In the September 2008 issue of The USIM Gazette®, we detail how the advertising industry can utilize certain types of emerging technologies to display adverts on buildings. One technology discussed therein was Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays, which can be as little as 3 millimeters thick and very flexible, and are now being used in certain Sony televisions. OLEDs may eventually be used to “cloak” large, irregular surfaces such as skyscraper exteriors, turning them into mega-scale video display systems.

OLEDs can be made to be so flexible and thin as to be wearable in luminous clothing. As the technology evolves (maybe 10-15 years), people may be able to wear shirts that both provide fashion, protection and display their favorite TV show.

Compared with regular LEDs, OLEDs are lighter and, as discussed above, highly bendable. In addition to their future usage as giant electric billboards and for converting entire skyscrapers into display systems, OLEDs are currently being used at smaller magnitudes in the display screens of cell phones, digital cameras and MP3 players.

An older technology that is being used now in a new way is the light emitting diode (LED). One innovative use of LEDs is to convert buildings into giant display systems, via an emerging platform known as multimillion light emitting diode arrays.

The LED was first invented in Russia in the 1920s. As a manufacturable electronic component, the LED was introduced into the United States some forty years later. Gradually, LEDs have become more prevalent in a wide-range of applications. LEDs key benefits, compared to the standard incandescent lights which they are increasingly being used as a replacement for, are: (1) high efficiency, as measured by light output per unit power input; (2) form factor (can be as small as 2 millimeters); and (3) hours of useful life, as certain types of LEDs have been shown to operate for as long as 100,000 hours.

Recently, Walgreens, one of the nation’s leading pharmacies, opened a new, 16,000 square foot store in 1 Times Square (New York City) that features a 17-story sign (about 187 feet) on the street ward façade and on two adjoining sides. The sign is a multimillion light emitting diode array comprised of approximately 12 million LEDs. Walgreens has inked advertising deals for the display with some of the world’s foremost marketers, including Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft Foods and Johnson & Johnson.

According to The New York Times, the Gilmore Group, based in New York, devised the signs, and will use a subsidiary for the creative.

By Darrell Woody

Gazette Staff Writer