Everyday it seems TV screens are getting larger, while the thickness of the set gets thinner.  However, what if your television could be as big as your wall … and as thin as wallpaper.  Toshiba has been at work making this a reality to give you the ultimate home viewing experience.  A wallpaper that is constructed of flexible OLED (organic electroluminescence) that can emit light in a controlled manner.   In other words, the wallpaper itself can act as a light source, or as a computer display, or as a television screen.  Forget about mounting a flat screen on your wall, this technology allows all (or part, if you prefer) of the surface to “come alive” with light.

OLED is not a new concept, but in the past it has been hampered by an inability to make it truly efficient.  Enter nanotechnology.  Toshiba is experimenting with a wallpaper that is made by self-assembled nanoparticles, allowing the OLED to finally deliver on it’s promise of turning your wall into a giant screen… or just a giant lamp.  It is not unthinkable that this technology will be ready to roll out to the public in the next several years.

Instead of sporting venues paying to hang massive versions of a flat screen television, they could instead use a flat surface that is covered with the OLED wallpaper as their video displays.  The applications for advertising on billboards, sides of tractor trailers, etc. are limitless.  Not to mention the thought of personally having a TV screen on the wall in your home… without hanging anything on the wall.

Just as we look back on the television sets of the 50’s with their large, heavy casings and small screens, future generations might look back and laugh at how we mounted televisions on the wall or had furniture to hold them.   What do you think?

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