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Prototype Rollable Paper-like Display Ready Early
freitasm writes "A few months ago Philips promised a rollable, paper-like display in two years, but it only took them a few months to have a prototype ready. From the article: 'The Readius is the world's first prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. With four gray levels, the monochrome, 5-inch QVGA (320 pixels x 240 pixels) display provides paper-like viewing with a high contrast ratio. Once the user has finished reading, the display can be rolled back into the pocket-size (100 mm x 60 mm x 20 mm) device.'"
...here , and other images here.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
a press release from the screen's manufacturer can be found here:e ases/Article-14693.html
http://www.polymervision.com/New-Center/Press-Rel
The more I learn about Windows the more I am surprised it runs at all
few months ago Philips promised a rollable, paper-like display in two years, but it only took them a few months..
The new thing is the reader. Functional prototypes of the displays have been presented way earlier, as obvious from many older articles on slashdot. The displays have been under development for at least five years. Check out the publications from the polymervision website:
H. E. A. Huitema, G. H. Gelinck, J. B. P. H. van der Putten, K. E. Kuijk, C. M. Hart, E. Cantatore, P. T. Herwig, A. J. J. M. van Breemen, D. M. de Leeuw, Plastic transistors in active-matrix displays, Nature 2001, 414, 599.
G. H. Gelinck, T. C. T. Geuns, D. M. de Leeuw,High-performance all-polymer integrated circuits, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2000, 77, 1487-1489.
C. J. Drury, C. M. J. Mutsaerts, C. M. Hart, M. Matters, D. M. de Leeuw, Low-cost all-polymer integrated circuits., Appl. Phys. Lett. 1998, 73, 108-110.
It's Phillips branded and integrated but the tech that makes it work is E-Ink Corp's.
That is not true. Each display has a frontplane (the display mechanism) and a backplane (the transistors that control it).
As far as I understand it, only the front plane is by e-Ink. The back plane was apparently entirely developed by polymer vision.
An interesting fact is, that it is based on organic electronics. (check out the tech section). If they manage to bring this display to market, it will probably be the first commercial application of organic electronic.
The device contains a Gumstix, so although the pictures of the screen appear to have Windows-like icons on them, I'm guessing those are actually just static images dumped from some other device, and just being displayed under linux on this screen. While working on the screen and hardware integration, I don't think Philips will have also had time to port WinCE to the gumstix.
I'd say the fun stuff about this prototype is that is only uses energy when updating (changing) the display. How's that for an energy saver, compared to backlit lcd.
And for an encore: the screen is readable in direct sunlight, like regular paper.
The manufacturer predicts bigger screens in 2 years and color-displays at the end of this decade.
If I were to bet on a winner in the race for flexible displays, I'd put my money on Fujitsu. Just a month or so ago they had an article on their prototype color (!) roll-up display that looked much better. It was also bi-stable. I'll take two when they're ready. :)
My LCD screen here at work is 20" on diagonal, and running a resolution of 1280x1024. Scaled down to 5 inches, that almost exactly 320x240. Sounds like the QVGA screen isn't low resolution, just small in size. Which makes sense, because the technology is surely very expensive now and the market that they're looking for now is PDAs, not laptops.
Plus, there's no doubt that color, bigger screens, and higher resolutions are on the way.