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.'"

Comments

omg...

[EtherealStrife]

Earth: Final Conflict, anyone?

E:FC MCI "Global"

Yet another case of companies ripping off scifi inventions. The only difference is the EFC ones were badged MCI. And of course, the Philips ones are functional. :)

That having been said, I can't wait to pick one up!

Red Planet

[gkozlyk]

Now all we need is a computer device like the ones they used in the movie 'Red Planet'.

Re:Ready for primetime?

[timeOday]

Since it's only a prototype and not a product, and since they still have most of the two years until product release left, I'm guessing Philips does not see it as ready for primetime.

I'm really excited about reflective (vs emissive, like color LCD) displays though. Computers just won't work well outside dimly lit offices until reflective displays are practical. Think about a large-screen TV with NO brightness issues; you want it brighter, just shine a lamp on it (like a painting).

Re:need higher resolution and more gray level

[mughi]

This is the type of screen resolution for my Digital Reader, the resolution that made me send it back the day I got it. There's nothing paper-like about reading dot-matrix like resolutions. The eye doesn't adapt but instead becomes increasingly fatigued.

This technology may have some application for computer-like applications. I was hoping for e-books. This screen resolution won't cut that....

It all depends on the specifics of the device. I'ved used a Handspring Prism with a resolution of only 160x160 for years for an ebook reader, and it's great. I've gone through quite a few, especially from Baen

It ends up with a column width around that of an article in a newspaper or magazine, and is quite readable. Even when only using a limited number of colors (default fonts are only 1-bit) ti works well. I think much of it is due to having a white background. So the reflective properties and contrast of the display itself could make a huge difference.

Great military potential

[Anonymous Coward]

Hello active camoflage.

E-Ink

[foniksonik]

Furtherdown in the article it mentions very blithely that the technology powering it comes from none other than E-Ink which explains the quicker than expected turn around. It's Phillips branded and integrated but the tech that makes it work is E-Ink Corp's.

Check out their site to see the roadmap... we should be seeing much improved versions of this gadget very soon.

That's Great but...

[Ride Jib]

Can it run Linux? But on a serious note, my school (www.clemson.edu) has been working on this same project for a couple years now. I can't find any information on it at the moment, but all the commercials promoting the school have this project in it.

Digital CAD Scrolls?

[DigiShaman]

Title says it all ;) Just imagine a scroll with one rod containing the logic and the other battery power. Pull them apart and unroll a huge electronic "blue print" or other architecture drawings...complete with zoom and 3D functions too.

Re:Give it some time.

[QuantumG]

Yes, but the difference is that producers of four greyscale monitors actually sold units which gave them money to do development to produce more capable monitors. These guys, on the other hand, are likely going to not bother trying to get sales until they have a 256 greyscale display and then they'll charge too much for it to try to make up their development costs and the technology will fade into obscurity.

Flat speakers

[Anonymous Coward]

If these displays are combined with flat bendable speakers and the economics of scale, we could have a whole new era of interactive user interfaces.

Re:Give it some time.

[Com2Kid]

Supply and demand.

Well mostly just that you can sell suckers (most buyers) a low rez 17" LCD screen and they don't know the difference.

Heck look at what prices 15" LCD TVs go for! You can get a 15" LCD Monitor for less.

And a computer with a TV tuner!

Re:Nattering Nabobs of Negativity

[CamonZ]

i agree with you, i'll still wait for more advanced models to begin considering as a viable business solution, but as i see it there are a lot of possibilities(for us IT guys), getting your paper every day, with hourly updates, better screens for visualizing telemetry data, a whole new generation of PDA's. i think these screens are something cool

best use for this:

[OwlofCreamCheese]

wallpaper

Very slow response time of 0.5 - 1 s

[Bushcat]

From http://www.polymervision.com/Technology/CurrentSpe cifications/Index.html, it seems the response time is 0.5 - 1 s with a reflectance of 35 - 40% and a contrast ratio of 10:1. Even given it's a first generation product, it's going to look a bit murky.

If they can mass produce it ...

[TeXMaster]

It depends on application. If you had read the article, you'd have seen that they do not intend to market the thing directly, but rather

the Readius was created in order to demonstrate the viability of the rollable-display concept in mobile applications and to gain customer feedback at the IFA 2005.

There are things that could benefit from this kind of advancement, even at the current state of things: GPS devices, for example, and even cell phones: even though these days we're used to colorful thingies which can do everything but guarantee you can make phone calls, there some of us (*raises hand*) which want nothing more than the ability to make phone calls and write and read SMS. The ability to do it on a wider screen extensible on purpose would be an extremely nice thing. Think about a one- or two-lines display that can roll up to enclose an entire SMS or addressbook without the need to scroll.

Another major selling point could be the ability to stay 'on' the whole time while still sucking up less battery. How much battery is sucked up by current displays? After all, there is a reason why all cellphones have screen savers or at least the ability to choose for how long after the key presses the display has to stay bright. Of course you might not be able to use your cellphone or iPod as nightlamp anymore ...

While an extensible, always-on display could be a selling feature of some such portable device (oh yeah, did I mention portable music players?) it would still need to be priced reasonably. In-between the current B&W braindead displays and the current fancy color displays of phone-cams.

Re:If they can mass produce it ...

[JunkmanUK]

That's just nuts. You're disallowing people to demonstrate proof of concepts on the basis that it's not a marketable product? Not only that, but they *have* made a product, albeit a non-commercial one.

There are more reasons to demonstrate this than 'we can sell it'. By doing this they are not only getting feedback from potential customers and hardware developers but also cementing themselves as being one the pioneers of the technology.

If a company designed a new type of PC memory I would imagine they would build a prototype motherboard to demonstrate it to the professional motherboard manufacturers. They may not concern themselves with building the commercial motherboard as it's not in their expertise, rather develop business relations with motherboard manufacturers to allow them to embed it.

Re:need higher resolution and more gray level

[DrKyle]

If you look at this picture the display actually looks quite readable with quite a few lines of text. I imagine in a few years they will double the pixels, increase the contrast and use font smoothing to make it all the better.

And I too have read ebooks on a smaller 320x240 display and found it easy enough to keep using 5 hours+ in a row during reading sessions.

Re:Give it some time.

[Vesperi]

Hey, I used to work for what was left of the CD-i wing of Philips - pmpro. It got spun off and we took all the CD-I hardware and titles still in stock. We we're still doing CD-I title development work up until 2000. At that point times got tough and I had to find other work.

Basicaly DVD functions on normal CD-Rom media.

Re:Building a better mouse trap?

[narcc]

I have my own problems with e-books -- on one hand, I'd love to carry my entire library with me at all times -- with the added advantage of it being electronically searchable. I don't like the idea that my entire library could be lost by dropping the thing in the sink, leaving it on a bus, having it stolen from my pocket, etc. -- I also don't like the idea that my library might be useless/unreadable by changes in software or hardware (like some old wp docs I've got lying around on a 5 1/4" floppy disk)

This is what I'd like to see happen:
  1) Dead-Tree Media never ever go away! When I buy a book I intend to keep it until I die! (Until a new technology comes along that's better we'll need this kind of super-long-term information system. -- er, except for books like "Windows 95 unleashed" Those might not have much future value.)

  2) Printed books that include an electronic copy of the text for use with e-paper devices for a small additional cost (I refuse to pay an outragious price for an e-book when I could buy the hard-copy version for jsut a few dollars more -- an article I recently read mentioned tiny 30% discounts for e-textbooks that lasted only as long as a single semester. That sucks for the poor student who still pays too much, and gets absolutly nothing in the end! [er, perhaps (s)he gets it all in the "end"])

I guess what I want is the best of both worlds. Is that so much to ask?!