“Our mission is to improve the way people interact with the world.”
— Bill Liu, Royole CEO
Some of Royole’s accomplishments include creating the world’s thinnest full-color AMOLED flexible display (pictured above), the world’s first foldable 3D mobile theater, the world’s first curved car dashboard based on flexible electronics, and the world’s first high-definition Flexible+ Wearables featuring flexible display and sensor technologies. The forward-thinking company is now designing and manufacturing from their own mass production campus, allowing them to provide fully flexible solutions on a global scale.
How did one company revolutionize the world of tech? According to CEO Bill Liu, they did it by thinking about innovation every day and making it the “DNA of the company.” We spoke with Liu to ask about the future of tech, how to enter the space, and discover how Royole is changing the way people interact with the world around them.
Innovation & Tech Today: What do you think the future holds for display technology?
Bill Liu: When we’re looking at the world, we need to interact with so many things. Today, we interact with the smartphone by the touch screen. We interact with the internet by computer monitor. And we interact with TV content by the TV screen. In the future, I think everything could be decorated with screens and sensors and information could be flowing everywhere.
When you go anywhere, you could interact with objects around you. Not only smartphones or computers. It could be a desk, our clothes, our pants, our T-shirts, it could be a sofa or a recliner. Everything could be integrated with flexible displays and flexible sensors. And then it can actually provide another way for us to interact with the objects around us and with the world.
I&T Today: What are some of the most creative ways your technology is being incorporated into existing applications?
BL: We’re currently working with different industrial partners. For example, in the consumer electronics area, you can change the design on a smartphone, tablet, or TV. For smart transportation, you can integrate flexible sensors and flexible displays into the leather inside the car or you can decorate the glass. Those integrations will make the interior of the car more intelligent and also more stylish than before.
We are also working with robotics companies, so you can design robotics with flexible displays and flexible sensors to make the robotics more human-like, with more rounded and curved designs. We are also working with smart home appliance companies so they can design new appliances with flexible displays.
We’re also working with education partners to use our flexible electronic notebook, RoWrite. It’s just like using a traditional pad to write on traditional paper, but the flexible sensor under the paper can simultaneously record what you write on the paper and sync the content to your smartphone. You won’t worry about losing the paper and you keep everything on your smartphone, but still keep the same writing experience as with traditional paper.
I&T Today: What advice would you offer to entrepreneurs who are hoping to enter the tech space?
BL: Find something that you are really passionate about and something that you are more specialized in. Find something that is truly valuable to the community and to society. I think that’s the key. If you find something in this area, then devote everything from yourself into it, and you’ll definitely make something happen.
