OLED's

While OLED's are not a direct recent multimedia technology, their application and constant development integrated into multimedia appliances has only recently come about. In recent times there has been a new fashion of applying OLED (organic light emitting diode) into mobile phone handsets, which gives the display a clearer and much better viewing in broad day light and the viewing angles meaning that the display appears brighter and colours do not get washed out as easily. Soon enough, the OLED display will give developers a major form of control on the thickness of their handsets as OLED displays are significant thinner. And while the discovery of OLED's is not that significantly recent, its only really just come about into the market, especially with the release of the new Nokia N-series mobile the N85 which has the largest OLED display yet (2.6 inches). However, there is more to the application of the OLED than just the display market.

Due to the nature of the OLED's, it will have a massive impact on society when it becomes mass marketed and produced OLED displays do not consume as much energy. This is because when there is black on the display, the OLED signals are off which gives off no energy for black area's while a standard LCD display will just dampen the LED to give off the black. Also, OLED's do not need a backlight which other displays due such as the aforementioned LCD. Because of this, the impact that it will have on society will be massive due to the growing concern on carbon footprints and the consumption and consequent wastage of energy and electricity. If OLED's are applied into more mass produced technologies then the total energy wastage will be severely improved.

Not only is the the development of the OLED beneficial to the environment, but other future applications of it for the multmedia world can be considered. Due to the nature of the OLED display, it could be applied to pliable materials and media forms such as newspapers which could be a single sheet of printed OLED's which are then foldable, which each page being able to changed to the next page. This then could be converged with touch screen technology to make a multi-interactive application which could be used for future gaming consoles and further developments in the mobile handset market.

References and further information:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled5.htm

http://www.about-oled.com/advantages-and-drawbacks.html

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled3.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode