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

defaceing?

[Sideswiped]

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?

Re:defaceing?

[Generic Guy]

Magnetic fields? I'd be more worried in what happens when teenagers spray paint these things, as they tend to do.

Or thinking more specifically about my area (Detroit), how does this billboard handle a couple of handgun shells unloaded into it?

Re:whitepaper stats

[zakezuke]

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.

Screw Billboards

[Lord_Dweomer]

What I want is to cover all the walls of my crappy little dorm room with it. How cool would it be to transform your room into a beach. Even cooler would be that it could be animated! I could sit back and watch the waves crash on the shore. Or, if for some reason a female were to come over, I could transform my room into the ultimate bachelor pad simply by changing the display program.

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.