Soldiers at Fort Dix in the US are probably pretty jealous of eight lucky testers, who are currently putting futuristic wrist mounted computers through their paces.
Not just because the cool, curved displays show off strategic information, live UAV video streams and battlefield maps, but because they bear more than a passing resemblance to the iconic Pip-Boy 3000 wrist PDAs of the Fallout games.
The devices are built in collaboration between three leading companies in the field of display technology: LG Display, Universal Display and L-3 Display Systems UDC.
LG’s screens are 4.3-inch, QVGA, full colour and motion AMOLED displays. The front panel, built by Universal Display, uses phosphorescent-OLED technology. The PHOLED technology consumes far less power than other types of screens: important because a soldier can’t be worrying about draining battery life when on the battlefield. The thin, but rugged housing was built by L-3 Display systems.
The devices were recently showcased at the US Army’s C4ISR On-The-Move testing environment, where “they received positive feedback by senior leaders who make critical research, development and acquisition investment decisions,” writes Universal Display in a press release.
Universal Display makes claims that the success seen in testing the flexible display technology, means we might see them in more “novel product designs” in the future. Phone manufacturer Nokia is also researching flexible mobile technology, with prototype keypads that can wrap around your wrist.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
