Flexible

Since 2012, UK-based Power Roll has been working on a way to print low-cost solar film. It's now one crucial step closer to manufacturing its lightweight film, with a new design for its perovskite solar cells that should drop production costs.

While intravenous needles need to be rigid in order to pierce the skin, that rigidity sometimes causes damage to the veins. A new needle addresses that issue by softening upon insertion into the patient's body.

Chain-style bike locks are nice because they're flexible, although they're kinda limp – like a piece of boiled spaghetti. The Abus Goose Lock 6206K is different, in that it's bendy but it holds its shape – more like a giant pipe cleaner.

In order to function safely alongside human workers, robotic arms shouldn't be hard and unyielding. An experimental new arm was designed with that fact in mind, as it mimics soft n' squishy elephant trunks and octopus tentacles.

Lenovo held its Tech World 2023 expo yesterday, with Motorola taking a second stab at a flexible smartphone concept that can be wrapped around the wrist like a bracelet, arched on a table top or stood on its own base.

The Vagabundo Flex tiny house redefines flexible living with its innovative automated lifting roof system. Built by German company Vagabundo, the timber-framed home expands from a compact footprint into a comfy 300-sq-ft space across two levels.

Samsung Display is at SID Display Week with a bunch of OLED innovations including a future laptop screen that expands to offer five times the display real estate, and a sensor-packed panel capable of reading fingerprints and checking blood pressure.

Remember when tripods were just gadgets that kept your camera still? One of the latest to go a lot further than that is Tokqi's CO3 Octopus … and no, despite its name, it doesn't have eight legs.

A team of researchers has developed a new material that’s not only elastic, but is impervious to gases and liquids – something this kind of material is usually bad at. The material could be useful for making flexible batteries or wearable electronics.

Smartphones with a large internal screen that folds out across a hinge have been available for a while now, and we've seen sliding concepts expand display real estate too. Now Samsung Display has combined the two for the Flex Hybrid.

Foldable, rollable and bendable displays are beginning to appear in electronics, but now we’ve had a glimpse at a new take on the idea. LG Display has unveiled the first high-definition display that can be stretched, twisted and folded during use.

Surgeons are increasingly turning to less-invasive techniques, such as utilizing long, thin needles – instead of scalpels – to access targets within the body. A new needle, with a steerable tip, could make such procedures faster and easier.