Flexible display provider Plastic Logic and Japanese printing equipment manufacturer Toppan Printing have revealed the first large-format flexible digital signage prototype at Retailtech Japan. The 42" (107cm) display is comprised of 16 tiled 10.7" (27cm) Plastic Logic displays with an effective pixel pitch of 0.7mm, which the companies say is around six times higher than existing electrophoretic display (EPD) products.

The display also boasts very low power consumption and can maintain an image even without power, making it ideal for emergency communications, and, being reflective, can be read in any lighting conditions and from any angle.

"This 42" daylight-readable digital signage module is just one of the many exciting and varied applications of our plastic flexible displays, which not only enable particularly light and thin end applications, but also revolutionary form factors, such as wearable and mobile devices," says Indro Mukerjee, chief executive, Plastic Logic.

"This new signage solution offers all the benefits of current EPD signage, including ultra-low power consumption, which is crucial for disaster-ready applications in the post-earthquake society of Japan, but with the additional advantage of a much higher resolution and a considerably lower module weight," adds Jin Endo, head of the business development center at Toppan Printing.