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Rollable E Ink Displays Get Real
An anonymous reader writes "Two years ago Philips unveiled a prototype of a functional electronic-document reader, called the Readius, which could unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. Unfortunately, that was only a prototype. According to Cnet, however, Polymer Vision, which spun out from Philips in 2006, has redesigned the Readius and turned it into a real product that it is going to be available by the end of this year. There are some notable differences between this Readius and the prototype version, in particular, the ability to display 16 shades of grey instead of just 4 and the connectivity options. What doesn't make sense though, is given the energy efficiency and easy-to-read high contrast functionality of E Ink, why other than Motorola with its Motofone, has no other cell phone manufacturer incorporated E Ink technology into its handsets?"
I'm assuming the other companies don't think the cell phone providers will be willing to provide "low-end" phones that don't have the capability to provide full "nickel & dime" profits. Frankkly, I'm not sure the Motofone will make it to the U.S.
Am I the only one who has trouble getting jis in their keyboard ? Any solutions
Put one of those latex things over the keyboard or your Willie.
Thats definetly one for the scrolls...
this summer. Everyone who's been saying, "I just want a phone that's just a phone" might just get their wish.
End transmission.
I used to be really excited about this technology, thinking I could bring a bunch of books and articles in my pocket and read them whenever I needed to wait.
Then I discovered audiobooks. Just put them on your MP3/Ogg player and listen to them everywhere where you need your eyes but not your ears -- in the car, on your bike, cleaning the kitchen, et cetera. I'm working my way through the entire 20 piece science fiction/fantasy book series of Pern, written by Anne McCaffrey. Absolutely great.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
So what exactly is the temperature at which e-books burn?
Because this device isn't there yet.
It has indeed been over 2 years since this was announced. I wonder what is going wrong ? Are these displays too expensive ? Too many patents ? Difficulty in designing ? What is going wrong here ?
"Two years ago Philips unveiled a prototype of a functional electronic-document reader, called the Readius, which could unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself...
Type "GPS" and "wireless" into Google. A map is a kind of electronic document that is "a scale larger than the device itself".
A friend brought over a non-rollable unit (think tablet) that was loaded up with several books. It uses that E-ink also. I don't recall who makes it, (phillips?) but it was easy to read with just ambient light in the room, and had a backlight for low light use. The screen looked like crisp jet-black typeset ink on a slightly off-white page, it was very easy to read and did not put any strain on the eyes. It did take a second or so to switch pages though which I was not expecting. I don't know if that was a limitation of the device or of the screen, but when it switched it was a snap switch, not where you see the text being drawn vertically.
It wasn't very portable in the modern sense though. This unit was about 5.5" x 8", hardly pocket-size. I don't know how portable they will be able to get these - you can only roll it in one direction, so at best that one would have to be at least 5" in some direction. This screen was perfectly flat of course, and I wonder how much it would mess with your vision to read a page with a curl or warp to it? I know it bugs me to try to read a newspaper if it's not laying flat. I suppose this would be ideal for say, a long plane flight or while waiting for a connecting flight at a gate.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
First of all, i REALLY want one of these.
Secondly, i think that concentrating on the applications of E-Ink in mobile phones is a bit limited. The capabilities of E-Ink paper are much bigger than just for mobile. Sure, having a clearer mobile display might be great, but i want to see other innovative uses for this technology. I would love to be able to read a paper made of E-Ink paper (a la minority report) and other such things.
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Try remembering when the consumer got advertised a phone without color, or a camera that wasn't also a smartphone. I strongly suspect that with phone companies giving away phones with such capabilities as long as you take a contract, they are not interested in advertising a phone with which you could just tell them:
My phone costs 200$ less than the one you give for free with a 3 year contract, I'm waking the 3 year contract, where's my 200$?
What doesn't make sense though, is given the energy efficiency and easy-to-read high contrast functionality of E Ink, why other than Motorola with its Motofone, has no other cell phone manufacturer incorporated E Ink technology into its handsets?
It can't display video, or serve as the display for a camera phone. Seriously- the update cycle on eInk is up to half a second or more, something they don't like to talk about. That makes it a pain even for scrolling through your address book.
Related rant: All I want is a phone with a extendable antenna for good reception, a message indicator LIGHT (my SE phone has a message indicator on the screen, but the screen goes blank or to a clock. It even HAS a LED in the joystick, but it's not used for anything!), bluetooth, and a fully functioning address book (ie: I want to be able to see an address, not just a #, and I want the phone to support contact groups in iCal.)
Why won't anyone make it? If they do make it, why aren't they doing a better job of marketing it? I understand all the cameraphone crap is to get me to buy more services; I don't give a shit about video or MMS or cameraphones, and I'm unlikely to EVER buy those services- so just sell me a GOOD PHONE. And NO, I don't want a large phone, even if it does run Linux...
Please help metamoderate.
With refresh times measured in seconds, this tech isn't ready for any mobile phone. Only for tablet readers is it any good, when you actually hae time to wait for the page to turn.
There have been lots and lots of pre-announcements and announcements and limited-run trials out of the reach of consumers (weren't there some price-changing shelf or store signs at WalMart a few yeras ago, and that was the future?)
What is the DEAL with this company and with the technology? What aren't they saying? These delays have gone on for a very long time, and there are carefully timed releases to keep them in the news, but where's the affordable OEM and end-user products built with even a rigid e-ink display?
try a chiclet. works for me.
bleh.
This space available.
People like colour, if this tech was introduced 7 years ago it would have been popular. For low end phones it will be useful, it will also be good for devices where colour isn't really needed.
Also, a colour version which could play video would look rather different to a normal computer display. It would be using reflective colours instead of transmitted. Everyone is used to high resolution printouts from their inkjet or fairly low resolution TFT screens. A display using e-ink that is colour would be a mixture of both.
Am I the only one who has trouble getting jis in their keyboard ? Any solutions
How does that have anything to do with E-ink? Are you a squid?
Don't worry, a conspiracy-uncovering documentary like this one will explain it all... Only the centralized planning (preferably, in the 5-year periods) can alleviate the so called "free market"'s constant failures and get the real innovations adopted without delay.
Gebyy zr ohggbpf...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Want a Readius?
No thanks -- I'll roll my own.
Why, you must be from Holland.
Sure, aren't you?
:D
you can roll, but can't smoke.
i can get a big screen television that sticks to the wall like a large poster or glued on like wallpaper...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I want a phone or PC with a small display that rolls out to get bigger when I need it. Like a phone with a 5"x2" screen that pulls out to a 5"x10" screen in the upper half of the clamshell. And a 12-key pad in the bottom half that folds open again sideways into a 4" wide QWERTY keyboard. A WiFi/Bluetooth hub for other devices, like an extra "CPU server" that can sit in a bag, coat pocket, or across a network.
I want to see "convertible displays" destroy the distinction between mobile "phones" and "PCs" forever.
--
make install -not war
...electronic wallpaper is not without its problems.
The reason none of these rollable devices have been brought to market yet is not the E-ink display, their grey scale display is quite good, and already used in consumer products (the Sony E-reader for example). The problem is the flexible back plane needed to drive the display. Currently, every system demonstrated including the Readius uses organic polymers for the drivers, which have a shelf life of a couple of days if you're lucky. They are incredibly sensitive to moisture, and the only system so far capable of protecting them requires the deposition of many layers of transparent metal oxides, which alone cost somewhere in the range of $60/ square foot. Anytime you see news about a flexible display, look to see if they are using organic drivers, if they are and they don't explicitly address the moisture issue, the product will never reach consumers.
Very clever. Personally, I miss the days where cleverness ruled over redundant jokes. Gads, I am sick of seeing about Old Korean people, Overlords, and Soviet Union.
1. This sentence is a little run-on.
2. This sentence is a declarative ("What doesn't make sense..."), so it should not end with a question mark.
3. This is another stupid question at the end of a summary. People want color (preferably at least 32,000 color) displays in their phones. Few manufacturers are going to pay for premium new tech in what will be one of their bottom-of-the-barrel/developing country and grandma-and-grandpa handsets.
Why ?
It's a small creature saying "feep !".
My almost-10-years old Ericsson T39 (dating before "Sony-" started appearing in front). Had and still has today all this : Bluetooth (for being used as a modem on my other equipment) with GPRS, extensible antenna (although as an option), and low power consumption (even had an optionnal huge LiMH replacement for the polymer battery that could last up to one week).
It's good enough and I'm still using up to today. Only now I begin to consider changing it because UMTS sounds interesting...
The reason you can't find such things ?
Feature creep. When everyone changes phones each year for free with his tarif plan, companies have a hard time trying to be "the one" elected by the consumer for the next cycle. So their overbloat their phone with semi-useful functions and then hope that the consumer will pick to one with the most marks in the checkbox on the label at the shop.
Or they go for the cheapest phone, and not only remove things not necessary in a phone (like the webcam) but also functions that could be used to connect the phone to other device that could provide the function (the phone doesn't need internet connection. The Laptop or the Palmtop *DO*) and you get no UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth or IrDA (and sometime, no other connector except a charger port).
So they either produce Everything-including-the-kitchen-sink phone, or the cheap crap-phone, but no "give-me a basic phone and let my use my laptop for everything else".
The one company that gets that right *AND* that use some standart connector (so that we don't have to buy a new round of charger and such accessories everytime a new model is out) would have definitely a market.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I could be useful for a secondary display, for when the main one is too small.
Think about a GPS.
They usually have small screen (in the phone or palmtop range), which are good at showing an overhead view of the car with only the current intersection visible.
With a second eInk display, if you need a more wide point of view, you could just unroll a bigger (laptop-range of size) blach and white map of the region you are in. If you don't drive at the speed of the jet, the map itself doesn't change that quickly and the slow refresh isn't a problem. In fact, the low power requirement means that the GPS could "print" the map and once you've parked the car you should be able to detach the balck and with map and put it in your pocket for further references.
Same thing could be though about palmtops (manage the e-mails on the smal screen, read them on the big one) etc...
Basically the eInk could be used directly for any usages which makes some people print the thing of actual paper.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Color.
Everyone is taking the backward approach of trying to take a phone and morph it into a complete communications and multimedia experience. Of course, they are being limited by the crappy phone OS, but they just keep cludging onto the phones. iPhone has the potential to be a REAL OS, on a phone... but Apple will drop the ball by trying to monopolize the phone market. As usual, they would rather have all of a tiny marketshare than a piece of the entire market: that attitude made them lose to IBM, it made them lose to Microsoft, and it's going to make them lose to the next group to deliver a real phone OS (maybe Linux, maybe Microsoft, maybe someone else entirely. Palm already lost their chance a long time ago).
But I digress. It's because of the "YOUR PHONE WILL DO EVERYTHING!!!!!!" attitude which prevents the mobile phone industry from, ironically, making good phones. There isn't a single phone on the market which is JUST a phone with an address book. Such a product would likely never be upgraded, and the phone industry has become totally reliant on the idea of making a disposable product.
grayscale porn just doesn't cut it.
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
What doesn't make sense though, is given the energy efficiency and easy-to-read high contrast functionality of E Ink, why other than Motorola with its Motofone, has no other cell phone manufacturer incorporated E Ink technology into its handsets?"
Phone manufacturers are more interested in bright, vibrant, color displays that look attractive. The efficiency gains aren't a big advantage given the frequency with which people are used to charging their phones, and the readability is only an issue when reading large amounts of text, which isn't (yet) something that cell phones are often used for.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
Why would it make sense to use e-paper (or e-ink, whichever term you prefer) for cell phones?
How much energy do you think the LCD screen on a cell phone consumes? Keep in mind that for most people, the LCD screens and their backlights are on only a fraction of the time. I would think that most of the energy consumed is by the radio. Also, backlit LCD screens are easy to see in the dark. LCD screens also display color, which is good for camera phones.
That's not to say that e-paper-based displays can't overcome those issues, but I don't think it's there yet. And if an e-paper display isn't cheaper to manufacture than an LCD display (which I assume to be true since it's relatively new), I see no compelling reason for cell phone manufacturers to switch to them right now. Maybe in a few years, though.
The reason why it won't take off is because there isn't an easy way of getting to a vast dump of intellectual property to start the wheels going.
If every textbook in the world would be available, then only maybe it would sell (unless it would be very, very cheap.. like $10-20.
If every textbook in the world, as well as every picture book would be abailable, then there's a small chance people would be interested as both porn and manga would open up for these devices (and the price would have to be lower than $50).
If every textbook, picture book, and animation would be available, then you've got a device which people would be really interested in owning, and would be then worth a pricetag of $100.
Of course now you're talking about the capabilities of cellphones and computers. why not just wait until you can get your hands on a OLPC? should meet your needs.
> grayscale porn just doesn't cut it.
Why not make them in shades of pink, not grey?
While we are correcting things from my point of view the above poster cannot spell colour correctly. As you can see from that statement correcting grammar and spelling on an international forum like this is offtopic, pointless and annoying. So long as people have interesting things to say why bring out the red pen?
Nah, putting a kitchen sink in the phone is so 20th century. If it can make decent frapiccino or caramel machiatto , then you are talking, baby!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
IMO, e-books will never take off until publishers get over their e-greed. I'm not sure why a new novel that's $25 in hardback form is listed by many publishers at $26 for the electronic copy. I certainly won't pay more money to be locked in to their DRM. There's also the issue of format, and a reader app being available for my particular e-reader.
:).
The only exception I've found to this is http://www.webscription.net/ Baen's webscription service. Prices have increased since inception, but they're still cheaper than a paperback. They even give away lots of books for free (to get you interested enough to buy the rest of the series, of course
e-books won't work until the consumer-hostile DRM craze dies.
-j