In this photo released by Sony Corp., the company's new 0.3 millimeter (0.01 inch) display is shown at Atsugi Technology Center in Atsugi, southwest of Tokyo May 21, 2007. In the race for ever thinner displays for TVs, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all, a razor-thin display that bend like paper while showing full-color video. (AP Photo/Sony Corp., HO)

In the race for ever-thinner displays for TVs, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all – a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.

Sony Corp. released video of the new 2.5-inch display Friday. In it, a hand squeezes a display that is 0.3 millimeters, or 0.01 inch, thick. The display shows color images of a bicyclist stuntman and a picturesque lake.

Although flat-panel TVs are getting slimmer, a display that’s so thin it bends in a human hand marks a breakthrough.

Sony said it has yet to decide on commercial products using the technology.

“In the future, it could get wrapped around a lamppost or a person’s wrist, even worn as clothing,” said Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa. “Perhaps it can be put up like wallpaper.”

Tatsuo Mori, an engineering and computer science professor at Nagoya University, said some hurdles remained, including making the display bigger, ensuring durability and cutting costs.