Samsung officially launched their 55" Super OLED TV today. The model number will be ES9500, but we still do not know the release date or price (some estimate it to be around 10 million Won, or $8,700). The ES9500 will support active-shutter 3D and also Samsung's Dual-View technology (enables two different 2D program via the active-shutter 3D glasses).

The ES9500 includes several smart interaction technologies including remote control, voice control, motion control and face recognition (it includes a camera). It features a Smart Evolution upgradeable dual-core CPU. Samsung says that color reproduction is 20% better compared to LED LCDs

The Holst Centre and Solvay report advances in flexible OLED lighting panels. They present a bendable 69 cm² OLED panel that features 30 lm/W efficiency at 1000 cd/m²:

Korean researchers developed a new glasses-free OLED based 3D technology that uses tiny prisms - called lucius prism. The idea is to use an array of these microscale prisms, each basically an OLED to create two different images - one for the right eye and one for the left eye. Currently the researchers describe a four-centimeter square prism array, although they estimate that they can make it larger, to make a 3D TV. The prism array was made from photocurable polyurethane acrylate (PUA), although any kind of transparent polymer could be used.

Back in CES 2011 Sony showed a prototype Head Mounted Display (HMD) featuring two 1280x720 OLED microdisplays. It was just a prototype back then, and now Sony announed that they will release the HMD (called HMZ-T1) in November (in Japan at first) for ¥60,000 (about $780). Sony uses Dual Panel 3D technology which utilizes separate panels for the left and right eyes, each with its own dedicated 3D video.

These Sony-made OLED microdisplays are 0.7" in size each and use the same technology as Sony's recently announced 0.5" microdisplays.

Samsung developed a new 5.2" glasses-free 3D AMOLED panel for mobile applications. Samsung uses a six-subpixel structured white OLED with color filters. The 3D is achieved using fixed parallax barriers and the AMOLED panel features only about 5% crosstalk and is only 1mm thick.

Samsung will present this new panel at SID 2011 (May 15-21). There will be a lot of other OLED presentations and new devices shown at SID.

OLEDNet has published an article on OLED TVs. They basically say that the technology to make OLED TV is getting ready - but companies (such as Samsung and LG) need to be ready for huge investments. They claim that if OLED 3D TV production won't start by 2013, it might miss the 3D TV bandwagon altogether.

Sony 24.5-inch 3D TV prototype

The idea that 3D is a "killer-application" for OLEDs was raised back in January 2010, and since then we heard Samsung, Sony and other company claim that 3D will drive OLED TV growth.

Sony has unveiled a new OLED TV prototype, this one is a 24.5" model that supports glasses-free 3D. Interestingly, Sony plans to launch this TV during 2011 - but for the B2B market (for professional broadcasting use). The quality is great, but the price will be very high of course, so Sony cannot market this to consumers. This is not Sony's first OLED aimed for broadcasting professionals - they also offer the PVM-740 monitor that has a 7.4" OLED (but no 3D).

This TV seems to be quite identical to the one Sony showed at CES 2010, although now the 3D is glasses-free. In any case, it's great to hear yet again that Sony hasn't bailed out on OLEDs...

Update: It seems that the OLED microdisplays are made by Sony themselves and not by eMagin...

Sony is showing a new 3D Head-Mounted-Display (visor) prototype - that uses two 720p (1280×720) OLED microdisplays. Other features includes 5.1 surround audio and a blue LED strip on the front.

This is just a prototype, but it's good to see Sony using OLEDs there (the OLED microdisplays are made by Sony).

According to LG's official flickr account, the company is set to reveal a new 3D OLED TV panel that will be based on the company's new Film-Type Patterned Retarter (or FPR) technology. FPR adds a polarized filter to the TV which enables 3D using passive glasses - which are cheaper than active-shutter glasses. LG also claims that FPR eliminates flicker and crosstalk.

We're not sure if this new OLED TV will be the same as the 31" one unveiled in August 2010 - which also used polarized 3D glasses. But the FPR technology is said to be new, so we do not know. We'll have to wait and see...

Samsung is showing a new flexible 3D AMOLED TV concept - this is one of the ideas that they came up with in their design-your-display contest. The idea is that you can actually fold the TV, and thus get optimum 3D images - from anywhere in the room (not just in front of the screen).

This is just a concept, though - not even a prototype. This technology is probably 5-10 years from being commercialized...