Slashdot Mirror
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?
I'll bet book publishers can't wait to get ahold of this stuff. Then they can bring in (joy!) digital rights management, so if you buy a normal looking book, you can only read it for two weeks before you have to "renew" your licence.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
I was just thinking about this today, check out eink, they say they have a product for release in 1st Quater '02.
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.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Seriously though - Epaper is a cool thing! The main reason why cell phones/pdas/etc are expensive is because the current LCD process is relatively expensive, and in short supply. If Epaper can prove to be a cheap viable alternative then "disposable phones" and miniscule display devices become a reality. Food could have labels that indicate they have passed their freshness date by changing the entire label. I/O with computers becomes easier since you are no longer dependent on "clunky" devices but rather something more intuitive. Billboards can be rewritten without massive printing and painting costs. Magazines could target adds to specific readers (insert scary .Net foreshadowing here). Granted, the idea of the daily news appearing on the same pad every day isn't gonna happen. Its pointless. But being able to read an E-book in a more concrete form? Invaluable. No more strained eyes from trying to read a glaring monitor or a backlit Palm.
Regardless if E-paper really is just arround the corner or not, I'm looking forward to it as I think it has a lot of potential. And yes, it will happen in our lifetimes.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Although flexible electronic display media may someday surpass paper's resolution and readability, it will never equal its absorbency.
The previous mental connection explains why I bust out in grins whenever someone mentions "the paperless office." The image of a pointy-haired boss beckoning pitifully from the executive washroom door comes to mind every time.
Slashdot has covered this kind of story before - here, here and here.
Shh.
But neither of those, in my opinion, qualifies as "electronic paper". What distinguishes "electronic paper" from other kinds of displays is that it retains its contents even in the complete absence of power; with real "electronic paper" you only need power to change the display.
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!
......
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
is fun and games until you need to wipe your arse with it
> 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.
rant
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).
.... that e-paper is just around the corner, because someone told me that E-Paper Moves Closer and someone else said that Electronic paper moving off the drawing board and then I heard that that Full Color Electronic Paper was a Reality.
.... if I got a nickle for every time.....
-Kraft
Live and let live
What do you need to manufacture large quantities of e-paper?
Since if it uses materials we only have limited amounts of, nothing is gained from an ecological perspective.
I suppose they use more lasting material(s) than wood, but which exactly?
Also, how does one recycle these papers? Do you just burn them? I guess you can just flash their memory, but due to human laziness, enormous amounts will probably be just thrown away, and there has to be a good way of taking care of this. We're, after all, talking about e-papers that may not be too uncommon if they get a breakthrough.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Electronic books and paper have been "just around the corner" for ages. How many times have we heard about this new break through which will make paper useless?
First off, paper is easily portable and fairly robust. Moreover, most people prefer to read from paper rather than from screen. This is due to the fact that conventional screens are just tiring for the eyes.
Also, paper is easy to use, and you can just write on printed paper and make marks in all the colours you have available to you. Easy stuff!
Cost is also an issue, e-paper is still way too expensive. Normal paper is cheap and cheerful.
While the reusability of e-paper is great, it's unclear for publishers how to create a good business model from it. People will be much more prone to copy e-books than normal books (ever seen anybody read a book on photocopied sheets of paper?) Thus, a good business model needs to deal with people copying things.
And people just like to hold some physical publication in their hands. Books, magazines, newspapers, printed paper just feels more real.
And finally, some documents need to be physical to have legal status.
These are all reasons why, even when technology wise e-paper is mature, society will not be leaping to accept it.
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.
...Transparent clothing with smoothly moving semi-transparent areas ....
...She dimmed the lights and slowly turned off her blouse.
Evil is the money of root.
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.
I had the opportunity to experiment with a small sample of ePaper and was very disappointed for the following reasons:
1. It was not very reusable. After making one paper airplane, the creases remained very pronounced and at some folds it looked a little cracked.
2. The airplanes I made did not fly very far or well. The material is both heavy and limp.
I cannot imagine ever switching to E-Paper until it is much lighter and stiffer.
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
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.
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
If I write a book today, and someone is entertained by it in 40 years time, why shouldn't I still be rewarded?
You make it sound as if some sugarplump(C) fairy were to descend and drop coins onto your pillow. This "reward" of yours depends on a powerful and undemocratic IP regime. Sklyarov (a Russian) is in jail for violating a U.S. law. There are ongoing efforts to "subtract" functionality from computers. Harry Potter fan sites are shut down, The Church of Scientology has shutdown websites which criticize its practices and quote from Hubbard's diary entries. Rock fans can't post lyrics of their favorite songs. The right of first sale is being undermined, Internet protocols, file formats, data standards (i.e. CD) are being deliberately broken. ISP's are being harassed with lawyer-spam cease-and-desist notices. Individual users, who often can't afford a lawyer, are bullied into shutting down legal websites. Linking to "circumvention" material is now outlawed. Biographies are surpressed because the family (which inherits the "rights" of the subject) threaten to sue authos who excerpt letters or journals. All to protect the copyright regime. See, most of the world doesn't think in terms of you getting "a reward" -- they understand that they are being screwed.
And instead of dreaming of coins rattling on your pillow, you should be on their side.
The commons is important. Shakespeare would not have written half his stuff if similar IP laws were enforced then. He "borrowed" almost all of his plot lines from recently published books or histories. And he didn't buy "the rights" to those works -- he just used them. Be glad he did. When we have a large and growing commons from which authors can draw, it improves literature.
Also, almost all (say 90%) of revenues from median books are made in the first 2 years of publication. If there was no copyright which lasted more than 2 years, we would keep 90% of the money which currently flows to artists. If that number is extended to, say, 10 years, then over 99% of book revenue would be protected. But there would be additional revenue from the new works which are not possible due to a shrinking commons. There would be additional revenue from new distribution models. If data formats and hardware remain open and functional, then even the little guys might stand a chance of self publishing without registering for some XYZcorp "bookGuard" which costs thousands of dollars. More authors, more books, at least as much money as today.
Finally, the problem here with the self-styled "content-providers" I talk to is not that they really believe they are being ripped off or that they will make less money in a world with less copyrights. They just have a basic and fundamental issue with anyone enjoying or benefitting from their work without them getting paid. So I surf to some guys homepage, and he has some photos of flowers and a beach. At the bottom, he writes, (c) blah blah. Now, fantasies aside, either no one will download those pics and pass them around, or someone will and wont pay him for it. Either way he's not getting paid. But it hurts this web "author" that someone somewhere is enjoying his work for free. Imagine if everyone took that approach? What if the gardener copyrighted his contribution to that beach scene? And the guys who cleaned up the trash? How about the architect of the light house in the background -- why shouldn't he be cut in on the action? Perhaps we should wear devices on our eyes to prevent us from enjoying the fruits of others' labor -- without an instantaneous micropayment being sent to their bank account.
Do you see my point? You are not entitled to a cash reward for all instances of people enjoying your work. There must be limits.
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
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 ...
In a sense, i cheated here, most downtowns are already chock a block with video, in store windows and on the tops and sides of buildings, neon, spot lighted displays and Mitsu Jumbotrons and local merchants using LED/LCD displays for their own purposes...epaper will just help organize and increase the deployment rate, as it is less intrusive than putting up a jumbotron....the sensory overload is already bad in some american cities, yes, it will get worse
2. Guess, Gap, Gucci, Hillfiger, Lauren, et al incorporating streaming logo displays in clothing
Transparent clothing with smoothly moving semi-transparent areas ....
as the costs of this stuff scales down, you will have clothing with lots of panel and not much fabric, you can use the panels to mimic fabrics and other textures; scales, skin from other creatures, your desktop wallpaper, your grandbaby's face, whatever...imagine the lawsuits that are gonna happen with this technology
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)
certain people are aleady working on various types of virtual keyboards (one of these companies won a "Best of COMDEX" Award last month, the Virtutech Simics - Way Cool http://www.virtutech.com -- you could have a wrist bracelet PDA screen with the processor/hardware in a bracelet watch combo connected with wireless
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)
Absolutely True --- a combination of Moore's Law and "spoofing" background textures they way games do now will provide some solutions here, until such environments can determine your "area of focus"..you don't need great detail in those areas behind/to the side of you
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.
and currently being worked on in the NL's, it won't be "invisibility" or anything like it, but, even in the 1stGen products it will take tactical camoflage to new levels of effectives (and drive the overhead's CRAZY)..imagine a "tarp" of this stuff covering a tank or a combat fuel depot, mimicing the surrounding terrain, with the tarp also being an emi/rfi shield???
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).
the modern commerical flight simulators already provide most of the necessary environmental factors and when you consider the military flight training sims for the Shuttle and fighter craft (i've heard the F-18 and F-117A sims are remarkably life like), we pretty much have most of this paradigm defined and explored, once epaper is delivered, it's up to the biz types to deliver viable products
in your excellent firefighting example, using the "projection" type of training rooms already in existence for law enforcement and the military, how hard would it be for a company like WED (Disney Imageneering) to add many of the olfactory and tactile elements as they do right now in their theme parks?
perfect???? of course not, but quite a bit better than what we have now....a step forward is just that
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
Anyway, slot machines are how whoever pulls this off first is going to recoup their R&D investment. You'd be amazed how many of the strips that go around the wheels they seem to need!
Once the processes are developed and the initial ramp-up is done, the prices should fall pretty fast.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.