The Future of Billboards: Bendy and See-Through?

What if you could take a video billboard like those that light up Times Square and wrap it around a bus--without impeding the passengers' view through the windows? While some folks who worry about ads saturating our environment would probably be horrified, others might admit that it would be a pretty neat technological trick. Now, a new method of producing the inorganic light emitting diodes (ILEDs) that light up billboards offers a possible way to bring that trick about. The findings, published in Science, come as something of a surprise. It's been organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) that have been a hot field of research lately, as scientists experimented with ways to spread films of organic compounds--which emit light when an electric current passes through them--over thin, flexible surfaces. But OLEDs aren't very powerful, which caused lead researcher John Rogers to look for new ways to make inorganic diodes. Says Rogers: