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Digital Clock as Thin as Paper

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the young-ladies-illustrated-primer dept.

Elitist_Phoenix writes "Citizen Watch has created a clock that is Paper thin! This unique design is enabled by E Ink Imaging Film. In addition to the fact that no backlighting is required, the display also has an inherently stable memory effect which requires no power to maintain an image - both of which drastically increase the battery life. The result is 1/100 the power consumption of traditional display options. Citizen Watch Co. and T.I.C.-Citizen Co. have not yet announced a launch date for this product, but it is expected to be commercialized in Japan in 2005."

6 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. "Paper thin"? by killa62 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Another example of a paper thin watch is one showcased by Seiko around two months ago.

    linky: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/clocks-and- watches/seikos-epaper-watch-prototype-039344.php

  2. How about... by teutonic_leech · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... wallpaper full of these things?

  3. E Ink is much cooler than just this by TheGuruMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Although both the story and this post are blatant plugs for a proprietary technology, the stuff they use for this clock (E Ink) really is quite cool, and can be used in many other gadgets.

    For example they are building bendable 200dpi grayscale screens and some Xbox game boxes are using it to create an animated picture on the side of the box.

    I wonder how long it will be before these take over the world, and the sci-fi idea of every billboard and poster being animated becomes real? Maybe when the Pentium VI 10GHz Powerbook comes out, it'll have a screen that can be rolled up and put into your pocket?

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    1. Re:E Ink is much cooler than just this by Cap'n+Crax · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, this company (at eink.com) has a fairly amazing new product. I would love to invest in them, but they are a privately held company.

      It works like a sort of like a high-tech 'etch-a-sketch,' magnetic charged particles stick to the screen in either black or white (negative or positive charge) and STAY there until the image changes. So power is needed only for the image changes. This clock is the first example I have seen here on Slashdot, but Boing Boing recently showed an e-Book reader using this same tech. Sony branded, I believe.

      In my opinion, the e-Book use is the IDEAL use for this. I have never seen it in action, but from all reports, it looks and 'acts' like paper, easily readable, just black text on a white page. The sony device looked very interesting.

      Here, I found a bunch of pictures. Japan only so far, but what new tech isn't...

      GALLERY OF E-BOOK PICTURES

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  4. Re:Best ever by Carthag · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Think of the possibilities. How about a shirt with a USB port & flash memory so you could put all kinds of crazy pics on your shirt. Or possibly some sort of scripting language for ever-changing fractals. Now that would be cool.

  5. Re:Why Not... by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    About eight to ten years ago I remember reading a newspaper article that showed an ultra-thin LCD watch being inserted underneath a few layers of skin. The fact that it was only covered by a few layers meant that it was perfectly visible in normal conditions, like a tattoo. I also think that they said it would run off the body's natural energy.

    As a result, you had a digital watch underneath your skin that was fully waterproof and never had to have batteries changed or anything. Just glance down at your wrist and BAM! God knows what they planned for daylight savings time and such.

    This was frickin' years and years ago. It's funny to think that nothing ever came of it.

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