The Russian Central Research Institute of Precision Machine Building (TsNIITochMash) has said that it has developed a highly flexible display that is able to work even after it has been hit by a bullet. This statement comes from an interview with the director of the institute, Dmitry Semizorov, with the Russian radio station Echo Moscow, as published by Sputnik News.
According to the article, the flexible display currently supports only black and white, with color being added in the future. (It seems odd that after developing a plastic based flexible display, the developers first take it out to the shooting range to see what happens, unless of course the development is funded by the military and is aimed at military use.) As it turns out, the display continued to work as designed, with the exception of the hole made by the bullet.
Analyst Comment
Since there is no indication what display technology the institute is using, there is only speculation, such as the connection of an investment by Russian company Rusnano into Plastic Logic some time ago. The use of a plastic based organic backplane in connection with an electrophoretic display would of course yield such behavior. – Norbert Hildebrand
At one time, TI was promoting the use of rear-projection DLP technology in military displays on the grounds that the area of the display that would be disabled if it was hit by a bullet would be much smaller, unless the bullet hit the engine of the projector. (BR)
