The Korean electronics giant recently released a video showing off the future potential for bendable OLED screens, and it sure looks cool. In this concept video, we get to see the potential for portable displays which can be rolled up, act as a touchscreen interface, and even let you see through them and interact with the environment around you. Here, check it out:

Pretty slick, eh? I for one can’t wait until I can finally buy a device which can be rolled up like a piece of paper. Not because it’s any more practical than a hard surface, just because it’s the stuff of science fiction, and that’s the sort of gadget I just have to have in my collection. While it’s doubtful we’ll see anything as sophisticated as what Samsung shows off in the video in the next few years, they do expect to start producing flexible OLED panels which can be attached to curved surfaces sometime in 2012.

[via OLED Info]

These Harvard braniacs studied squids, starfish and other animals that lack hard skeletons in order to come up with this specimen. It’s basically a four-legged rubber robot that looks like drunk Gumby at a party. This soft, yet elastic robot took two months to construct and is just 5 inches long. The four legs can be separately controlled by pumping air into them, either manually or through a computer. This allows it to crawl and slither and creep. It should prove very useful once they manage to get it untethered from the power source.

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It could come in handy in any situation that requires getting into a tight space. Think the rubble after an earthquake or even difficult terrain. Then, of course there are the spy capabilities I mentioned, where it could slide under a door and gather intel.

Here’s a video of an earlier incarnation of the soft-bodied robot being used to gently grip an egg:

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Hit the link to check out more details and an additional video.

[via Physorg and IEEE Spectrum]

The Nokia Twist smartphone concept looks like a pool toy or surfboard to me. It could also be a gel insole for your shoes. The concept comes from Nokia Design and Nokia Research and was designed as an exploration of the promise of nanotechnology. I’m not sure how nanotech would be used to contort your phone into different shapes, though.

It appears that the device can be twisted and flexed to perform different actions, and it would have a flexible see-through touchscreen display. There is a ton of research going into flexible electronics today, so who knows if 10 or 20 years from now our smartphones might look like this. Check out the video below to see what Nokia is up to with the Twist.

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Well, instead of modding that favorite pair of binoculars and slapping on two halves of a DualShock, just buy this cheap looking controller. It even gives you some extra buttons in the center, though what they are for we have no clue. After playing Call Of Duty with this thing for about a week you’ll be ready for the wonderful world of hand cramping and arthritis that is sure to follow.

I looked around and I’m not sure where you would buy it (at your own risk), however you can get it wholesale here for $21.00 (USD) if you buy 1-5 controllers, or here for about $13, or lower in quantity.

The 45 LED Packlight is exactly what it says – it’s a 1cm-thick strip loaded with 45 bright LEDs which can provide flexible illumination wherever you go. Thanks to integral shaping wires, it can be bent into just about any shape. The Packlight has an integrated USB-rechargeable battery, and not only will hang from your bag with a carabiner, but has built-in magnets so you can stick it on a metal surface too. In addition to a super-bright 45 LED mode, you’ll be able to drop down to 15 LEDs when you don’t need so much light, or a blinking mode for emergencies.

Designed by Chadwick Parker and Joe Huang, the 45 LED Packlight is currently in the fundraising stage over on Kickstarter, but is just a stone’s throw away from achieving their initial $7,000 raise to get the first batch into production. A contribution of $45 (USD) or more will get you one.

While it is similar to the already available Striker FLEXiT, the Packlight offers significantly more LEDs, greater surface area, and rechargeable batteries.

The Flexbook would have a 21:9 11-inch folding screen and is designed to be portable. My guess that it would use a flexible OLED screen of some kind. The keyboard could also fold up and can be deployed whenever needed. It would convert from netbook into a as tablet and e-book reader when the keyboard is stowed.

The design also calls for swappable rubber skins, which will allow for further customization.

It will be interesting to see what kinds of tablets, netbooks, and smartphones manufacturers come up with when flexible OLED screens become cheaply available. It’s safe to say that tablets, smarthphones and netbooks will probably end up being combined into one device once their displays can be folded.

[via Designboom]

Samsung’s new concept design envisions a lightweight 3D OLED TV [Korean] that could fold, and easily be brought with you wherever you want to watch high-def 3D content. Plus, a large enough flexible display could provide for an immersive 3D experience with the display literally wrapping around your field of vision.

At this point, the flexible 3D OLED TV is just a design concept, but it’s definitely in the realm of possibility that a device like this could be made in the next 5 to 10 years. OLED display sizes have been rapidly progressing over the last couple of years, and Samsung is already showing functional – albeit small -  flexible displays using the technology.

[via OLED-Display via DVICE]

Fils Sound Film is a flexible, light transparent sound technology which can be used to create speakers pretty much anywhere you’d ever want. The speakers are actually produced using piezoelectric film which can produce sound waves when electrical current is applied. Sound quality isn’t stellar, since the low-end drops out at 200Hz, but the highs range all the way to 25kHz.

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Fils currently wholesales a number of strange looking speaker units that are made from the thin stuff, like these.

But I think the real innovation will come when display manufacturers start layering this stuff in front of tiny flat screen portable devices which don’t have room for a speaker. I imagine you could also produce some pretty cool interactive art using this tech.

You can get more information on Sound Film technology over at the Fils website.

The lamp has three brightness settings and is supposedly 90% efficient, i.e. 90% of the electricity it consumes is converted into light.

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Enfren’s free style lamp is currently available only in Korea, and is priced at  ₩78,000 KRW (appx. $67 USD). It would be awesome if we had a lamp that could serve as a general-purpose ceiling lamp, but could also be directed or focused on one area, and also plucked out to be used as a flashlight. It should also be solar-powered, so you could still use it in houses without wiring. And it should also have a built-in PS3 and an HDTV. That lamp would be awesome indeed.

[via AVING]

Developed by Taiwan’s ITRI, fleXpeaker technology produces arrays of tiny speakers that can be joined together to make high-quality speakers of almost any size – meaning they could be the perfect companion for that unlimited-size OLED display you just covered your entire house with. While its frequency response doesn’t go below 500Hz, at least the fleXpeaker can reach highs up to 20 KHz.

The technology is designed to allow embedding of speaker elements into anything from everyday consumer electronics devices to massive posters and banner ads with built-in sound. fleXpeakers also consume very little power so could be perfect for other portable applications. Check out the video clip below to see (and hear) an early prototype of the fleXpeaker in action:

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Now if only they made some flat subwoofers to go with these…

The aptly named “Little Robot Clock” has tiny articulating joints with clips in place of hands so he can hang on to your notes and whatnot. Of course, you don’t have to use those clippy claws for good. They can also be used for staging tiny robot battles in your cubicle.

I bet you can’t buy just one. But then you may say “why do I need so many clocks on my desk”, and I respond “set them each to a different timezone and shut the f*ck up.” You can start building your own desktop robo-clock army for $20.50 (USD) each over at Brando.

The undulating twists and turns of Kundalini’s Abyss table lamp may look a bit like your intestinal tract, but there’s something about the bendy organic form that I find mesmerizing.

The Abyss can be adjusted into a variety of shapes, thanks to its flexible segmented construction. Hiding beneath its opalescent polycarbonate skin are a number of bright white LEDs which provide clean, green illumination.

Can’t get the image of my lower intestine out of your mind? Perhaps you’d prefer to think about the lamp as something a little less slimy – maybe a snake or an earthworm.

You can find the Abyss Lamp from Y Lighting for about $500.

This gadget reminds me of those toys that have colored blocks of wood connected by fabric straps, that can go either direction. You’ll get 4 USB 2.0 ports at your disposal, and can use it with a Mac or PC. I think it would make the perfect gift for all those fidgety peripheral-lovers in your life!

You can pick one up at Perpetual Kid for the $12.99- not bad for four ports and a cheap thrill!

In this video clip by the guys over at Phone Losers of America, the E-Ink display is subject to various torture tests, including bending, flexing, knife cuts, drilling, water, and fire. Amazingly, the display continues to operate throughout much of the destruction.

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Color me impressed. I can only imagine this technology powering a bendy digital newspaper which could be rolled up, thrown in your bag, read in the shower, and even carried around in my dog’s mouth just like the real paper.

The only question I have is… but will it blend?

Despite the overuse of the word “Board” in ElectroJoe’s Bendiboard Retroboard Invaders keyboards, they’re anything but boring. Not only does this keyboard feature pixelated images of the retro 8-bit invaders on all the keys, it’s completely flexible, so you can roll it up and throw it in your bag for easy travel.

And if you happen to spill a can or two of Red Bull or get your orange Cheetos dust all over it, you’ll be fine, since it’s sealed, dustproof and spill-proof. Pretty much anything you can throw at these aliens should just wipe easily off the keys.

As an added bonus, these invaders won’t eat any quarters no matter how many times you press the keys. Perfect for playing a game of Space Invaders on your PC, the keyboards are available now from UK gadget retailers BB-Shopping or 101Gear for £19.99 (appx. $39 USD).

Speaking of playing some Space Invaders on your PC…

Space Invaders by Neave Games

Johns Hopkins materials scientist Michaely Yu and his team claim to have invented a material which could allow for piezoelectic sound devices to be placed in areas previously thought to be too challenging.

The invention provides for a resin polymer which possesses piezoelectric properties usually found only in very heavy, brittle materials. If the early findings hold up, the flexible material and could be used to produce a coating which could create speakers embedded into wallpaper or even speakers that could be folded in two.

[Patent Application via New Scientist]

The Time-It series of watches is designed for active types, wrapped in a flexible waterproof silicone case that snaps to curl around your wrist just like those wacky relics from the days of big shoulder pads and even bigger hair. So just how do you tell time on these oddities? Simply glance at the LED dots when the watch lights up. The top row is numbered from 0 to 11 to indicate hours, while the bottom row displays minutes.

Strangely enough, this is the first watch that I’ve seen that requires regular charging. When you remove the watch, you’ll need to place it in its “magic case” (also known as a charging base), and it’ll hold anywhere from one day’s to two weeks’ worth of juice, depending on usage.

At $189 each, they’re a bit on the pricey side, but if you’re looking for a really offbeat watch design, look no further. You can find the entire collection over at the LED Watch Stop.

Designed by Jesus Felipe and Silvia Grimaldi of UK-based Nimble Critters, the ETree lamp is more of an interactive sculpture than simply a lamp. Each of the light’s 10 bluish-green “branches” can be bent into about any shape, creating undulating arboreal structures reminiscent of the tentacles of an upside-down jellyfish. [check out the lamp in action here.]

The ETree floor lamp will set you back about £1000 (appx. $2068 USD), although there’s a simpler 5-branch table lamp version that’s £360 (appx. $745 USD). They’re available from the Kinetica Design Museum.

By using an array of plasma “tubes” aligned between film electrodes, they’re not only able to keep the display super slim, but the display can actually be bent. While it might not be immediately evident from the photo, the image on the big screen shows the flexibility of the screen material up close.

In addition, plasma tube technology is designed to seamlessly stitch together small unit pieces to construct larger displays. So for instance, multiple 1-meter square base unit could be combined into a larger 1 x 2 or 2 x 3-meter display without retooling.

At this point, the technology is in the very early stages of development, but if they can manage to gear up for production, it could find its way to market in the next 5 to 10 years.

[via TechOn]

The display is the largest full color (4096 colors) flexible display to date, and is visible from a full 180-degree viewing angle. Since the flexible panels only require power when the image changes, they’re extremely energy efficient compared to typical LCDs.

Displays like these are likely to first appear in advertising and commercial applications, but it’s only a matter of time before we see them in appear consumer electronics products.

[via Akihabara News]