This stretchable technology goes beyond expanding its size, though, as you can freely twist, extrude, and fold it without damaging the screen.

  • rigatti@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    2 months ago

    I’m not familiar with the phones you mentioned, but folding and unfolding something doesn’t stretch it or change its length. Think about folding and unfolding a piece of paper.

    • yuri@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 months ago

      it does though! even for very thin objects like a sheet of paper, bending anything will stretch/squish material depending on whether it’s on the inside or outside of the bend. that’s why paper becomes creased when it’s folded!

      an easy way to think about it is with tubes. the inside circumference is always smaller than the outside because when you introduce a curve you’re either lengthening the outside, shortening the inside, or both.

      • rigatti@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        2 months ago

        Sure, I agree that there’s some amount of stretching, but not really an amount that’s noticeable on a human scale. Like if you creased one piece of paper then laid it out next to an uncreased piece, you’re not really going to see a length difference.

        • yuri@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 months ago

          you’re pretty much right! there is a difference, but one fold won’t be largely discernible on something like a piece of paper.

          the initial comment was about foldable screens though, which are both expected to fold more then just the once, and are also much more prone to failure as a result of inter-layer stress.

          the issue isn’t that you see the screen deforming, rather the tiny deformations you can’t see are causing issues like delamination or seemingly random failure. but hey, extra stretchy screens could, if not entirely fix, at least mitigate this particular problem!