HP uses new flexible display technology for US Military watchphones

Watch phones continue to be rather absurd affairs, but HP’s latest conceptual project for the United States Military looks to up the ante on watchphones into the awesome.

Internally called their “Dick Tracy Watch,” HP’s new watch phone actually seems more similar to the PIP-Boy 2000 from the Fallout series of games. Their next-generation watch is created with a new flexible display technology that will allow users to display maps and other strategic informations on their wrist while in the battlefield, as well as allow soldiers to “call in” to base.

These flexible panels will be paired with equally flexible solar cells, which will provide the screens with power without the need for bulky physical batteries. The technology has been in the works within HP for the last ten years, but the current process uses machinery that lays down transistors, acids and metal coatings onto a 50 micron thick plastic layer.

According top HP, the technology won’t stay with the military indefinitely: they already expect it to creep into laptops and e-readers before long, although they cite dynamically self-adjusting price labels in stores as a likely real-world first use. As for the watchphones, the first prototypes are expected to hit soldiers wrists within a year.