The first flexible plasma displays could be appearing as early as 2010 thanks to a Japanese start-up company called Shinoda Plasma. The company is currently demonstrating a 125" proprietary plasma display a the FPD International exhibition in Japan. The 3m wide screen uses thin glass tubes instead of traditional rigid glass sheets to make it flexible. It is also only a millimetre thick, and very light, weighing just 1.4kg for the whole system, and uses half the power of a conventional plasma screen. Unfortunately, its not altogether clear just how flexible it is. The curvature of the demo unit can be clearly seen, but in the realms of tech-fantasy, not quite curved enough to roll up like a projector screen, which is surely where the concept is going. Being able to hide a massive plasma tv ina reel mounted on the ceiling would be pretty spectacular.
