Samsung's New Carbon Nanotube Color E-Paper

Iddo Genuth writes to tell us that Samsung and Unidym have shown the world's first carbon nanotube-based color e-paper. Interestingly, the new film is electrically conductive while remaining almost completely translucent and only 50 nanometers thick. "The company also mentions that the EPD [electrophoretic displays] has important advantages over conventional flat panel displays. EPDs have very low power consumption and bright light readability, which means that even under bright lights or sunlight, the user would be able to view the display clearly. Furthermore, since the device uses the thin CNT films, applications can include e-paper and displays with thin, flexible substrates. Power consumption is lowered due to the EPD's ability to reflect light and therefore able to preserve text or images on the display without frequently refreshing."

Comments

completely translucent

[agendi]

That might also be nice to use for head up displays in cars.. or even to put over my living room window to change the view :)

Re:completely translucent

[lysergic.acid]

um, all you did was say how HUDs are currently made. you gave no reason why this wouldn't be a good alternative method of implementing a HUD.

and reading the Wikipedia article you linked to, it says nothing about using lasers to draw onto the sheet of glass. instead, it states that most HUDs use reflected CRT/LED/LCD-projected monochrome light. using this type of transparent e-paper display would allow full-color HUDs, and would simplify the system by using the e-paper in place of the combiner+projection unit.

i'm guess you didn't bother to read the article or even the summary. this type of e-paper is translucent:

The e-paper device jointly completed by Samsung and Unidym uses a carbon nanotube (CNT) transparent electrode developed by Unidym. CNT is a novel material that has extraordinary electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties.[emphasis mine]

and since it has lower power consumption, better bright light readability, is stronger and also more compact than LCD & LED technology, it would make sense that when the technology matures and lowers in price it could be used in HUDs.

Color E-paper

[Ostracus]

"A waterproof MP3 player built for bright beach days is the first device with a color "e-paper" display, meaning it has no backlighting and thus can be read in direct sunlight. The display, from Qualcomm, consists of two layers of a reflective material. Some wavelengths of light bounce off the first layer; some pass through and bounce off the second. Interference between the two beams creates the color, and electrostatic forces control the distance between the layers."

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21561/?a=f

Cancerous 'paper'

[RudeIota]

Everyone might want to stay away from the paper shredder with these - It will either destroy the blades or make some pretty nasty, toxic dust.

Might do both. :)

OT - Open Ink Pot has released

[BlackCreek]

On the the topic of E-reading....

Open ink pot has released the first "free" Linux firmware to run on e-readers:
http://openinkpot.org/

Why the feeble jokes?

[Kupfernigk]

This is actually a real technical breakthrough. The point is that the nanotubes are highly conductive and highly transparent so the display can be made much larger (and thinner)than hitherto. LCDs have quite a thick electrode layer on the front to provide enough conductivity and this is one of the limiting factors. The holy grail of e-paper, the thing to drive widespread usage, is the ability to deliver a full A4 or USL size page, at which point it has a big future in business. For anybody who hasn't noticed, business discussions (as distinct from people sitting around chewing fat on zero-information-content PP slides) usually require participants to wade through long reports, which still need to be printed, and which are then discarded (and have to be shredded...).

A workable e-reader would have a market here which is initially niche but would then provide the revenue to get to the fully commercialised A4 e-reader - which makes electronic delivery of newspapers and magazines fully practical. The decline in value of internet content is driven by the advertiser-funded model. Paid-for services offering real value would love a locked down e-reader. (and I personally don't mind paying for worthwhile services. By buying a subscription to e.g. Scientific American, I help guarantee its editorial independence and ability to fund articles that would lose certain advertisers.)

Proof of concept of a workable full page e-reader, during a recession when people are looking for disruptive technologies that may offer a good return? This could easily be the most important thing on Slashdot this week.