Stanford University researchers have shown off a small, light emitting film that stretches like a rubber band while beaming out the university’s iconic ‘S’ logo.
The stretchable display is part of a quest to build “skin-inspired electronics” at the US university’s Bao Group Research Lab.
Stanford University
chemical engineer Zhenan Bao and her research team have worked for three years on the project that was published in Nature on March
23.
The proof of principle that the scientists have detailed, demonstrates a stretchable, potentially re-shapable display that uses a new method to produce
a high-brightness elastic light-emitting polymer.
Bao and her team have managed to create a device that has a maximum brightness at least two
times that of a mobile phone and that can be stretched up to twice its original length without tearing.
In a comment on the
Stanford University website, Bao said: “Stretchable displays can allow a new way of interactive human-machine interface. We can see the image and interact
with it, and then the display can change according to our response.”
The team believe that stretchable displays could be used to produce
re-shapable interactive screens, or form 3D landscapes on a map in future applications.
“Imagine a display where you can both see and feel
the three-dimensional object on the screen,” Bao said. “This will be a completely new way to interact with each other remotely.”
[Via Stanford University]