Universal Display Corporation has submitted to the US Army for testing its wrist mounted display that promises better information display for soldiers on the ground with the flexible displays that it has been developing for years now. Based on its Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Display (PHOLED), this display can lighten the load of soldiers who carry battlefield laptops for communications, and intelligence feeds.

The advantage of the PHOLED display is that it's thin and flexible enough to be mounted on the wrist. Many upper clothing materials used in the field already have wrist mounted map pockets and the use of UDC's product will not only put an easily accessible map for the soldier. It will also be an interactive map which can receive UAV video feeds giving them a bird's eyeview of the battlefield, giving realtime intelligence feed.

Eight (8) units were submitted for testing and these all have 4.3" QVGA full color and full-motion AMOLED display. The units also have lower power requirements, lessing the need to for more batteries that always add to the load of the soldiers. If improved furtheron and with additional communications that have been miniaturized to fit the display, it can also provide a battlefield videocom that can replace radios. Other functions that can be possible used with this display is a battlefield network where units can monitor other units and individual soldiers for proper coordination and reducing the fog of war.

Photo source: OLED-Display.net

If such units get certified for deployment to army units and to other branches of the armed forces, then you get an even lighter fighting force that have excellent realtime intelligence. It will help in many areas, logistics, search and rescue, special operations, intelligence gathering, navigation communications, and knowledge base (which opens a lot of areas as soldiers can tap a database of knowledge such as first aid, identifying weapons, references, and even use it to display photos of enemy leaders

Such technology offers even more potential applications in the civilian commercial market. Rather than carrying a tablet computer, a flexible display that can be folder and put in the pocket can replace newspapers. The lightweight displays can be unfolded to sizes of newspapers and magazines for an even reading experience. Present smartphones and tablets such as the iPhone and iPad can be replaced by this technology in the future.

If such displays can be readily made available in the civilian market, companies such as Battletac can best utilize this for airsoft use. Besides being smartphones or portable computers off the skirmish field, they can be used for airsoft purposes similar to how the US Army will implement them in the near future.