Electronic Paper

Omega Prime writes: "The BBC has an article about the latest advances in E-Paper. That is, flexible display media that is both cheap and reuseable. The possibilities for this are endless, Can you say Holodeck wallpaper?" There's also an AP article. Do you ever get the feeling that electronic paper is going to be just around the corner for a long, long time?

Comments

A common conciousness?

[Usquebaugh]

I was just thinking about this today, check out eink, they say they have a product for release in 1st Quater '02.

Real advance is the refresh rate.

[John Harrison]

The advane made is that It also refreshes at about 50 Hertz, fast enough to stream video.

This makes video possible. This is in contrast to other efforts, which have concentrated at static images with relatively slow refresh.

Also, the display is capable of displaying 256 shades of gray. This would make anti-aliased text possible.

Imagine having a roll-up video screen in your pda/laptop. You could have a pen-sized cylinder that is your pda and simply pull the screen out when you needed it.

Re:Phase Three: Profit!

[phoneboy]

Digital Rights Management isn't such a horrible thing, provided they respect the right of first sale throughout the process (meaning, I can buy something and they can't restrict my right to sell it to someone else). However, the cynic in me says this is just one of many ways to eliminate that right.

Personally, I'd love to have a single piece of e-paper for much of my periodical reading. I get many trade rags every week and I throw them away when I'm done with them. A single piece of paper that handles all my trade rags, hm, my wife might like that. :-)

-- PhoneBoy

Re:Real advance is...Streaming Video ALL OVER

[darkPHi3er]

this is the kind of advance that shows how far the Kingdoms of the Sun and the Soft are out of it...

The NextGen of Tech may well go to the device manufacturers and the consumer megalopolies who actually try to deliver what customers want...

Imagine the Gibsonian uses for this stuff...

1. Advertisings displays out of BRunner and Neuromancer, entire urban Downtowns morphed into 24/7 streaming video walls

2. Guess, Gap, Gucci, Hillfiger, Lauren, et al incorporating streaming logo displays in clothing

3. Functional PDA's that are wearable and shapeable to specialized applications

4. Rooms that can be turned in SensorySurround MM experiences with 5.1 or DTS or DolbyPro, throw in a DVD or IMAX experience, talk about "Immersive"!!

5. Genuine combat gear (ala "Predator") that can mimic the surrounding environment..the ultimate "Ghillie Suit" for snipers and SpecOps

6. Completely accurate training environments for many, many "environmentally difficult" training situations from fire/rescue, law enforcement, combat, flight, driving, to Wall Street Trading Floor Simulations...WHOO DOGGIE!

7.??????????????

Gibson, Shirley, Bova, Vinge, Cadigan...Your World and Welcome to it!
......

Re:Phase Three: Profit!

[Anonymous DWord]

Well I think the obvious next machination would be a wireless net connection embedded in each one. Then you can take Slashdot on the bus, read the NY Times, all your email, and take care of all your business. Even run a whole OS, eventually. Then you could really take your work home with you.

Re:Readability the big win

[armb]

> Who wants a floppy display?

Anyone who doesn't have permanent room for a rigid one the size they want. Most home cinema projection screens roll up. Now you don't need the projecter.

On a smaller scale, you can fit a large laptop sized screen in your pocket with your Palm sized device.

Re:Real advance is...Streaming Video ALL OVER

[Aceticon]

Imagine the Gibsonian uses for this stuff...

1. Advertisings displays out of BRunner and Neuromancer, entire urban Downtowns morphed into 24/7 streaming video walls


This will definitly come to be - specially if producing large surfaces of e-paper is cheap enough. Then again, having moving images all around you might be a bit of a sensory overload ...


2. Guess, Gap, Gucci, Hillfiger, Lauren, et al incorporating streaming logo displays in clothing


Transparent clothing with smoothly moving semi-transparent areas ....


3. Functional PDA's that are wearable and shapeable to specialized applications


The problem here is how to input data and give commands to the PDA. An actual flexible screen is probably a no-no for most applications (imagine reading your newspaper with no hands - not very practical)


4. Rooms that can be turned in SensorySurround MM experiences with 5.1 or DTS or DolbyPro, throw in a DVD or IMAX experience, talk about "Immersive"!!


If the wide e-paper surfaces are made cheaply maybe. The problem here is either big pixels (small number of pixels - big surface) or lack of storage and bandwidth (lots of pixels, lots of data - to keep the same pixel-size, the number of pixels increases roughly with the square of the diagonal, and so does the ammount of data)


5. Genuine combat gear (ala "Predator") that can mimic the surrounding environment..the ultimate "Ghillie Suit" for snipers and SpecOps


If you can get good enough sensors to feed the screens plus color screens, then yes, this is a very realistic possibility.


6. Completely accurate training environments for many, many "environmentally difficult" training situations from fire/rescue, law enforcement, combat, flight, driving, to Wall Street Trading Floor Simulations...WHOO DOGGIE!


Preparing for high-stress situations wich happen in non-controled environments (an airplane cockpit is a controled environment) requires not only quality imaging but also other inputs such as sound, smell, temperature - imagine training fireman - some of the most inportant inputs for an experienced fireman come from the senses of smell (smoke), sound (a wooden beam starting to break) and touch (feeling burning hot air coming from a certain direction).

I'll fight this tooth and nail

[empesey]

I hear talk of paperless offices and paperless this and paperless that. Why are we so opposed to paper? As someone who spends 50-60 hours a week on a computer, I need my paper. It's the last bastion of sanity I have left.

I don't want to be permanently attached to cell phones and hand-helds. I keep my to-do list on a little scrap of paper, that neatly fits into my pocket. At the end of the day, it's dutifully thrown into the trash bin. It works just as well as any $160 dollar device, and it never breaks down or crashes. Heck, it's not even bulky like those personal organizers.

Re:I'll fight this tooth and nail

[sydbarrett74]

Why are we opposed to paper? For one thing, it has grave environmental costs. Even with all the recycling of paper (and most of it still gets thrown out), trees still need to get cut down to make virgin pulp, because paper has a limit to how many times it can be recycled (eventually the fibres break down). Not to mention the fact that rather nasty chemicals are used in its production. One may counter that the production of ePaper will involve equally nasty and toxic compounds (after all, electronics manufacturing is one of the dirtiest industries on the planet), but if I produce one unit that will last twenty years, I'm using fewer harmful chemicals than if I produce many millions of pieces of paper, and saving trees in the process. Ever since the advent of the electronic computer, the world's consumption of paper has increased exponentially -- meaning large swathes of virgin forest have to be cut down. This is a trend that NEEDS to be reversed or at least stopped dead in its tracks. I mean, get over it. The argument for the 'feel' of paper and all of that sentimental tosh is a strawman. If I had an ePaper medium that was easy on the eyes, I'd gladly abandon paper for it. Are you going to use the same sentimental argument about cuneiform? 'Boy, that new-fangled paper stuff just doesn't have the "feel" of chiselling into hard slate or granite. I need to keep my sanity by etching runes into this stone here.' Nonsense! If our ancestors could abandon the old in favour of the new, so could we.

E-Paper could bring about social injustice

[wackysootroom]

If e-paper ever becomes standard, only people with computers or access to a computer will be able to write books and letters. If books are distributed digitally, then printed on e-paper, poor people may not be able to afford to read.

The document about the right to read really applies here whether you agree with it or not.

E-paper should go the way of E-toilet paper....
flush it down the toilet.

1984?

[fanatic]

What happens when documents can be changed at will, including copies already 'printed'? Orwell said: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." If all documents a published on this stuff, a level of control becomes possible that was previously unthought of. Give me documents that are immutable, please.