A Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (FOLED) is a display that can be rolled up, folded or worn as part of a wearable computer. It is a portable, durable and light alternative to ubiquitous silicon-based LCD displays, the glass displays we have in our computer monitors nowadays. The great promise of this technology, first developed in 2004 at the University of Toronto, is embeddedness: it can be incorporated into car windshields and dashboards, walls, clothing, partitions, windows, cell phones, watches, etc. According to experts, FOLEDs are almost ripe for market, having gone through a fast research and development phase since 2004. Today, corporate mammoths such as Xerox, Lucent and DuPont, are pursuing FOLEDs at full speed, trying to lower the cost of production to where they want it to be. It is ironic to imagine a world where the person walking in front of you would have a screen sewn into her coat, but I am sure many people also thought electricity was such a silly thing back when. Following the mandate of this blog, my main question is how relevant is this particular technology –and new technologies in general- to our immediate future. Will FOLEDs make a better world, or just make better profits for the few? Will they help us pay attention to what is important, or distract us from it? Will they be catalysts, or social sedatives? In any case, the sole presence of the name Organic in the acronym is valuable.
