Samsung is betting on elastic screens for the connected accessories of the future, such as activity bracelets. The Korean R&D lab has managed to create a kind of screen that can stick to the skin to pick up the heart rate and display it in real time.
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Technologies aroundflexible screen have taken a good ten years to be mastered and adopted by the High-Tech sector in the form of foldable mobile screens. Here now come the beginnings of the elastic screen. Screens that could be distorted and stretched in all directions like rubber bands. And it is precisely Samsung, one of the precursors of flexible screens which has just unveiled its research in the matter via a publication in Science Advances.
Researchers from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (Sait), Samsung’s Research & Development center dedicated to future cutting-edge technologies, have developed a screen that can be stretched by 30% while maintaining stable performance. This type of screen incorporating pixels You are was used to display real-time data collected by a sensor photoplethysmography (PPG), in other words, the heart rate sensors found under many smartwatches. So it’s kind of a bandage transparent elastic that is applied directly to the skin which allows measurements to be taken and displayed.
As for flexible screens in their time, deforming an electronic device without breaking the components or damaging the electrical connections remains complicated. The researchers first designed a compound polymer elastic serving as substrate for electronic components. The concern is that this material is precisely vulnerable to temperature rises generated by semiconductors. To address this concern, the researchers adapted its molecular composition to strengthen its thermal resistance.
This stretchy transparent skin incorporates both a sensor to read the heart rate and an island of pixels to display the values. © Samsung
30% elasticity
In addition, it was necessary to adapt theelasticity to certain areas. This is the case of the one integrating the pixels of the Oled, where the elasticity must be less important than elsewhere. The researchers also used stretchable conductive materials so as not to break the conductivity, or distort the pixels themselves. Once placed on the wrist of the wearer, the elastic display surface has been able to remain stable and retain its properties despite the movements. In the end, the sensor and the Oled screen continued to function even after being stretched 1,000 times. The other advantage is that stuck to the skin, this system managed to capture the heartbeat signal 2.4 times more important than a standard sensor.
According to scientists, such a system could in the long term replace watches and connected bracelets that one door to measure our biometric data during the sleep or activities. Researchers are already imagining many applications health-oriented for this electronic skin.
What you must remember
- Samsung has created a screen that can be stretched like a rubber band
- It was used as a heart rate sensor and on-skin display
- This type of screen could eventually replace an activity bracelet for example
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