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Electronic Paper Advances
ke4roh writes "Electronic paper comes a step closer," says a Reuters article today. The paper, made by E-ink bends and makes for a higher contrast display, perhaps for e-books and cell phones. It reminds me of Jim Willard's Paper Computer, but their web site is history. Slashdot previously discussed color electronic paper."
is that electronic aper? paper? or diaper? We could really use some electronic diapers for my daughter, ones that let us know when to change her!
I somehow think to make this technology practical that having e-paper acting as a computer is a waste of resources.
It's better off being a kind of terminal, then minimal storage and CPU power will be needed on the device.
These won't be slimline Tablet PCs.
e-paper doesn't make any sense to me.
paper-paper is super cheap because of the abundance of renewable resources available for its manufacture. If you want to update what's on the paper, just make the changes in Word and print a new copy. Why is that so hard?
I'm all for technology and progress, but epaper is one of those solutions in search of a problem.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
"paper-paper is super cheap because of the abundance of renewable resources available for its manufacture. If you want to update what's on the paper, just make the changes in Word and print a new copy. Why is that so hard?"
Are you serious? Do you really think it's about paper being hard to use? Honestly dude, you must be intentionally trying not to see the value here in order to score some insightful moderations.
Here are a few useful applications of e-paper:
- Single-page newspapers and books. Not only would you not have to worry about portability, but you wouldn't have to worry about bookmarks either.
- Billboards would be much easier to update. No more repainting or repapering them, just send a new graphic to them and they change automatically. They could even cycle the ads.
- Credit cards could show your balance available.
Etc etc etc.
Paper may grow on trees, but there are serious problems with it accumulating. The 'make the changes in Word and print a new copy' may sound deceptively sensible until you realize you have to get rid of the original copy.
Right now I'm reviewing a manual for a product my company is developing. This means lugging a stack of paper around. It's obnoxious. I'd LOVE to have a single sheet of paper that updates whenever I press the 'next page' button. I guess I could read it off my PocketPC, but it's awfully small...
"Derp de derp."
Is this so crazy, if the contrast is high enough?
When I'm choosing books I like to be able to feel them, judge them on their physical characteristics. (What the cover looks like, quality of paper, size, etc)
:)
Plus I usually flip through the book, read a couple pages just to see if I like the tone. It just wouldn't be the same
Driving backwards on the highway of life
"Digital copiers (even digital color copiers) are not expensive anymore, so I just don't get why we don't see this."
When you are printing 20,000,000 books it is an order of magnitude cheaper to use a proper industrial printing system designed to print x,000,000 books than x,000,000 smaller printing systems. This is more than enough to overcome the cost of distribution.
Your system would be better for small runs of reasonably unpopular books, but wouldn't be cost effective for (say) Harry Potter. Because without Harry Poter et al the small decentralised model wouldn't sell enough to make money, the whole thing ends up back as a centralised system with one big printer that just (in large part) ignores the less popular books that only a few people want.
Beep beep.
Well, since the paper computer is solar powered, you don't have anything to worry about. I doubt you get much sun back there
- Single-page newspapers and books. Not only would you not have to worry about portability, but you wouldn't have to worry about bookmarks either.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still haven't seen an ebook interface that is as intuitive as a real book or paper. It's pretty easy to see a paperclip (or whatever) in the top of a book. Having to press a few buttons to "mark" a place, then press a few more buttons to get back to that place is a PITA.
And the difficulty of moving around books and papers is greatly exaggerated.
- Billboards would be much easier to update. No more repainting or repapering them, just send a new graphic to them and they change automatically. They could even cycle the ads.
One, it's more difficult than "just" sending a new graphic to them. How do you get the graphic there? Two, keeping an e-paper sign lit up costs a lot more in electricity than paper-paper.
- Credit cards could show your balance available.
Whoopdy-freaking-do. If that's a problem, you have bigger problems.
Paper may grow on trees, but there are serious problems with it accumulating.
It's called "recycling". Which is much easier to do with paper than electronics.
The arguments for epaper are just not compelling in my opinion.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
There exists a real need for moving some of the bits I see on my CRT (actually, 3 20" CRTs as one virtual desktop, but I digress 8-) a few meters over, in a form factor appropriate to the venue.
Specifically, I'm talking about moving some of the bits described in this article, like those you can find here , onto digital paper so that I can then wander over to my lavish master bathroom, where I'd like to then peruse same either sitting on the porcelain throne or wallowing in the hot jacuzzi in close proximity.
A laptop/pda does not (IMHO) fit the bill here - but a (preferably steamproof 8-) 'digital' paperback (uploadable via a USB socket in the spine, perhaps) would certainly be welcome. At the cost of a half-dozen paperback novels (~US$50) I think they'd sell a boatload of the things... I'd buy one!
Have fun!
OldFart 8-)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still haven't seen an ebook interface that is as intuitive as a real book or paper. It's pretty easy to see a paperclip (or whatever) in the top of a book. Having to press a few buttons to "mark" a place, then press a few more buttons to get back to that place is a PITA.
I wonder if it would really require such a PITA to deal with this. You read the page that you were last reading.... nothing else in the way. When you need the next page hit the page + button.
And the difficulty of moving around books and papers is greatly exaggerated.
I think the point made was more about the difficulty in composting/landfilling/recycling the old editions.
One, it's more difficult than "just" sending a new graphic to them. How do you get the graphic there? Two, keeping an e-paper sign lit up costs a lot more in electricity than paper-paper.
I believe the system is designed to include wireless networking. Anyplace that would have sufficient people moving past to warrant advertising should definitely by the time this is implemented have WiFi in abundance.
Whoopdy-freaking-do. If that's a problem, you have bigger problems.
This is such an intelligent point I had to say something. Like perhaps the Banks would offer access to a complete statement and cancelled checks etc... all on the card itself.... 'the portal to your financial world' the point being that the options boggle the imagination for a lot of people. Some would rather shoot it down.
It's called "recycling". Which is much easier to do with paper than electronics.
How much do you know about recycling? Do you realize the amount of energy that must be put into the recycling process is enormous. Very little recycled material actually gets back into the flow of goods as a lot is landfilled and we see no problem with just cooking another batch of plastics out of oil. The use of this type of paper would make buying your newspaper pointless... you bought the newspaper and it updates every morning with the new edition and every evening with the late edition. You would not need to produce another piece until yours broke. Or the new model came out with the chrome finish and the ipod interface design. While you find the arguments aren't compelling. I would like nothing more than to see people finally realize they can have a paperless office. Unless you are legally obligated to the SEC or some other regulatory agency to keep hard-copies lying around, why waste the trees? Now if we could just start using hemp for paper the argument gets quite different.... we'll save that one for another time.
Fnord.sig
"And the stuff needed to make "E-paper"? Plastics (oil) that don't degrade, heavy metals that not only are around for thousands of years, but are toxic, etc. I'd imagine that the environmental damage done by 100 reams of paper doesn't even rival that of one sheet of "E-paper". "
I find that unlikely for two reasons:
1.) I doubt that these its of paper will be very cheap. I imagine it'll cost quite a bit just to get one. I have over 5,000 sheets of paper sitting at home right now just waiting to be used.
2.) Have you read how thick this paper is? We're talking about minute amounts of resources here.
You could potentially be right. There are unknown variables here, like what gets lost when making a sheet? How long does a sheet last? etc.
The thing is, though, I seriously doubt these things will be sold in anywhere near the volume of regular paper. We'll likely see them in a tablet form factor hooked up to a PDA-Esque interface.
Unless the volume of e-paper was ridiculously high, the benefits from less paper being used would outweigh the cost of materials going into it. We still need trees to breath.
"Derp de derp."