If you don’t know what an OLED is by now, we’re here to help, because it’s time you informed yourself. It stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode, and it’s one of the biggest up and coming technologies. You may also have heard it refered to as a Light Emitting Polymer (LEP) or Organic Electro-Luminescence (OEL).
Techie speak isn’t my forte, so I’ll let Wikipedia to give you a more thorough background.
“The layer usually contains a polymer substance that allows suitable organic compounds to be deposited. They are deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple ‘printing’ process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colors,” Wikipedia says.
“A significant benefit of OLED displays over traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs) is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function. Thus they draw far less power and, when powered from a battery, can operate longer on the same charge. Because there is no need to distribute the backlight, an OLED display can also be much thinner than an LCD panel.”
At Trendhunter.com, we’ve been keeping tabs on the latest innovations in OLEDs. Take a look at some of the coolest finds and technological advances.
The list ends with advances purely by Sony, the leader in the OLED TV industry.
Transparent OLED Displays
New TOLED Transparent displays are very cool. Check them out! “Universal Display Corporation’s TOLED® transparent and top-emitting OLED technology uses a proprietary transparent contact structure to create displays that can be transparent, that is, top- and bottom-emitting or, selectively, top-… [More]
OLEDs Printed Like Newspaper - GE Roll-to-Roll OLED
Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting in interior design. We have already seen the invasion of LED lights into designs and products everywhere. Now we have the world’s first demonstration by GE of OLEDs printed just like a newspaper. Basically, OLEDs are thin organic materials trapp… [More]
Organic Lighting - GE Working on OLED Lighting
GE has been working on a prototype OLED (organic light emitting diode) “light source” technology. OLED is currently “gaining momentum” for things such as “cell phones, portable media players and even some computer monitors”. However, OLED can also be used to “generate a meaningful source of illumi… [More]
OLED Lamps - Early Future is World’s First
Famous designer Ingo Maurer has designed the world’s first organic LEDs (OLEDs) table lamp for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, entitled Early Future. Early Future made its debut at the Light&Building;fair on 6 April, 2008, and is being produced as a limited edition. Martin Goetzeler, CEO of OSRAM said… [More]
Hard Drive Depicts Data Storage on OLED Art - Ivy By De Groene Banaan
Picture the green banana; the fruit you buy thinking it will turn yellow and ripe. That's the thought process behind the artist approach being applied by the Dutch company, De Groene Banaan. This is the idea that inspired their product named Ivy. It is an external hard drive, with an OLED screen… [More]
OLED Watch Concept - When Shaken, Stars Tell Time (GALLERY)
This is a great concept timepiece by designer Lv Zhogfang. The watch face appears as a random field of moving “stars” or more like balls when the watch is held still. When the wearer shakes their wrist or the glass is tapped, the balls form the hands and hours markers! Very original and fun! [More]
OLED Tile Light - OSRAM is Always Transparent
This flat OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) tile light by OSRAM is transparent whether on or off. “This means that partitions that are almost invisible by day can provide a pleasant diffused light at night, and as the relative strengths of the beams in the two hemispheres of the tile can be adju… [More]
Compenion Laptop Concept (GALLERY)
Designed by Felix Schmidberger, the Compenion is an ultra thin laptop concept that shows us an example of what laptops might look like in the future. The Compenion features an OLED touchscreen that works as both a monitor and keyboard. Oh his Coroflot design page, Felix describes, “The system con… [More]
World's Sexiest MP3 Player - Iriver S10
It may be the world's smallest MP3 player, but it is definitely the world's sexiest. The Iriver S10 features a 1.5” OLED display, 8 hours of battery life, and 2gb of storage. However, the highlight is that it weighs just 17.5g. [More]
Fitness Phones - The Samsung FIT for Fitness Buffs (GALLERY)
Samsung created a phone for the fitness buff called the FIT. This cellphone comes outfitted with a tracking devise for your heartbeat. But that is just the beginning. The FIT offers a computerized trainer or program which, based on the users specifications, designs fitness plans, tells you how many … [More]
Toshiba Gigabeat P MP3 Players – Slim, Sexy, and Colorful
In the never ending quest to defeat the iPod, major brands are becoming more aggressive with their trendy designs. Finally. For Toshiba, this means a new line of small and colorful MP3 players that ooze the word ‘sexy’. If you need an MP3 player to match your runway attire, ditch the overpl… [More]
Apple Ring Remote - iRing Controls iPods (GALLERY)
Another brilliant design concept from Yanko Design. No, this is not meant to consummate your relationship with your media player! It's just a remote control. I hate to be the spoiler again, but I have to wonder if they can fit all the electronics and a battery in a ring that small. [More]
Sony
Sony 27” OLED TV (CES 2008) (GALLERY)
Still in the prototype stage, the 27 inch OLED TV displayed by Sony at this week's Consumer Electronics Show 2008 is a big jump from the 11 inch version currently available, which I posted on TrendHunter.com before. Since the little one sells for $2,500, it's anyone's guess what the 27 inch will s… [More]
Papercut Thin TV Screen - Sony's OLED TV
Sony just officially introduced a brand new papercut thin TV screens. The TV is not yet on the market but Sony will start producing them before the year's end. The difference between these OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs and the flat screen TVs we know today is that this one is a lot thinne… [More]
3mm Flat Screen - Sony OLED (VIDEO)
At the end of the year Sony will begin selling the first of a new category of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) TVs that will offer unprecedented color quality, contrast and wide viewing angles in a thinner package. What’s the downside? A short lifespan, the OLEDs degrade relatively quickly wit… [More]
Sony's Flexible Full-Color OLED (VIDEO)
This week Sony revealed a flexible full-color organic electroluminescent display (OLED). The display, which weight 1.5 grams, is built using organic TFT technology. It's 0.3 mm thin and features resolution of 120x160 pixels. Pink Tentacle informs, “According to Sony, which plans to release a new… [More]
Sony OLED TVs - Razor Thin + Million to One Contrast Ratio (VIDEO)
Sony's latest HDTVs feature OLED technology which enables a razor thin screen and a contrast ratio in the neighbourhood of a million to one. OLED technology will be the future of home entertainment, although you won't be able to pick one of these up at Best Buy any time soon. [More]




