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First Touch-Screen, Bendable E-Paper Developed
Al writes "The first touch-screen flexible e-paper has been developed by a team from Arizona State University and E-Ink (the company that makes the technology for Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader). Jann Kaminski and colleagues at ASU's Flexible Display Center say the main challenge is that most touch-screen technologies do not respond well to being flexed. So they used an inductive screen, which relies on a magnetized styluses to induce a field in a sensing layer at the back of the display. The first adopters for the technology are likely to be the US Army. Watch a video of the device being tested."
Bendable e-paper! I look forward to the day when the stack of textbooks and file folders I keep can be easily replaced by one or two screens and a million tiny hard drives I can lose.
Although, it would be nice if a subscription to a newspaper meant that they would give me their proprietary e-paper and update it once a day with the new issue, keeping all previous issues on file and searchable on the same piece of hardware.
How about the awesomeness of replacing that stupid projector screen and projector with one of these? No more expensive projector, no more being blinded while you're standing in front of it, no more casting a shadow on the screen, and best of all - you can interact directly with the screen. I'd say it's got tons of advantages in that area alone.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
A couple that come to mind:
The foreman in charge of a team constructing a building (say 3-4 stories) wants to check the blueprints to make sure of a detail. He unrolls his E-paper blueprint from his back pocket and navigates to the correct section, then zooms in. A PDA would limit the display area for the blueprint, while it would be kind of difficult to roll up the whole roll of paper blueprints and stick it in his pocket.
Similarly, an E-paper newspaper could be (potentially) folded to fit in a pocket and is reusable without requiring people to put it in a recycling bin.
Your local grocery or department store could have catalogs available at the entrance that show you where in the store the item you're looking at is located, and how many are left. You could pick one up when you enter and leave it when you're finished shopping. That I suppose a PDA could do, but if you're shopping with small children, having something that's easy to read (because of its size) and durable could be useful.
I'm as anti-enthusiasm as anybody, but does it pose some problem for you if it is flexible and touch sensitive?
I suppose you might want access to one or the other at a lower price, but I doubt the availability of both in a single screen will have much impact on that.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
If they can extend it to the size of A4 and A1 sheets of paper, that could replace the need for printing glossy posters for poster presentations sessions at conferences and in office corridors. These are relatively costly to print, and become out of date (E-mail addresses tend to change).
Taking an A1 sized poster to a conference usually requires taking a rocket launcher sized tube through airports and train stations, along with the laptop containing a powerpoint presentation.
Imagine if all that was required was to take a USB memory stick and download an image to a generic E-ink display at the conference.
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Exactly. For trade shows we send out a 50" flat panel display. We had to order a custom case for the thing and I'm still always worried it's going to come back destroyed (like most trade show stuff). It'd be so much simpler to send a tube.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
In the ancient world, books were scrolls, which avoided the complexity and expense of bookbinding. With flexible e-paper, I suspect the scroll will return to its rightful place as the preferred format for printed matter, since you'll only need one large scroll to display anything every printed.
So if they made a little finger-glove that just goes over the tip of your finger that's magnetic, or even if they eventually develop something that's basically a magnetic version of a false fingernail, would you not consider THAT touch screen? For your definition, does it HAVE to require actual skin-to-screen contact?
For my money, I'd rather NOT directly touch and smear up a screen. You'll have a sharper, more accurate touching point using anything other than the rounded, soft surface of a fingertip as well.
And finally, if something can sense a finger touching it, odds are it'll be set off by just about anything touching it. If they can make it so that it's ONLY activated by the previously mentioned fingertip cover, I'd consider that WAY better.
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
I agree with you. There are these electronic touch-sensitive whiteboards called SmartBoards that can be drawn on with pens. Teachers can even draw basic shapes by tapping the button for the shape and drawing it on the screen. Educationally this is a huge leap forward from drawing on a tablet or controlling a presentation with a mouse, considering that the teacher can remain at the same place in the room as they were before they started using computers for presentations. Being able to stand in front of the whiteboard means being able to move around the room, and also means that one can again use body language to communicate during direct instruction.
Also, imagine how cool it would be for a teacher to be able to pass a sheet of plastic out to groups to reuse instead of butcher paper. Large E-ink displays would be a boon to education.
SRSLY.
I agree. We already have that $100 Wall Wart (not "Wal-Mart") computer. Imagine having a souped up version of that as the brains behind the "paper screen." It can be off in an out of the way location, using Ethernet Over Power to connect to the Internet. You'd pull out the "paper screen," browse your morning news sites, maybe a Twitter feed or two, some blog postings, Slashdot, etc. When you're done, it can fit into a tiny storage location (bookshelf, counter, etc) with no issues.
For a business use of this, I liked another poster's suggestion of replacing projector/screens with a wall-sized flex-screen. Another option would be to have a portable "paper screen" constantly reporting on different server statuses (perhaps with some interactive ways of managing servers). You could stick it with the other papers you carry to the meeting and glance at it now and them to make sure everything's running fine. All without the added bulk of a laptop.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
All battles happen at the junction of four map segments, at night, in the rain. This solves the first problem. Hopefully it's illuminated and waterproof.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Kinda funny - at a former job, I developed interactive software - presentations, calculators, etc for sales reps at a financial services company. One anecdotal way we assessed how compelling our stuff was, was the fingerprint test. The best endorsement we could get would be when the reps would complain that they'd always have to clean their screen off.
Vote Quimby.