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Fujitsu Debuts Bendable Electronic Paper
An anonymous reader writes "Fujitsu today announced their joint development of the world's first film substrate-based bendable color electronic paper with an image memory function. The new electronic paper features vivid color images that are unaffected even when the screen is bent, and features an image memory function that enables continuous display of the same image without the need for electricity. The thin and flexible electronic paper uses very low power to change screen images, thereby making it ideal for displaying information or advertisements in public areas as a type of new electronic media that can be handled as easily as paper. The jointly developed electronic paper will be showcased at Fujitsu Forum 2005, to be held July 14 and 15 at Tokyo International Forum."
the first one of you that says "minority report" gets a punch in the mouth. you can't have anything new anymore without some schmuck saying "omg minority report!" bleh.
I thought it couldn't be done, but they've managed to create digital paper... TWICE, in a matter of days. What an age we live in.
So maybe the paperless office will appear before the paperless toilet?
They need to get it to display: First Post!
I was thinking a "Hello World!" was in order.
Anonymous Coward
If Microsoft start buying add space on toliet rolls, at least I have the option of wiping my arse with it.....
This looks great but can some people please think of better applications than advertising...
Surely Fujitsu have more exotic plans for this technology than curved posters ?
Yay, no more dealing with expensive printer cartridges!
The human race is artificial intelligence created using object orientated programming.
Paper that changes what's written on it to suit what the reader wants? We've had that for over 200 years in the US. We call it the Constitution.
This must just be news because it's color.
(This satire brought to you by Daniels, Walker, and Beam, LLP.)
am I the first one to think of this?
EPIC 2014
http://www.fujitsu.com/img/PR/2005/20050713-01.jpg
At 2:19am, I just want to look at pictures.
This will bring new meaning to a funny image I saw that had the hand-written message "I kant tipe so i rite on the screen wit a krayon"
Seriously though, I've seen enough professors accidentally write on a projector screen (instead of the whiteboard behind it) and leave a relatively permanent mark. I can only imagine how many people will accidentally jot down a quick note to later realize they just ruined a VERY expensive piece of paper...
If this paper is able to give the user a papercut, I'd say this definitely classifies as bleeding-edge technology.
I wonder if this technology will ever be realized as a whole new way to distribute information. It can potentially cut down on the cost of paper and ink, not to mention reduce the amount of trees being cut down for paper. I hope this idea gets heavily pursued by anyone who has the knowhow to further it.
it looks like it needs a little work in the area of color and resolution, but that's sure to come.
One thing that I think will really benefit from these reflective display technologies is classrooms and conference rooms. What I would really like to see would be a chalkboard-sized reflective display with a digitizer pen. Without dimming the lights like one would have to do with a projector (and thus lulling students to sleep), a teacher could write directly on it as well as have problems already in the computer to put up on it quickly. How much time in math classes is spent writing out problems? Word problems from all these standardized tests could be quickly thrown up on the board and the teacher could directly model how to solve them. It could really increase a teacher's efficacy as well as make their life a lot easier.
Later on, similar technologies could be built into desks (or the students could have tablets) so that the student can solve them at their desks and then the teacher could push a button and display the students' work on the board.
How easy is it to clean these things? I mean, if the porn industry really provides the push for new technology, they gotta be extra easy to clean.
Sweet jesus! Now I'm going to need tiny hydrogen-based fuel cells to power my beowulf cluster of electronic papers. I think I shall call such a collection a "notepad."
The only thing I've heard of so far is the mystical ebook-reader from Sony, available in Japan only.
Nothing mystical about it. I've played with one, and it's neat. The screen is wonderful. In a store it looks really good but a little washed out, since the white isn't really white and the black isn't tuly black. When you bring it out into daylight, it's amazing. Where a normal screen would be hard to read, this one just gets better instead. It really has the general feel of reading on paper, not on a screen.
Unfortunately the drawbacks are numerous as well. First, the unavoidable one: the update frequency is sedentary at best. I mean, you really wait slightly for the screen to change when you flip the "page". Not a problem for a text reader to be sure, but forget anything about animations or a normal GUI. And unfortunately, Sony's implementation of the device is screaming-defiance-at-an-uncaring-world frustrating. The case, buttons and so on feel cheap and unreliable, and the whole thing is DRM:ed to h*ll and back. Forget about easily moving your own texts to it - no, you're supposed to rent books. And the memory is paltry; about 10Mb if I remember correctly.
It's an absolutely great reader, that I will never in a million years actually buy since the execution just isn't there. If it was slightly smaller, DRM free, could display all normal formats (html, Unicode text and PDF at the least), USB2 connection, had good amount of memory and/or an CF card slot, and preferably could also work as an mp3 player and radio (there's a definite limit on the amount of gadgets I'm willing to carry) I'd get one today.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
There are a lot of applications for a technology that can change what is printed. Check out this keyboard for instance
Underholdning.info
what if they started making shirts with this e-paper attached on the front? change your clothes via USB. I'm not sure how durable this stuff is, but if you put it in some sort of protective coating it should be good? hell, I'm sure someone would start an advertising business out of it, "Wear Microsoft ads on your shirt and get paid!"
i thought flexible organic LEDs were going to be the great bendable color screens of the future. so is this somehow better than foLED? anyone care to make a quick comparison of pro's and con's?
if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
...te?
I bet you can't fold it more than 7 times.
Now, if I had one or two A4-sized electronic paper sheets, with a touch screen on top so I can make annotations with my stylus, then I would be able to stop using dead trees for studying...
:-). I really bought mine for art, and I normally just use the keyboard, but I can scribble all over documents if I want to, and I don't have to use the fingerpad or carry a mouse :)
:-)
They already exist. They're called Tablet-PCs. I'm writing this with a stylus now on an A4-sized screen
(Actually, while I've found that tablet-PCs are way better than normal laptops, they're still not up there with a good pencil and sheet of paper for many tasks. The dead trees will be with us for some time
The electronic paper would therefore always be a secondary display, for static information. Obvious usage examples are to extend the display area of mobile devices such as phones or PDA's. The interesting thing is that for such applications the curvature of the bend of the electronic paper is a key issue. You see, if the curvature is not big enough, the paper will not roll-up into the device whilst keeping the device size small.
By the looks of the photo in the article, the curvature is nowhere near good enough to allow the paper to be rolled into a small radius roll of paper that would comfortably fit in a hand-held device design.
I know it may look like parent is insulting grandparent, but this is a quote from the movie 'Demolition Man' ..... http://imdb.com/title/tt0106697/
boakes.org
How many years am I going to be hearing about electronic paper (or printable displays for that matter), before the damn things actually come out and I can buy them?
If I can't smoke and swear I'm fucked.
Wait till some idiot tries to hang it with thumbtacks.
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
... thereby making it ideal for displaying information or advertisements in public areas...
Just what we need: more spam. As if people today didn't suffer enough advertising already.
"Total Recall Ever since I saw those giant panels of digital wallpaper that Ahnold had on Mars, I've wanted them for my own walls"
Meanwhile, the rest of us wanted his wife.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
The one that tried to kill him? No, I'll pass. Not my ideal woman.
Sharon Stone is old anyway.
And yes she's old now, but that movie was out, what, 10 years ago.
15 years.