LG Display is getting more inventive with its OLED displays, filing a patent for an “Extendable OLED TV” that can emerge from and retract into a rectangular sleeve.
The sleeve the TV retracts into has a wide horizontal slot that will display a part of the screen when it’s not in use, so it can still show a clock, for example, or display the tempo of whatever music you might be listening to.
The patent application was first spotted by Lets Go Digital.
It’s an interesting idea that at first glance seems similar to the transparent bed OLED display that LG recently showed off at the Consumer Electronics Show. That concept involved a transparent OLED display that emerges from the bed frame, as with traditional TV-in-bed offerings. It could also display information at various aspect ratios, with just a part of the screen emerged from the bed and the remainder still tucked away inside the bed.
The Extendable OLED TV could perhaps be fitted at the end of the bed frame, offering alarm clock functionality and maybe health-related data on someone’s heart rate while sleeping, for example. It would be more or less like having a giant smartphone at the end of the bed, and of course, it would free up some space on the bedside table.
It remains to be seen if this new concept will ever appear as an actual product though. The Extendable OLED TV is also very similar to LG’s luxury foldable OLED TV, the LG Signature R that went on sale in South Korea last year for a sky-high price tag, resulting in a rather paltry ten unit sales so far. The difference is that this new concept doesn’t appear to be a flexible OLED display as it simply slides into its sleeve, retaining its shape, rather than rolling up into a base like the Signature R. But that should ensure that any product LG delivers will be a lot cheaper, at least.
In any case it’s good to see LG continue to push the envelope with new OLED TV concepts and designs, along with its ideas for transparent OLED doors and transparent OLED windows that have already been installed in Chinese subways.
