Digital Ink On Billboards

cdneng2 writes "The New York Times has this article on a revolutionary new billboard. It uses digital ink, versus the typical CRT, LCD, Neon, or Plasma displays that are so prominent on the newer billboards that wastes electricity. From the article: 'By creating a paste made of tiny helix-shaped particles that can be minutely manipulated with electric charges to reflect light in highly specific ways, Magink can produce surfaces that look like paper but behave like electronic screens, rendering high-resolution, full-color images without ink - or, as Magink executives like to refer to the process, with digital ink.' The billboard can display images at 70 frames per second." You can find more articles on the billboard technology on the Magink website.

Comments

Why oh why...

[Enoch Root]

Why is it that nowadays, any new cool thing is invented either for military or advertising use?

The day advertising and the military merge, we'll be in a world of hurt. They'll end up creating a pop-up that kills, I tell ya.

Great!

[PakProtector]

I know what colour I'm painting my walls next week! Every colour of the spectrum, in a slow rotation cycle defined by background noise and controled by my toaster that runs BSD!

Or I could just make a lifesize picture of Morgan Webb.

Re:Great!

[tuba_dude]

Crap, you got to it first! I definitely think that a wallpaper-like implementation would be sweet. Personally, I'd like a visualization plugin running from xmms or winamp on my walls. That would be perfect for parties! And hell, if you can do that, why not use one when you host a LAN party?

Jeez...all these ideas...

Movie Theater
Game room (Smash Brothers, DDR, Midnight Club 2, blah blah...)
Computer Display (UT2k3, photo editing, woo!)
...Replace the Projector/Whiteboard combo for presentations! Make a touch-sensitive overlay, something like a huge wacom tablet. That'll bring a whole new level of photo editing goodness!

Whoo...need to breathe...getting a little *too* excited...
...hmmm...'excited'...now THAT could be interesting...

Re:Great!

[cybermace5]

I can see one major problem with this fantasy: digital ink is not a light-emitting medium. Nerds will be distracted and confused by the necessary blinding abundance of what we call "room lighting."

My three-year old does this ...

[I don't want to spen]

Digital ink = finger painting.

I need another distraction

[odenshaw]

Now, when I'm driving to work in the morning, a huge TV ad can distract me from driving, talking on my phone, reading the paper, shaving, eating, and putting my pants on.
How am I supposed to get ready for work!?

Not just advertising

[3.5 stripes]

70 fps is definitely good enough for large monitors or display screens, for non gaming purposes. Heck, you could even make a nice big tv out of it.

It requires no power! Not good...

[Lobsang]

The display requires no power, only when changing images. Images are retained when the power is off.

Does it mean that, when my boss comes into my room and I'm watching pr0n, just turning my laptop off in panic will leave a big pr0n screen still visible?

Not good, not good...

Re:It requires no power! Not good...

[Anonymous Coward]

When framestore synchronizers were relatively new, they used to freeze the output if there was no input, on the grounds that anything was better than black. One day the BBC were filming the Queen at some outdoor event, when the wind blew her dress up. It is, of course, treason to see the Queen's legs, so the directory shouted "Cut! Cut!". And the synchroniozer froze at at the most embarassing moment. After this, the synchronizer was programmed to cut to black if the input disappeared for more than a second or so.

Their Web site says that the system...

[JessLeah]

...runs Windows.

Is this really the best choice for something that thousands (or tens of thousands) of people will see each day as they drive down the highway?

At the PATH terminals in New Jersey, they have "PATHVision" displays. They run Windows. For a long time, virtually every day, pretty much half of the terminals were displaying an error dialog or worse. I also think I saw one of their ticket vending machines displaying a BSoD.

I really wish that companies who come up with stuff this cool would not depend so heavily on Windows. Imagine driving down the highway and seeing a gigantic, 50-foot-wide Blue Screen of Death. If my experiences with the PATHVision monitors were an example of what is to come... well, it could happen!

Here is what happens when airports depend upon Windows...

Re:Their Web site says that the system...

[tuba_dude]

Imagine driving down the highway and seeing a gigantic, 50-foot-wide Blue Screen of Death.

You know what, I'm sure I'd follow that billboard's lead and crash too. (Not quite directly of course, laughter vs. software failure and all that)

Re:Their Web site says that the system...

[JessLeah]

Yeah. It's really harder to write an app under Linux/Mac OS X/BSD/Solaris.

To get started as a Unix developer:

1: Buy Mac OS X ($129), Solaris/x86 ($20 to download directly from Sun), Solaris/SPARC (FREE to download directly from Sun), Linux (free) or Free/Net/OpenBSD (free).
2: pico helloworld.c
3: int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); return 1; }
4: ctrl-x
5: gcc helloworld.c
6: ./a.out
7: "Hello, world!"


In Windows:

1: Go to software store.
2: Pay $299.99 for Windows XP Pro (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 316251)
3: Pay $99.45 for Visual C++ .NET Standard 2003 (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 493294)
4: Optionally, pay $1159.91 (!!!) for InstallShield Developer v8.0 (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 423749) so you have an InstallShield like every other damned Windoze program.
5: Install all that crap.
6: Realize your system doesn't have teh powah it needs.
7: Go out and spend $800-1200 on a new system.
8: Reinstall everything, since the system came with WinXP Home, or Lycoris, or something else utterly unbearable.
9: Try to figure out the highly intimidating Visual C++ interface. What button do you click to open the code editor?
10: int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); return 1; }
11: Now what button do I have to click to compile?
12: I can't find it!
13: OK, this might be it.
14: It won't compile!
15: Bang head on desk.
16: Go to store, buy expensive book on Visual C++ from MIS Press or Microsoft Press. ($49.95 with useless CD)
17: Go home, flip through book for half an hour before you understand how to make a "Hello, World".
18: Try it.
19: Watch Windows BSoD.
20: Swear. Reboot Windows. Forget it ever crashed.
21: Go on a newsgroup or SlashDot and bash teh Mac fagots lorl
22: "Warez" the latest Windoze-only video game.
23: Find that it runs at 5fps on your computer.
24: Swear again.
25: Buy a $3000 PC from AlienWare.
26: Be able to play the latest games for six months, before the system requirements push past even your l33t p1mped-out PC.
27: Swear again.
28: Buy another $3000 PC from AlienWare.
29: Laugh at the "mac and lunix luser fagots". They must be commies!
30: Burn down spare bedroom from the heat generated by one of the AlienWare PCs.
31: Laugh at Mac luserz some more.
32: Have trouble paying your bills because of buying all this shit.
33: Get evicted.
34: Walk around on the streets with a sign reading "wIll kOde 4 food. nO mAc fAgots nEde aPplie."
35: Go into a cybercafe, log into SlashDot, and write a few posts telling Linux and Mac OS users how much of a "fagot" they "r". And how "widnows" is so "souperior." And "never crashes". And "it iz cheapre."
36: Watch your posts get moderated up by all the other MS defenders on SlashDot..............

Ok - where's /.???

[The Ancients]

I searched all the comments above, and couldn't find the obligatory post about por...oops pr0n. This can't be /. - where the HELL am I?

I can just see it all now

[TyrranzzX]

A family in their minivan riding down the road, all of a sudden a billboard flashing red and yellow advertising viagra pops out of nowhere distracting hundreds of drivers causing a car accidents all over.

Seriously. Good intention, bad idea. At least it'll give hacker groups the ability to show their views to the world.

Ah, now I understand...

[supertsaar]

From the f. article
"...an innovation by a New York-based display technology company whose name, Magink, is a combination of the words magic and ink..."

Pfew. Glad they explained that, I'd never-ever would have guessed that.

Re:a pop-up that kills

[Technician]

Ever heard of a silo? ;-)

Ah, perfect for my car

[Tenebrious1]

Some days my car should be red. Some days blue. Some days a nice mauve. Then polka dots that change colors. How about flames that really flicker? Can't imagine flames on my wagon, but why not? Checkerboard? Heck, you can actually play checkers! Or chess. Or Othello. Backgammon. Hah, you can even play tetris. I can have my phone number flash on the side when I pass a cute girl (oh wait, I drive a wagon). I can have messages flash on the back telling that moron driving 30 in a 50 what I think of them. There's a world of possibilities here!

Re:Ah, perfect for my car

[buttahead]

just a little nit-pik here:

I can have messages flash on the back telling that moron driving 30 in a 50 what I think of them

if he is going slow, and is behind you... you might want to display "sorry, I'm driving 30 in a 50 zone... I'm a moron, please pass me".

Re:Ah, perfect for my car

[kavau]

I can have messages flash on the back telling that moron driving 30 in a 50 what I think of them.

Did you ever consider that the only reason this "moron" is driving so slow is that you are in his way?

Research

[Anonymous Coward]

According to research at an English university, advertising billboards are large and difficult to ignore.

Re:Screw Billboards

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, if for some reason a female were to come over,

Even technology has its limits.

Re:revolutionary? not yet.

[sniser2]

Actually, it won't be revolutionary until it involves putting marketing people up against a wall... :>

Re:Screw Billboards

[Carrion Creeper]

Wait, I'm confused...

So was the female in your room imaginary, or was the fact that she was "coming" in your room imaginary?

I hate to say this, but maybe you could stand to surf maybe just a little pr0n on your wall-screens. As an educational tool. Just remember to erase it or the presence of the female will also be imaginary.


The sexing of toads is expressly prohibited within the bounds of this post.

if one of those things appears near me...

[Psyborgue]

it will dissappear very quickly, and wind up hung on my bedroom wall.. hee hee.. anybody have a flatbed truck in the virginia area?

Easily overlooked part of the article

[SurturZ]

The article describes the billboard as "...an innovation by a New York-based display technology company whose name, Magink, is a combination of the words magic and ink."

Lucky they mentioned that. At first I thought the name was a combination of the words "Ma" and "Gink".

TYFYA,
--#>SurturZ

Re:Active Camo?

[Canuckanuck]

"That seems to be an issue nobody addressed, but if it is this seems like technology the military could use to create active camouflage. Just take a pic of the view opposite the direction the vehicle is traveling and display it on the front and vice versa."

Hello Cloaking Device! Now if only they'd invent transporters...

Re:whitepaper stats

[zakezuke]

This would be the nightmarish electronic billboard between seattle and federal way over by the some RV boat dealership.

What's sad is the fact that you need something to stare at while you are stuck in traffic in order to maintain your sanity. If they could find a nice balance between a full color dynamic display I'd be perfectly willing to let it exist without complaints.

My use of the word *hazzard* is in reference to "the dukes of hazzard" as it blinks brightly at the wrong time causing people to steer off the road and their cars jump over the overpass going "yeeeeehaaaaaaaaaa"

what does the future hold...

[SurgTech]

Does this mean in the future, my monitor might become a big $500 color magnadoodle?