Sharp's Free

When we say 'television,' you probably think of a large rectangular solid of some sort. And that's pretty normal. While TVs have gotten thinner and broader over the last few decades, they've largely stayed rectangular. Sharp's new Free-Form Display, however, can be any wacky shape you imagine.

An Engineering Challenge

The TV has stayed rectangular for two reasons. The first is a matter of engineering; there's a lot of electronics to stuff into a small space, and often TVs need a thick bezel to keep all those away from the screen. The second is a matter of not rocking the boat. The TV industry has razor-thin margins at the best of times, and completely reinventing something you don't have to costs money TV manfacturers don't have. So why the change?

A Hail Mary Play

Honestly, the TV industry could use something genuinely new. TV sales are dropping constantly as monitors and smartphones become our screens of choice, and it's clear that 4K is not going to be the financial savior everyone was hoping. Hence, actual technological innovation!

This is actually quite clever; instead of putting the gate driver, which is essentially your TV's visual amplifier, in one place, it's distributed across the screen. So it doesn't matter what the TV looks like. It can be pretty much any shape you imagine.

Screening Room

The most obvious use of this technology is going to be in smartphones, ironically enough. It essentially means the already skinny bezels can get even skinnier. We might even see the 'panes of glass' that so many smartphone concepts start as.

But don't discount this technology yet. There are a lot of different display styles, after all, and Sharp would like to keep selling you displays. Expect this technology to come to market in some surprising ways, and sooner rather than later.