No one will deny that the next-generation of 4K (Ultra HD) and OLED TVs are absolutely dazzling from a visual perspective, but that doesn’t mean you can enjoy the experience from anywhere in your living room. As wonderful as LG’s sexy 55-inch OLED or Samsung’s sleek 85-inch S9 might be, the viewing experience can still be pretty flat, literally speaking. After all, they don’t call them “flat-screen” TVs for nothing.
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| Samsung building bendy, flexible TV displays? |
But the time when flat-screen displays are consigned to the great TV scrap-heap in the sky may not be all that far off. Already we’ve seen Samsung and LG come out with curved OLED models, though viewers will need to stay rooted to their sofas to enjoy it. But if Samsung’s new designs are anything to go by, that might not be the case for much longer. A newly published patent suggests that the Korean firm is looking to build a new generation of flexible displays, ones that can be bent into shape via a remote control, offering unparalleled viewing angles from every corner of your living room.
And it’s not just the physical display that flexes its muscles – the remote would also be able to calibrate the images to fit perfectly within the screen’s new shape. All of this would be orchestrated by a “panel deformation member” at the rear of the display.
The patent illustrates how it would be possible to rotate or bend just a portion of the display, or else shift the entire thing, according to the viewer’s preferences. The remote control would work via a bluetooth or infrared connection, pulling up a menu that gives a range of screen configuration options, allowing viewers to customize the degree of rotation and bend to their satisfaction.
Not that Samsung has said anything at all about making flexible TVs just yet. For now, all it’s done is file a patent, but all the signs are that the company is heading in that direction. It’s rumored to have been working on bendy smartphones for some time now – a lot of people were disappointed that the Galaxy SV turned out to be rigid – but it wouldn’t take much more effort to apply this technology to a larger screen size.
One thing we do know is that Samsung is keen on discovering new ways to let people customize their viewing experiences. It’s latest flagship TV, the F8000 Smart TV we saw at CES, features such delights as social integration, a personalized recommendation engine and voice controls. In future, Samsung might just be able to customize the viewing experience in a brand new way, placing an emphasis on next-generation hardware rather than just tailored content.
Source: Patent Bolt