With Toshiba’s new (currently in development) OLED (organic electroluminscence) Wallpaper, a TV or light fixture coming from your wallpaper may be a reality sooner or later.

The technology itself is adding a green dimension to things that typically would not be considered very green. It is doing so with fewer raw materials used and significantly reduced energy use.  Also eliminating the need for additional space for lamps and televisions could reduce the amount of space we need for living.  Of course we could do that by eliminating TV from our lives.

From the Telegraph article:

The problem that the scientists have had to overcome is increasing the efficiency of existing OLED devices, such as televisions that use the reduced-energy material. To achieve that, the wallpaper uses light that has been redirected by an ultra-fine grating that is fabricated by self-assembled nano particles, said Kaori Hiraki, a Toshiba spokesman.

Another key advantage, the company points out, is that OLED uses a fraction of the energy required for an LCD or plasma television.

The project – which would also enable walls to simply provide light, doing away with the need for traditional lighting – is one of the key areas of research for the nanotechnology department at Toshiba and was first announced at the Yokohama Flat Panel Display International event last year.

Despite the breakthrough, Toshiba said that its television wallpaper project is still in the research stages and is several years away from commercial production.

Source:  Telegraph.co.uk via inhabitat