Samsung has announced a fascinating idea for displays of the future: it's currently a prototype, but in the future it could revolutionize the displays we know
While a long-distance battle is going on between LG and Samsung over who has the best proposal regarding foldable displays, Samsung, which with its specific division Samsung Display is one of the world's leading screen manufacturers (it also produces them for competitors, including Apple or Vivo to give two examples), is launching a potentially revolutionary proposal.
Nothing similar had ever been seen before, nor had there been news of a patent that aimed at the goal that now Samsung, without even making too much publicity, has shown the world. It is a 3D screen with a unique feature, a technology far more advanced than that seen on the first 3D screens that until a couple of years ago appeared on the market. Now those displays have faded into the shadows a bit, but a few years ago 3D TVs were available and priced high, even though they involved some compromises such as viewing through special glasses that showed 3D images. All that, it seems, is just a memory.
Samsung Display is 3D for real
Samsung's new idea goes in a different direction, and is potentially revolutionary. Samsung Display has created a concept for a completely new product, a 13-inch extendable OLED panel that can literally move toward the viewer's eyes. In this way the images "come out" of the screen, generating the 3D effect, but because it is precisely the screen to get out of its traditional flat shape.
In other words, the 3D screen of Samsung is able to deform its surface in line with the animation shown, so it is not a simulated 3D effect as in the past but a real 3D, physical. For the demonstration, the company used the image of a river of lava that, once in motion, determines a sort of swelling of the surface of the display itself with a surprising 3D effect.
Need to wait for flexible screens
Naturally, as we said, for the surface to be able to deform following the image is necessary that the same is flexible, so the innovation of Samsung is aimed at the future, when flexible displays will begin to take hold. One can imagine that a solution of this type may debut in a few years initially on monitors and televisions, because the application in smartphones or tablets should reserve significant pitfalls.
The screens of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are in fact continuously stressed: they must be touched in order to interact with them, without forgetting that they are subjected to pressure (for example in the bag or in the pocket) or shocks of any kind and intensity, so we will certainly have to wait a long time, at least until technological evolution will not provide valid solutions to overcome the current limits of foldable screens, and thus extend the field of application of next-generation 3D screens.
That could also come in handy in case a manufacturer wants to recreate the feeling of having a physical button under the fingertip. It's a fascinating idea, but it will take time.