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Flexible Electronic Paper

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the roll-up-your-laptop-and-put-it-in-your-pocket dept.

shri writes "E Ink has just announced a breakthrough in flexible electronic paper displays. The new display which has a 100DPI resolution and is only 300 microns thick has the potential of truely changing the way we read our information."

12 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. FAX resolution by acariquara · · Score: 2, Informative

    100dpi = FAX resolution (low-quality)

    144dpi = dot matrix

    This technology will have to get a little better if it ever goes widespread.

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    1. Re:FAX resolution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Considering that most of us are staring at a 96 DPI screen at the moment, I'd say that 100 DPI is pretty darn good for a digital screen. It's still behind paper, but not by too much. 150 DPI is excellent quality. Anything over that only increases sharpness and fidelity.

      144dpi = dot matrix

      This is somewhat misleading. Many dot matrix printers weren't able to produce dots without gaps, giving the paper a ridged appearance. As long as the pixels are flush on this display, you shouldn't have any problems.

    2. Re:FAX resolution by MaceyHW · · Score: 2, Informative

      The fact that people have faxed important documents around for years (and still do) is proof that it's an acceptable resolution for a lot of activities. Fax resolution would be fine for ebooks, for example.

    3. Re:FAX resolution by ucblockhead · · Score: 2, Informative

      100 dpi is about what current LCD monitors run. To get a monitor that does 1600x1200, you generally need to by a 20" monitor. Such a monitor has a screen that is 16" by 12".

      Higher end LCDs do better, but these are generally only available on laptops.

      --
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    4. Re:FAX resolution by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2, Informative

      Your point is still valid, though, since 24-pin NLQ printers took over for the 9-pin printers until thermal printers really hit their stride. 24-pin dot-matrix impact printers (supposedly) had 360 x 360 dpi resolution, although the fonts were only 360 x 180 at best. Still far higher than 100 dpi, though.

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    5. Re:FAX resolution by trb · · Score: 2, Informative
      This is fair comparison.

      That's not a fair comparison at all. Here is a gray scale 16-level version of the original image. To change topics, here's what I found strange about the article: They say:

      The contrast ratio is at a low 10:1 and the display can show 4 levels of grey. While this seems low, it is more than adequate for reading in well lighted conditions. Keep in mind that most printed books are at 2 levels (black and white).

      The point about books being printed in 2 levels is silly, because they are printed at very high resolution (at least 2400 dpi instead of 100dpi, and you square that because it's a 2D surface, so it's a difference between 5760000 dots per in^2 vs 10000 dpi^2, or 576 times as many dots on the same size screen.

      They also say ...keep in mind that thin materials can warp and melt quickly. Well, it's a flexible display. It's supposed to bend. Or when they say warp, are they talking about stretching?

      The technology does sound promising, but this article seems to be written by a spin doctor.

    6. Re:FAX resolution by trb · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oops. I read 4-level image as 4-bit (16 level) image. The exmaple was still not fair, here's a 4-level gray image. Not as good as 16-level, but better than acariquara's image.

  2. FYI by Gruneun · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can order a prototype kit, including Linux on a Gumstix, through the E-Ink website. Provided, you've got a spare $3,000 lying around.

    If you have a spare $6,000, let me know. I'd love to try it out, too.

  3. Re:Needs battery all the time ? by SimilarityEngine · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to this page, the paper retains the image when the power is removed. Even more info here (PDF).

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  4. Re:04/06? Uses? by BarryNorton · · Score: 2, Informative
    but we're still far from a viable product
    No we're not - even before this improvement, the eInk technology is sucessfully deployed in the Sony Librie, a damned fine product (whose impact was only held back by initial DRM lock-in under bad terms, and a Japan/Japanese-only roll-out)
  5. Press releases by Peregr1n · · Score: 5, Informative

    The only new thing about today's press release is that it's bigger than before and higher resolution. But yesterday they announced a colour version, which is a bit more newsworthy.

  6. Re:what's the vapor-equivalent of hardware? by mcaycedo · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know of three: Sony Librie: 1st attemp, not bad, but so DRM riddled that's unusable. You didn't purchase a book. You rented for 3 months, and the cost is similar to death tree A prototype made by e-ink engineers. I don't have a link, but It was in /. not so long ago http://www.jinke.com.cn/english/index.asp. Very similar to Librie, but, run on linux and has an aditional LCD display for commands (e-ink is loooooow)