TL; DR
- A team of Korean researchers has developed a display that can be folded like origami.
- The so-called foldable 3D display can be folded into planes, pyramids and more.
- However, it has a number of disadvantages at this stage of development.
Foldable phones have grown in popularity thanks to devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3, but what if you’re looking for more ambitious foldable technology? Well, we’ve seen a number of official concepts for devices with double or even triple-fold displays. But new technologies have emerged that could increase the stakes even further.
A video clip (seen at the top of the page) suggests that it’s nowhere near as complex and versatile as real origami. It looks like you need a butterfly-shaped display first if you want to have a butterfly, for example. Still, the researchers have some discussed use cases in mind.
“It will be useful where custom portable displays such as electronic newspapers and tablets are required,” Taekhwan Hyun, a member of the research team, said.
However, this 3D foldable display technology currently has a number of limitations. The team finds that the display can be folded and unfolded more than 500 times without sacrificing performance, which still pales in comparison to traditional folding screens on commercial devices. For example, Samsung claimed that the original Galaxy Fold could be folded and unfolded 200,000 times.
The new technology also has an extremely low screen resolution, which consists of a total of 64 pixels. So if you expect screens in VGA quality yourself, you will be disappointed. However, the team found that the resolution can be increased in the future.
It is clear that this technology is still in the early stages of development, but a paper-like foldable display that can be folded multiple times could have commercial potential if resolution and durability concerns can be taken into account.