Imagine -- an Apple iPad in your pocket...

By Jonny Evans

Reports that Apple [AAPL] may have invested a billion dollars with Sharp to guarantee display supply as its battle with Samsung intensifies are interesting, but a report explaining a discovery which could let you roll your iPad up to fit inside your pocket seems far more entertaining to think about.

[ABOVE: Too much to love in this video showing 3M's flexible touchscreen concepts. Imagine an iPad like this....]

Roll your own

US researchers have apparently developed a new high speed organic semiconductor material which: "They believe could allow devices like the iPad to be rolled up and placed in a user's pocket just like a paper magazine."

Not only this -- and this is a big breakthrough, because this has been a problem up to now -- but the material is said to be 30 times faster than the silicon used in today's LCD displays.

Of course, research like this isn't new. There have been people attempting to create a flexible display for years. While the report that caught my interest today comes from Harvard University, eInk and Epson have also worked to develop technologies to support this.

The partners are working away at developing 300-dpi, high-resolution e-paper displays, which will be: "Mainly used in commercial and educational e-book readers with screen sizes of 11 inches and above and sold in Japan and mainland China."

Again, in 2009, you find reports from the University of Cincinnati's Novel Devices Lab which describe electronic paper prototypes that can form 1,000 colors. In 2003 you find reported developments from The Netherlands which supported quick changes of what is displayed on an electronic paper screen.

What you gonna do?

Of course, some of these implementations require a solid display, aiming solely to recreate the crispness and clarity of paper on a screen. But the notion of flexible electronic displays surely opens up new opportunities for any product designer, assuming the technology ever actually reaches a point at which it can be described as mass market usable.

Also assuming the product's components could be made flexible, how might you use your flexible iPad 9?

Reaching into his pocket, Max pulled out a roll of paper. "Phone" he said, the area of paper closest to him flickered into life and a telephone dialing interface appeared. "Call Mom," he said.

While speaking to his mother, Max agreed to run an errand. She needed something from a shop he didn't know. He unrolled his iPad to full-size, and said "Map". The 3D map which appears is both lush and informative, a few spoken commands and he had the place he needed to get to.

Returning his iPad to his pocket the device walked him to his destination using spoken instructions through his earphones.

Fiona had an important presentation to make using her iPad Pro. Entering the room she pulled her iPad out of her pocket. Unrolling it to its full 30-inches she placed it on the wall using the magnetic 'tacks' she carries for this, and launched into her spiel.

Then there's other potential implementations:

• A wearable iPhone, part of your clothing
• A light and incredibly portable keyboard for use with any of your devices.
• Newspapers sold in newspaper shops, which then automatically refresh their content each day (subscription required)
• Medical devices: for example, heart rate monitors, glucose meters and the like
• The ultimate prize for a championship round of scissors, paper, stone.

I'll freely admit that not so many of these things exist yet, at least, not beyond r&d labs, but there's certainly hundreds of minds addressing the development of technologies such as this. There's even an annual trade show the Flexible Electronics and Displays Conference and Exhibition.

Of course, the display is only part of the challenge when pondering fully flexible electronics. You also need flexible circuit boards and other components.

[ABOVE: Steve hasn't started unrolling his yet.]

Disruptive by design

In July, the FlexTech Alliance announced: "Recent progress on developing printable conductive inks, flexible substrates, and associated continuous processes for making electronics means there is now an advancing infrastructure ready for the practical manufacture of disruptive new products."

There was even a session. Jennifer Ernst, Vice President, North America, Thin Film Electronics ASA presented High Volume Production of All-Printed Re-Writable Memory Products for Consumer Applications.

In this she showed that printed non-volatile RAM when combined with printed transistor elements: "Serves as the basis of a new generation of cheap, disposable, and highly-ubiquitous electronic devices."

Right now these things are for toys, games and price tags, but as the color support and capability of the technologies grow, who knows where these things could end up?

I guess it comes down to finding good answers to various compromises. For example, are these devices sufficiently capable? Can they support HD video? Would experiences based on these solutions match with what consumers now expect from devices like the iPad or iPhone?

As the technology experience becomes ever more based on a user's relationship with a screen, I can't help but imagine that technologies such as flexible displays will be one of the sectors from which future disruptive products will come from.

How would you like to see them used? Please let me know in comments below. Please follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when I post new reports here at Computerworld.