ePaper To Be Used For Newspapers and Magazines

rustbear writes "The Guardian reports that cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens. The firm says the low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers' attention as they move along the aisle. The Siemens spokesman said that one square metre of the material costs around £30, and scientists working on the screens said they should be available by 2007."

Comments

Re:What about the power supply, processor, etc.?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's more information and a picture at http://www.physorg.com/news7079.html

The displays can obtain their energy from printable batteries, which are already available. Because they last only a few months, this solution is only feasible for merchandise with high throughput rates or short-use durations. It may also prove feasible to use printed antennas as a local energy source. They would receive pulses from a transmitter in the shelf and convert the pulses into electricity.

Twirlip

Link to Siemens

[Bozovision]

And this link should take you to the Siemens page about it, which has a photo too.

Looks like the reason they are targeting it at packaging initially is because the images change slowly.

Re:What about the power supply, processor, etc.?

[Zog The Undeniable]

You're describing mechanical automatic watches, which have been around for donkeys' years. The Seiko/Epson Kinetic mechanism uses a rotating pendulum - like the old automatic watches - but the motion of the pendulum is geared up to turn a tiny electrical generator at high speed. The actual power store is a capacitor, because a rechargeable battery would have a limited life.

not likely

[catmistake]

"We think that at the moment the screens will appear first in more expensive magazines in the form of high-impact adverts. But as the price sinks we expect them to appear in papers as well, possibly as a really attention-grabbing front page."

Newspapers and magazines, and any print media company for that matter, are all struggling with technology. Proprietary technology is the norm. There is rarely anything standard between one and the next. The advances in printing technology notwithstanding, no publisher could implement this without the help of a third party. It is extremely doubtful that we will ever see anything like this on a news shelf coming directly from even the "more expensive magazines." They are looking to reduce their distribution costs, which may be upwards of 50-70% of the total, not increase them.

Re:Sensible* investment

[Anonymous Coward]

1. It's too expensive. Are we supposed to pay £30 for a newspaper?

It's $30 US per square meter. Presumably, the "paper" would only use a small fraction of that. i.e. Such a sheet would produce 100 10cm squares for a cost of about $0.30 per square.

As for the rest of your points, the article suggests that you'll get to keep all the stuff you mentioned, while the grandparent is incorrect. Siemens isn't trying to produce eReaders (despite how cool that would be), they're trying to produce little sheets that could be integrated into advertisements and front pages in much the same way as holograms and psuedo-holographics sheets are used today.