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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."
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 ?
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.)
http://www.fujitsu.com/img/PR/2005/20050713-01.jpg
At 2:19am, I just want to look at pictures.
If this paper is able to give the user a papercut, I'd say this definitely classifies as bleeding-edge technology.
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.
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.
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
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/