsible for recreating the cloud cover, ocean and continents of a specific area of the Earth. The images will reply on satellite imagery processed using cloud-computing resources to provide updates on how the world looks to a viewer in space.

The unveiling of the new globe is part of the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the museum. It previously had a globe studded with inorganic LEDs, similar to many other large-scale displays worldwide. The realism of the new globe, however, will be unique, making it a fitting tribute to the now decade-old National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

The globe was constructed atop an aluminum sphere, covered with 10,362 OLED panels, each measuring 96 by 96 millimeters. The smarter globe will present over 10 million pixels to viewers, which is about 10 times greater than the previous LED globe hanging there.

Today, the only examples of OLED displays for consumers are on small-scale screens, such as the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. The problem with doing large-scale screens has been environmental contamination. Organic displays can fade like old newsprint when exposed to oxygen or moisture; this can be remedied by encasing them in glass, which works well for small displays. The globe at Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation overcomes this problem by combining thousands of small glass-encased displays side-by-side.