Televisions of the future will be completely flexible

TVs are getting bigger and thinner every year, but today LG announced its plans for a paper-thin television panel that’s flexible enough to roll up and store in a tube. The South Korean company hopes to release the first 60-inch HD rollable TV by 2017, BBC reports. The biggest advantage to rolling up your TV will likely be portability, but LG says the new screens could also be used in new and exciting ways. Essentially, it could mean putting bigger screens in more places, opening up the possibility for video ads to play on columns or even slapping a high-def TV on an airplane. At a smaller scale, it could also mean curved super-thin tablets and wearable devices.

LG has announced the release of two new paper-thin TV panels, with one that is so flexible it can be rolled into a 3cm diameter tube. The company stated it is confident it will produce a 60in (152cm) Ultra HD rollable TV by 2017. LG unveiled one of its first flexible TVs at CES – a global consumer electronics and technology trade show – earlier this year. Experts say flexible screens could see TVs used in more creative ways. The new flexible panel has a resolution of 1,200×810, which is left undistorted even after it has been rolled into a 3cm cylinder. LG says the flexibility was achieved thanks to using a backplane made of “high molecular substance-based polyimide film” instead of plastic. The second panel is transparent and is said to greatly surpass earlier models, with the company boasting of a significant reduction in hazy images and a 30% increase in transmittance, which is responsible for the screen’s transparent effect. The company has claimed its new screens prove they are on track for much larger, Ultra HD-capable flexible screens in the near future, asserting they are “confident” they can deliver a 60in rollable panel by 2017.