I’ve never understood or written #ruby bindings to other languages. But now, I’ve found motivation. The #taffy UI library written in #rust looks amazing, and #stretchable is a #python binding for it. Can anybody recommend books, videos, or other resources to learn the skills I’d need to write Ruby bindings for it?
#stretchable
LG Display Unveils New 12-Inch Stretchable Screen That Expands Up To 18 Inches #display #hardware #lg #lgdisplay #prototype #screen #stretchable
https://www.lowyat.net/2024/337280/lg-unveils-new-stretchable-screen/
LG unveils a stretchable display that expands by 50 percent when you pull on it
Two years ago LG introduced a stretchable display that could expand from 12 inches to 14 inches when you pulled on it without breaking. Now the company has unveiled an even more durable display that can expand by up to 50 percent when stretched.
The company is showing of a prototype of a new 12 inch screen that can stretch to 18 inches.
While we’ve seen flexible, bendable displays over the years, stretchable screens could open new the doors for new types of digital devices. We’re not just talking about phones with curved edges, but screens that can be “repeatedly stretched over 10,000 times” and can conform to different shapes and sizes.
LG says stretchable displays are a “free-form” technology that “can be freely transformed into any shape, including by stretching, folding, and twisting,” making the thin and lightweight screens appropriate for use in things like smartwatches and other wearable computers or even clothing and and other fashion items where you may want a display which is “capable of adhering to irregularly curved surfaces like clothing and skin.”
According to LG, the new stretchable display prototype features a color screen with micro LED lights for illumination and a resolution of 100 pixels per inch. That may not match the pixel density you’d expect from the latest phones, tablets, laptops, or smartwatches. But it should be good enough to display text, patterns, and other graphics for decorative or informational purposes.
LG isn’t the only company developing stretchable screens. Royole showed off its first micro LED stretchable display back in 2021. But LG says it’s the first company to introduce a model that can increase in size by as much as 50 percent when stretched.
Silicone Devices: DIY Stretchable Circuits
Flexible circuits built on polyimide film are now commonplace, you can prototype with them at multiple factories, at a cost that is almost acceptable to your average hacker. Polyimide film is pretty tough for something so thin, but eventually it will tear, and with larger components, bend radii are quite restricted. But what about stretchable circuits, as in circuits you can flex, twist and stretch? Let us introduce silicone devices. A research group from Hasselt University, Belgium, have been prototyping making truly flexible, silicone-based circuit substrates, managing to integrate a wide range of SMT component types with a dual layer interconnect, with vias and external contacts.
It should be possible to reproduce the process using nothing more special than your average Makerspace CO2 laser cutter, and a couple of special tools that can be easily made -- a guide for that is promised -- it is purely a matter of gathering a few special materials, and using off-cuts you have lying around for the rest. The interconnect uses Galinstan, which is a low melting point alloy of gallium, indium, and tin. Unfortunately, this material is fairly expensive and cannot be shipped by air due to the gallium content, without specialised handling, at considerable expense. But that aside, other than some acrylic sheets, some vinyl, copper foil and a few sprays, nothing is beyond reach.
The construction process is reverse to what we normally see, with the components and copper contact plates placed first, on to a primed vinyl sheet. This sheet is laser marked with the component outlines to enable them to be corrected placed. Yes, that's right, they're using a laser cutter to mark vinyl, a chlorine-containing plastic. Hold on to that thought for a bit.
Insulating layers and substrate layers are constructed by blade-coating with a layer of clear silicone. Interconnect layers are formed by sticking a fresh vinyl sheet onto the exposed contacts and laser cutting just though it to expose the pads and the interconnect traces. Next the fancy Galinstan is applied by brush and the vinyl stencil removed. Rinse and repeat for the next layer of insulating silicone, more circuit traces, then use the laser cutter to precisely etch through the via regions to allow more metalisation to be added. Finally a coating of silicone is applied over the whole assembly, the laser is again used to etch the silicone away from the contact pads, and with a little solder tinning of these, you're done. Simple, if only our Makerspaces didn't have rules against laser cutting vinyl.
This was clearly a very brief overview, here is a very detailed instructables guide ready for you, as well as a formal research paper, detailing why this came about and why you might want to try this yourself.
If you're into custom wearables, you might remember this earlier piece about silicone circuits, and this one weird organic-looking thing from the same time-frame.
Thanks [Daniel] for the tip!
#wearablehacks #elastic #flexible #galinstan #gallium #silicone #stretch #stretchable #wearables
On the technology behind current foldables and future strechable gadgets.
"We figured we’d explain what’s behind that technology to you here so that you’re ready when a phone with a large, bright, flexible display comes to a pocket near you—not to mention even more radical electronic devices that will be possible when their screens can stretch as well as bend."
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