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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.
combine that with a flash disk or some other form of solid state store and a transmeta or via c3 cpu and you've removed the three biggest power draws on a laptop.
essentially, i'd like a laptop that could do 24 hours w/o ac power.
oh, for older stories on /. about this, see here.
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Does this technology scale down? Could it provide a solution to e-books that provide as enjoyable an experience as dead trees?
Disclaimer: I haven't RTFA'd yet. Better go do that now.
Can it be produced cheaply enough -- and with high enough resolution -- to replace wallpaper?
Would it work as a large TV monitor? The frame rate is up to 70/sec, so the question, again, is resolution.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Question: Does anybody know a simple explanation of why they don't go with back lighting or even perhaps rejiggering the dyes and black lighting this?
I guess I am a CRT snob, but I remember an IBM technology demo showing 400DPI. It was loosely based on LCD technology. It was backlit. Of course it did not have the refresh rate that this sign has.
Also notice those page sized tiles in the prototype.
Looks like this technology is heading our way fast.
I have a question. I haven't read into digital ink to any great extent,but I was wondering how easly these things coud be defaced? Do magnetic fields have any effect on these babies? If some sort of a electrical charge was dragged over the board how would this effect the image?
Compatibility to outdoor lighting environment
magink's digital ink display billboard is reflective of incident light and requires no integrated illumination. Light that falls on the display from either the sun or external light sources is actually beneficial to the visibility of the image. A beautiful image is maintainable under the full range of daylight conditions.
I have to admit, this idea is attractive to me, though i'm scared at the fact that i'm actually for a form of advertsing technology.
My issue is this... near where I live on I-5 there is a huge graphic display billboard. Not sure if it's plasma or LCD or what, but it's one bright sucker It's so bright infact that driving tward it highlights every nick, scratch, bit of dust on my windshield. The reason I invested in a new windshield infact was due to this ultra bright computer generated sign from hell, esp since they don't automaticly dim the sucker based on accurate "sunset/sunrise" times (based on my observation only).
Now, it's good I replaced my old tattered scrached up windshield, but I shouldn't have to just because of a stupid sign who's technical design by it's very nature requires so much light it's a hazzard to people driving.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
A PDA that you can scroll the screen out to a decent size and when finished scroll it up and back into your pocket.
Thank you Lord for SciFi leading the way in Development of technology
- Needleless injections from Startrek
- Personal Communicators from Startrek
- Smokey Screens for projecting images from Seaquest DSV
- Flexible screens from Earth Final Conflict
I am a part time Sci-fi fan, you full time addicts must have some more examples Dont try to think outside the square - Instead realize there are no limitsThe weathers here - Wish you were beautiful
How about using a display like this with flourescent particles and then surrounding it in heavy UV argon/mercury tubes.
I'm just thinking that if it's so much like paper, then that's one of the ways paper billboards are enhanced for better nighttime viewing.
Cartoon images could potentially be quite intense. Think of, for instance, the Simpsons done this way.
But as cool as this is, I still think that in the long-term we're going to see effiecient, mass produced, high powered lasers dominate the outdoor display market and perhaps other display markets as well. But since high powered lasers are still a very long way from cheap at this point, this is a cool near-term solution.
How long before they get sued by someone who crashes their car after being distracted by a moving image one a billboard....
If this were advanced sufficiently, I could then even play bf1942 on this once I realized said female was imaginary and never came over in the first place.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
If a billboard is digital, it's hackable. If it's hackable, we'll restyle it with pron! The world is getting better and better...
I want my karma, and I want it now!
In this country, we have a few billboards which consist of a row of triangular prisms, disposed vertically, parallel to one another, and able to revolve on spindles. At one end of each spindle is a cog wheel, and a chain connects them all to a motor. As the motor turns, all the prisms revolve together. A limit switch is used to detect when the flat sides line up together. This whole assembly is mounted in a shallow box. Three posters are cut up and slices of each affixed around the prisms in such a way that at each of the limit stops, a complete poster is visible. A cyclic timer relay closes briefly to start the motor every few seconds; the limit switch keeps it running until it hits a stop position.
I believe this kind of sign is not allowed near busy road junctions.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
The Sept 12 dead tree edition of the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on companies that deploy billboards that change throughout the day -- one intended application for these digital ink billboards.
The most interesting variant uses a roadside scanner that detects which radio stations are tuned in on the various cars going by the sign. The system then aggregates the data on who is listening to what and decides what ad message to put up. If most people are listening to the game, maybe an ad for the local sports bar will appear. If a cluster of classical music listeners drives past, then an ad for season tickets to the opera might briefly appear.
There's no word on whether the system can tell which MP3 file you are listening to. Yet.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I'm curious about the "tiny helix-shaped particles." What the heck are they?
computerlady - a brand new Slash-daughter - alone, but no longer invisible, in the
The obligatory Minority Report reference here for future advertising.
Now with RFID technology, adds can be specifically directed at individuals. Brrrr.
..........FULL STOP.
I'm glad this is finally ready for an application. Mainly because it's a reflective rather than emissive display. That means when ambient light is brighter, so is the display, so it should look fine in sunlight. This is unlike CRTs and backlit LCDs which look washed out in bright light. This would free us nerds from lurking in dimly lit, mushroom-conducive workspaces. None of which is to say that this company has finally "solved" the problem, but a first real application is a big step!
Based on that DPI, at the size of a billboard, i don't know of any videocard in the world that could drive something like that.
OK, one video card probably couldn't handle this resolution, but imagine video cards in a Beowulf cluster. Give each blade the job of driving 1024x1024 pixels' worth of the image, and you have implemented a parallel method of image rendering that is commonly called "tile based rendering".
Will I retire or break 10K?
Imagine the teenagers of the future... leaving the gift that keeps on giving. They could have graffiti that changes by remote control.
... or the nastiness that could happen?
Imagine a national press conference and suddenly, the wall behind the speaker changes to show a particularly embarrassing photo from the speakers' past. The networks would probably be in delay, so they might have a chance to roll to another camera. Think of the fun you could have?
-- No sig for you!
I park my car in the middle of summer. As I get out and lock up, the car senses the temperature and time of day, the body turns white and the windows all go mirror-refelctive. When I get back, the inside of the car is ambient air temperature instead of 140F.
In the winter, the car body goes black and the windows stay clear, keeping the inside warm and reducing the snow and ice buildup.
In either case, I come out of the shopping center, push a button on my keychain, and the car's color starts flashing between international orange and white/black. Quieter than chirping the horn/alarm, and works better in daylight than flashing the headlights.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.