Sony researchers create bendy TV screens

Could revolutionise phones, TVs and PCs

6 October 2008 17:01 GMT / By Katie Scott

Here's one for the future - scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany have teamed up with the clever bods over at Sony to create screens that you can bend.

Facing a countless number of applications (phones, TVs, laptops) if the tech actually becomes available to manufacturers, the bendy screens are just 1mm thick.

They use organic molecules that emit light in all directions to produce an image - even when being bent.

The researchers at Sony and the Max Planck Institute told the Journal of Physics: "The displays have excellent brightness and are transparent, bendable and flexible".

"There are practically no display size limitations and they could be produced relatively easily and cheaply compared to today's screens."

So could they replace LCDs or plasma screens?

Well, the new tech is claimed to be far more power friendly than the current screen technology available.

And these screens can also be stacked to produce 3D images - which would open the tech up for even more manufacturers.

The first commercial models using the tech are a long way off, but it's still exciting imagining what could come out of this.