John is talking at this year's Printed Electronics Europe conference. If you're going to the show please let us know and do come along to his talk. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more.

Plastic display technology developers have struggled to find high value applications for early market entry.High information content displays cannot immediately rival glass based displays. We present a number of non-traditional applications where we provide solutions based on guest-host liquid crystal (GHLC) plastic displays, enabled by the specific advantages of the substrates and optical modes.
Read more at: http://www.idtechex.com/events/presentations/non-display-applications-for-plastic-displays-006450.asp

We've just completed a TSB funded feasibility project, in collaboration with Colour Synthesis Solutions. We're talking about it this week at the Collaboration Nation event in London.

Malicious use of high power laser pointers on aircraft is rapidly growing: there are over 10 incidents per day in European airspace, up 14x from 2008. It is particularly dangerous at night, during final approach. The bright light causes distraction or temporary blindness and is a serious public safety hazard.

Green lasers are the most hazardous because the eye is most sensitive to that colour. There is a need for an active system in which a filter integrated into the pilot's visor or eyewear can be switched to selectively block the laser wavelengths when a beam is detected, but still allow other colours through so that the pilot can safely control the aircraft.

Our solution is to use our plastic display technology to make an active shutter that can block the laser light, but still allow enough of the other colours through to allow the pilots to safely land their aircraft.

Folium Optics specialises in plastic display technologies. The plastic allows us to make the shutters very thin and robust. They can also be any shape and can be curved to fit into the goggles.

If you're interested in finding our more about this technology please do get in touch.

The Times newspaper wrote a feature about the companies being incubated at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory - including Folium. Take a look if you're interested in finding out about the mix of companies in the incubator.

We've developed a new technology that could help cyclists be more visible and stay safe. It's an animated reflector, rather than a blinking LED. It's made of thin, flexible, robust plastic, that switches between bright white and an eye catching colour. Check out the video of it in action on our home page.

We're exploring how we might turn this into a product to help cyclists. Your thoughts will be helpful, so we'd appreciate it if your could complete our short survey. It will only take a minute - and you get to see a close-up of the reflector!

We're looking for engineers to join our team - if you're interested, please get in touch.

Our displays are featured in this blog about medical products. Our displays enhance the usability of devices, are low power and look great. Please contact us if you would like to find out more.

We're very proud that at the Printed Electronics Europe conference G24 Power are showing a keyboard that features one of our reflectors. The wireless keyboard is powered by a GCell dye sensitized solar cell. We have made a reflector film that covers the solar cell and the keyboard to give a seamless finish. Our reflector gives a bright vibrant look with minimal degradation of the PV output.

We'll share more details of our reflector technology soon, but in the meantime, please contact us if you would like more information.

John is speaking at this year's printed electronics show in Berlin. If you're going to the show please let us know and do come along to his talk: Tuesday 1st April at 16:45

High Efficiency Colour Displays; Fundamentals, Fabrication and Resident Elephants
Robust, sunlight readable, low power colour displays have been an unattained goal for display developers for many years. We explore who wants these displays, and what applications would be enabled by their successful development. The challenges of fabrication of highly optically efficient, functional plastic substrates are discussed, and a new means of handling flexible substrates through the manufacturing process will be introduced.