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LG Begins Mass Production of First Flexible E-ink Displays
MrSeb writes "LG has just announced it has begun mass production of the world's first flexible, plastic e-ink display, with finished devices expected to hit Europe next month. LG says these plastic displays are half the weight (14g) and 30% thinner (0.7mm) than the hard, heavy, prone-to-cracking glass-laminate e-ink displays found in e-book readers like the Kindle and Nook. The press release says the plastic display survives repeated 1.5-meter drop tests and break/scratch tests with a small hammer, and that it's flexible up to 40 degrees from the mid point. Technology-wise, it's not very clear how LG's e-paper actually works. The press release suggests LG is using a conventional TFT process, which hints that they've cracked Electronics on Plastic by Laser Release (EPLaR). EPLaR is basically a technique of embedding electrophoretic ink capsules in a plastic substrate, but using existing TFT manufacturing processes, rather than building a whole new factory (unlike E Ink, which makes displays for the Kindle and other e-book readers). If this is the case, then other LCD manufacturers like Samsung and Sharp could start producing e-ink displays as well, hopefully driving prices down and further improving the display technology."
It mentions a TFT substrate and calls it an eInk display. Correctly me if I'm wrong but TFT requires active power for a display while the idea of eInk is that once a display is "set", you do not use any power until you need to update / change the display.
This will be great for the newspaper industry.
They can roll up an e-ink display, stuff it into a plastic bag, and toss it in your driveway everyday.
The newspaper industry moves into the 21st century!!!
Okay, so no color yet, but what about the contrast? Is it better than e-ink's Pearl display from the 4th-generation Kindles? And is it faster?
TFT means Thin Film Transistor, and from what I understand is a method of manufacturing transparent electronics behind the display. If it's still an e-ink display, those transistors will presumably only be powered on when it's time to flip the capsules.
"Everything we see has some hidden message. A lot of awful messages are coming in under the radar - subliminal consumer messages, all kinds of politically incorrect messages..." - Harold Ramis
âoeRFID in School Shirts must be trial runâ
The trial runs began a LONG time ago!
Weâ(TM)re way past that process.
Now weâ(TM)re in the portion of the game where they will try and BRAINWASH us into accepting these things because not everyone BROADCASTS themselves on and offline, so RFID tracking will NEED to be EVERYWHERE, eventually.
RFID is employed in MANY areas of society. RFID is used to TRACK their livestock (humans) in:
* 1. A lot of BANKâ(TM)s ATM & DEBIT cards (easily cloned and tracked)
* 2. Subway, rail, bus, other mass transit passes (all of your daily
activities, where you go, are being recorded in many ways)
* 3. A lot of RETAIL storesâ(TM) goods
* 4. Corporate slaves (in badges, tags, etc)
and many more ways!
Search the web about RFID and look at the pictures of various RFID devices, theyâ(TM)re not all the same in form or function! When you see how tiny some of them are, youâ(TM)ll be amazed! Search for GPS tracking and devices, too along with the more obscured:
- FM Fingerprinting &
- Writeprint
tracking methods! Letâ(TM)s not forget the LIQUIDS at their disposal which can be sprayed on you and/or your devices/clothing and TRACKED, similar to STASI methods of tracking their livestock (humans).
Visit David Ickeâ(TM)s and Prison Planetâ(TM)s discussion forums and VCâ(TM)s discussion forums and READ the threads about RFID and electronic tagging, PARTICIPATE in discussions. SHARE what you know with others!
These TRACKING technologies, on and off the net are being THROWN at us by the MEDIA, just as cigarettes and alcohol have and continue to be, though the former less than they used to. The effort to get you to join FACEBOOK and TWITTER, for example, is EVERYWHERE.
Maybe, you think, youâ(TM)ll join FACEBOOK or TWITTER with an innocent reason, in part perhaps because your family, friends, business parters, college ties want or need you. Then itâ(TM)ll start with one photo of yourself or you in a group, then another, then another, and pretty soon you are telling STRANGERS as far away as NIGERIA with scammers reading and archiving your PERSONAL LIFE and many of these CRIMINALS have the MEANS and MOTIVES to use it how they please.
One family was astonished to discover a photo of theirs was being used in an ADVERTISEMENT (on one of those BILLBOARDS you pass by on the road) in ANOTHER COUNTRY! There are other stories. Iâ(TM)ve witnessed people posting their photo in social networking sites, only to have others who dis/like them COPY the photo and use it for THEIR photo! Itâ(TM)s a complete mess.
The whole GAME stretches much farther than the simple RFID device(s), but how far are you willing to READ about these types of instrusive technologies? If youâ(TM)ve heard, Wikileaks exposed corporations selling SPYWARE in software and hardware form to GOVERNMENTS!
You have to wonder, âoeWill my anti-malware program actually DISCOVER government controlled malware? Or has it been WHITELISTED? or obscured to the point where it cannot be detected? Does it carve a nest for itself in your hardware devicesâ(TM) FIRMWARE, what about your BIOS?
Has your graphics card been poisoned, too?â No anti virus programs scan your FIRMWARE on your devices, especially not your ROUTERS which often contain commercially rubber stamped approval of BACKDOORS for certain organizations which hackers may be exploiting right now! Search on the web for CISCO routers and BACKDOORS. That is one of many examples.
Some struggle for privacy, some argue about it, some take preventitive measures, but those who are wise know:
Privacy is DEAD. Youâ(TM)ve just never seen the tombstone.
I elbowed my Nook Touch the other day. Most of my weight was on the elbow. It didn't crack. I'm tall and a bodybuilder. This was not an insignificant force. I own two other e-ink nooks, one of which I've taken apart. They also have put up with abuse and not cracked. I'm not sure you can really call these things "prone to cracking".
Still, I am interested in the thinner, lighter displays.
Imagine a device the size of a standard weekly japanese manga collection but you know not thick as a phone book, have a small reader that you plug in read only cards that contain that weeks manga releases instead of having any sort of wifi or 3g or internal memory it just uses the read only card for data, well it could have a small bit of writable memory for saved reading locations but it does not have to be much. It could help the manga indrustry which is currently struggling by cutting costs and letting a wider level of access to new manga artists as the space on the "phone books" are limited and new artists have trouble getting into.
As this type of screen is light weight and can be bent and read and sturdy enough that you wont worry about carrying it around and putting it into a bag and if it can be made cheap enough which i think it could be if you take out most of the internal guts of current ereaders.
What the hell happened to the OLED technology?! The industry announced a wide production release soon, several years ago!
This is not a phrase I associate with eink, can the posted post some evidence that this is a problem? I've never, ever heard of an eink display cracking
moox. for a new generation.
Or still the black on grey like the Kindle?
... to create this stuff, though not in mass production.
Years ago, I saw a pic on the web (of course, I can't find it now) showing the Xerox team holding a huge roll of this stuff.
Xerox filed (likely one-of-multiple) patents on this in 1996; it was granted in 1997. (http://www.google.cf/patents/US7158111).
I would love to see a portable computer that is similar to the old scroll type maps of days gone by. The CPU itself would be about the size of a paper towel tube and the display would just unscroll to look at it and scroll back up around the tube when you are finished with it.
I've broken 4 Kindle screens, always by packing it in my luggage and discovering the cracked screen immediately after boarding a flight. The screen is so fragile, just by applying a small amount pressure on the screen it will break.
This is my most recent one: http://i.imgur.com/Q6GtV.jpg
I NEED this. Amazon, can you hear me?? Please please please put this on the Kindle.
That is all.
A 19" demo screen? If it's that cheap to produce and low-power like traditional glass e-ink, show me a billboard or the side of a building covered in this plastic e-ink display.
Cool, now I can get me my Global!
I wanna changing tatoo! Man that would be hilarious. Put it on banner mode, "I love Mom!!" "I love /."
It's the protective screens that they put over them to protect them in consumer devices that aren't typically flexible.
Nothing new to see here.
Wake me up when they can do vibrant color and have motion video-capable display update speeds.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If they could make these in color I would love to have a giant one of these as a picture frame! It would use less power than digital photo frames so long as it doesn't change that much! You could have a Monet on your wall one day and a vacation photo the next.
What do they cost? Typical LVDS panels cost ~$28 in quantity 10,000. If they can't hit near that, then they are going for a niche market.
-- Terry
It took this fucking long for if to become a reality? Christ, 3M's ads were ALL about the flexible displays.
So you can roll these things, right?
Mmmm... interesting.
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