Tech - The Light Fantastic

Mukul Sharma

Home lighting in the future, as far as science fiction is concerned, often consists of surfaces like walls, ceilings, floors and other household faca
des emitting radiance when required. For instance, the illumination tiles used in Richard Morgan’s SF novel ‘Altered Carbon’ or the video wallpaper from Vernor Vinge’s ‘A Deepness in the Sky’.

Lighting in the future, as far as fact is concerned, is heading in the same direction. Ten to 15 years from now incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes and CFLs are going to be lightings of the past because of rapid advances in the field of organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs. These are electronic devices made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors that begin to emit a bright light when an electrical current is applied.

And since these systems can be made as thin, flexible and translucent as paper, one could simply buy a large sheet of such self-luminous material, cut it to the needed shape and paste it wherever one wanted — including around pillars, on kitchen tops and against bathroom mirrors. Thin strips could also be taped to the underside of window blinds to give the impression of daylight streaming in at night.

OLEDs can be configured to function as monitors too. Which means televisions, PCs and hand-held devices like cellphones, music players and digital cameras can use them as display screens that are more robust and much thinner than even plasma or LCD devices.

In fact, a few Japanese electronic companies are already selling TV sets incorporating OLED technology and, in time, their application can only get increasingly more gee-whiz. For instance, if the windscreen of an automobile is OLED compliant it could not only project see-through dashboard information as a heads-up display but also relay real-time streaming GPS data.

Meanwhile, the other windows of the car can be used as computers or game consoles. And that’s only the beginning. Because OLEDs refresh almost a thousand times faster than LCDs, their display can change information in a fraction of a second so that video, voice and text data can be continuously updated.

A newspaper in the near future would be able to supply breaking news — along with moving images and audio — constantly. When not in use it can be folded and put into a purse or pocket.