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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?"
So what exactly is the temperature at which e-books burn?
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.
Blerg.
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.
Which means people are missing the point. This technology should be set around a different target: the dedicated e-Book reader. I want two pages, the size of a comfortable paperback, that fold together to make an ultra-thin folder-like book. It doesn't have to roll up, it just has to be flat and thin. Imagine having a library of e-Books that are COMFORTABLE on the eyes, folded neatly in your bookbag. It doesn't matter if it takes 1.5 seconds to flip to the next page.
I don't get what this has to do with a cell phone at all.
For low end phones it will be useful, it will also be good for devices where colour isn't really needed.
Like a book, you mean?
The idea of e-ink isn't that it's b&w, but it's very low-power -- you only need to use electricity to update the screen, and after that whatever's "written" on the "page" is permanent until it's updated again. Very useful for e-book readers, not very useful for phones or much of anything else.
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 ?
They're not expensive compared to LCDs, but they're expensive compared to paper. Since e-ink is supposed to make cheap and portable e-books a reality, you need to have an e-book that's cheap enough for consumers to want--the technology isn't well-suited to anything but static text and images, so you can't try to sell an e-book that, for example, also plays video games.
Since more people want to make phone calls than read books, e-books need to be pretty darned cheap to sell well (schools could be a prime market, but they're all broke, too). Personally, I wouldn't buy one until it broke the $99 barrier AND was as small and portable as a paperback book, and they haven't gotten to that point yet.
Grandparent post has a good point. I'll see if I can add to it.
Most cyclists don't have rearview mirrors; they use their ears. They can tell a car is just-behind-and-to-the-left or riding-my-arse by the engine noise. You can hear that fool doing twice the speed limit well before he passes you, assuming you can hear. Now, yes, I agree: every cyclist needs to look around and be aware of the traffic around them, the same as a driver in a car. But would you drive a car with *no* rearview mirrors at all? By shutting off your ears as a cyclist you are doing the same thing.
Yes, I'm a cyclist. I ride in traffic. I don't wear my iPod unless I'm on a separate cycleway/path. I would use a rearview mirror if I could find one that actually works.
you can roll, but can't smoke.
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.
'scuse me? I'd rather have a cyclist listen to an audiobook than a driver making a hands-free phonecall. Also, I live in a country where there are separate lanes for cyclists. Keep the volume low and the eyes open.
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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'd rather have a cyclist listen to an audiobook than a driver making a hands-free phonecall.
I didn't know the two were mutually exclusive.
By the way, you seem to be from The Netherlands, the country that taught me to stop watching out for cars and start watching out for deadly bicycles :). I still do this back in Sweden even though it is totally unnecessary here.
It still aint 60 km/hr and if you're in traffic going 60 km/hr then you need to do at least 50+ or you are going to cause an accident.. that's if you're in a car or on a bike. Really, it isn't a matter of velocity, it's a matter of acceleration. If you can't start and stop at the same rate as the rest of the traffic, you're a hazard. This is why bike lanes are a good idea.. and yes, they should be everywhere.
How we know is more important than what we know.