—by Richard Mandel

Two researchers in Dublin's Media Lab Europe have designed a tooth that could be used to wirelessly receive digital signals from a mobile phone. James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, who are now researchers at Media Lab Europe, came up with the idea as part of a future product competition run by the UK's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts while at the Royal College of Art. The futuristic tooth would use wireless technology, such as 802.11 or, uh, Bluetooth, to take signals from audio devices such as mobile phones, radios, stereos or computers. These signals would be changed into vibrations that would travel from the tooth, to the skull, eventually creating audible sound in the user's inner ear. No one but the user would be able to hear the sounds. The two have not yet built a prototype, and Auger is hesitant to say whether they would be interested in turning the project into a commercial venture. “That was never really our intention,” Auger explained. “What we were really interested in was the feedback that the idea generated.” He went on to say that part of the project was simply to see how people reacted to futuristic biotechnology that was easily foreseeable, but did not yet exist. “Mostly people were shocked at the idea,” Auger claimed. “There is huge debate with these kinds of things. If you apply Moore's Law to digital implants, it seems to make sense that in 30 years artificial eyes and artificial ears will be available with superior capabilities to normal eyes and ears. Would people trade in their natural eyes for ones with night vision or telescopic sites? And more importantly, how are people going to feel about this sort of thing if they do?” Media Lab Europe, or connect directly at www.rsleads.com/209df-101

Toshiba Corporation announced development of the world's first large flexible liquid crystal display, opening the way to the display of images on curved screens and moving toward the long-term goal of foldable LCDs. The new display is a full color, 8.4-in. super-slim low-temperature polysilicon active-matrix TFT LCD supporting SVGA resolution. The flexible LCD brings new potentialities to design, while its slim profile — less than 0.016 in. — achieves a weight under 0.7 oz — a quarter to a fifth that of present low temperature polysilicon TFT LCDs. The flexibility of the screen also increases its resistance to shock. Toshiba realized the flexible display by developing technology to achieve an extremely thin glass substrate, the layer on which TFTs are formed, and attaching it to a flexible sheet. Displays using this technology can be manufactured at the normal process temperature. The new display can be flexed in all directions and bent to form a curve with a radius of curvature as small as 8-in. Other approaches to a flexible LCD have followed the approach of forming transistors on a flexible plastic substrate at an extremely low temperature, which did not achieve sufficient transistor quality or reliability. Applications for the new display will include TVs with curved screens that can be mounted in public information displays in trains or buses. Toshiba is now developing mass production technology for the display and Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. expects to launch commercial products after fiscal year 2004. Toshiba Electronics, or connect directly at www.rsleads.com/209df-102