Researchers of the University of Tokyo in Japan have created a flexible organic electroluminescent display (OLED display) that can be stretched and folded like rubber without influencing the image quality or damaging the display.

According to the team leader Professor Takao Someya, the birth of the flexible display owes to invention of a stretchy and conductive material through spraying a layer of carbon nanotubes with a fluoro-rubber compound. The display is thinner and more energy-efficient than both plasma and other LCD displays.

The scientists have currently produced a 100 cm2 (15.5 in2) with just 256 monochrome pixels resolution. The prototype has been folded more than 1, 000 times, claimed Mr. Someya, and the quality remained the same. The researchers are now working on improving the resolution and adding color displays to the screen.

This technology will be useful in various fields in the future, said Professor Someya. For example, human-shaped display could be used to show medical diagnosis data. And this technology may lead to a real revolution in computers, cell phones and other applications, said him.