Gizmodo: E-paper

News Flash: Moto R&D Working On Prototypes Other Than RAZR 3!

Adrian Covert — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EDT

In a panel at GigaOm's Mobilize conference today, Motorola VP of Applied Technology Fred Kitson revealed some prototype display technologies they have in the works, confirming the company has more on the mind than the damn RAZR. One phone prototype Kitson described involves an embedded projector that made use of 3 lasers that project on a wall, while another makes use of a headset display. He also made mention of home displays that could automatically detect your phone as you move into a target range, and dedicate a portion of that screen to your cellphone.

Kitson expounded upon the Laser projector, saying that it could be used for collaborative teleconferencing, and "social TV," where someone can insert themselves in a friend's video feed. Other prototypes include foldable, multi-part displays, as well as lego-style modular displays that are scalable in size and shape. E-paper was another technology Kitson admitted to working with, which seems odd for a cellphone in my opinion. Asked about when we might see some of this technology, all Kitson would say is that it's working in the lab now, and some of these will hopefully surface in the future. But hey, I'm just glad the StarTac 2 isn't their "next big thing" in the lab.

Rumor Smashed: No New Kindle This Year

Mark Wilson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Despite the rumors, it looks like there will be no sunny retirement for the current Kindle. From Amazon's chief spokesperson to the New York Times:

One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.

Oh well, maybe next Christmas. Sorry Timmy, don't cry. Santa still loves you—it's Jeff Bezos who doesn't. [NYT]

Epson Proud of Its 13 Inches of E-paper

Mark Wilson — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:30:00 EDT

We haven't been talking much about e-paper as of late, but companies are still chipping away at the technology all the same. Epson just unveiled their newest flagship demo, a 13.4-inch display with 3104 × 4128 resolution and pixel density as high as 385ppi. Contrast ratio is also quite good at 10:1 (the WSJ is somewhere around half of that) and reflectiveness is 40% (which must be good if they are promoting it, right?). Epson has no immediate plans to produce this particular model, but don't be surprised if you see its tech show up elsewhere down the line. [Fareastgizmos]

Improbable Blu Jacket Custom Made For Attention Seekers

Sean Fallon — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EDT

The Blu Jacket concept from Lunar Design aims to turn our children's children into walking billboards using an electronic fabric based on e-paper technology and space-age organic fabrics. It could display your mood throughout the day, pull up maps using a built-in GPS module, display photos, video and (gasp) even advertisements.

Imagine a future filled with people getting paid to wear annoying ads everywhere you went, or attention seekers getting in your face with a shirt filled with their stupid propaganda. It's a good thing we will all be long dead before this sort of technology becomes widely available. [Lunar Design via Gizmowatch via DVICE]

Next Gen Optimus Maximus Details: Sub-$800, One-Screen and Raised Keys

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:15:44 EDT

Apparently, when Jesus called Art.Lebedev's Optimus Tactus keyboard "Optimus Retardus" for its lack of physical keys, the design team listened. Or not. Either way, Lebedev's latest plan is to indeed make a visual keyboard with just one full-color screen as opposed to many tiny ones. But it will overlay physical transparent keys (like on the Upravlator). In the end, you'd actually have a hard time noticing that each key isn't its own display. The goal is to get this thing into production by year's end, and to sell it for under $800—a bargain by Art.Lebedev standards. Later, the dudes will move to E-Ink or e-paper for lighter, wireless keyboards. [Optimus Project]

Paper e-Ink Scale Design Looks Great on Paper, Might Not Be Practical

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:47:47 EST

This e-paper bathroom scale idea from Duck Image Studio seems like a fantastic idea at first. It's e-ink, so it's thin, which means you can embed it into bath mats or floor tiles or maybe even into your shower. Imagine being able to see how much you weigh every time you bathed, or brushed your teeth, or took a leak (men only). You'd develop body image issues in record time. [Yanko Design]

E-Paper Slap Bracelets: Like the 80's...Except Different

Sean Fallon — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:30:44 EST

If you had a slap bracelet back in the day (and I am ashamed to admit that I did), you will surely enjoy this concept device from the Chocolate Agency. Imagine a full-fledged multimedia device that can be slapped on and worn like a wristband. It would feature an e-paper surface and a battery that can be recharged using kinetic energy. Unfortunately, imagining it is all you can really do, because this sort of device is a massive pipe dream at the moment. But there is nothing wrong with thinking big. [Yanko Design]

Napkin PC Concept Utilizes Multi-Touch E-Paper Display and RF Technology

Sean Fallon — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:00:25 EST

We have all doodled an idea or a bit of important information on a napkin at one point or another, but designer Avery Holleman takes it a step further with the Napkin PC. The device is intended to help creative groups collaborate on designs more effectively. Here's how it works: data is sent to the multi-touch e-paper "napkin" interface via the pen using short range radio frequency (RF). The pen and the napkin also communicate with the base station PC via long-rage RF. More after the break.

The result is a device that allows users to share ideas with greater ease. The napkins are also modular, so large-scale layouts can be formed by connecting them together. If all of that wasn't improbable enough, the Napkin PC uses so little power that it has no need for a battery—instead, it features a single-layer flexible circuit board that utilizes inductive power. It sounds like a really awesome idea, if you can get past the fact that it would cost a fortune to produce one device that probably wouldn't work. [Yanko Design]

Writeable, Color e-paper ReKindles Our Interest

Mark Wilson — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:05:49 EST

Fuji Xerox has just demonstrated what may be the Holy Grail of e-paper—probably not the "E-Ink" technology found inside the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, but something similar—a prototype display that a user and write on. Three layers of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals are used (red, green and blue), meaning the display has a gel-like base.

Still flexible, the display can recognize "optical" writing, though probably not quickly. An eyes-on report mentions that the refresh rate is under a second, which while probably fast enough for quick marks, is not what you want to be handwriting a letter on. But we just had our boobie doodles in mind anyway. [techon]

Fujitsu Flepia e-Reader Displays 4,096 Colors

Mark Wilson — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:48:36 EDT

Keep ignoring e-paper and e-readers, but as we see more color displays it will slowly take over the world. And Fujitsu just showed off some of their sweet new color e-reader prototypes. These readers feature 8" or 12" displays, boast 4,096-colors and XGA 768 x 1024 resolution...all on top of touch screen capability. The only downside is that you have to wait 10 seconds for images to draw. The battery is lithium polymer and gets up to 50 hours of runtime (though, to be fair, that spec is from an optional 8-color spec). Content is stored on an SD card and the unit features a USB port.

Oh, and there are speakers, too. With all this functionality and a waistline of just 12mm, we think we're in love. [gizmag via gizwatch]

Update: E-Paper Phone from DoCoMo Has Ever-Changing Keys

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:07:26 EDT

Remember that "e-ink" phone we showed you yesterday? We just got the details and better pics. It's a DoCoMo prototype hard-keypad phone that actually uses e-paper from SiPix, not e-ink, to change the meaning of the keys.

E-paper works slightly differently than Sony Reader's e-ink, which has black and white balls of opposite charges, floating in a clear liquid, which change position when polarity changes. Here, the particles are just white, and are suspended in a colored liquid, floating up when needed. Engineers have come up with five e-paper colors—blue, red, green, yellow and black—and the prototype plastic bodies are meant to correspond with those colors. It takes about one second for the display character to change.
There doesn't appear to be any kind of a backlight, so you may have to carry your own Itty Bitty Book Light around to see what buttons you are pushing, which sort of defeats the purpose of having hard keys. There doesn't appear to be a halitosis monitor either, but surely that will come in time. [Nikkei]

LG.Philips LCD Teases World With A4 Color Electronic Paper

Addy Dugdale — Mon, 14 May 2007 05:25:42 EDT

LG.Philips LCD keeps teasing the world with dream display products that will not reach the mass market until sometime in the next decade.

This is their all-new, world-first A4 electronic paper, a 4,096-color flexible 14.1-inch page made using "metal foil and plastic substrates rather than glass." They only use power when the image changes and since they are reflective like real paper, they can be seen perfectly from any angle. Even under direct sunlight.

For even better viewing, figure 1 here shows that you have to hold it up on high like a Holy Hand Grenade and wear stripped gloves. Something that might prove somehow unpractical while reading your electronic New York Times in the loo. – Jesus Diaz

LG.Philips LCD claims first flexible color A4-size e-paper [Digitimes]

LG Phillips E-book: Flexible Means Flexibility

Mark Wilson — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 12:01:19 EDT

LG Phillips just announced their 14.1-inch WXGA flexible E-book at IMID 2006 (International Meeting on Information Display).

Besides 14.1 inches taking the crown as the largest E-paper display yet, it's completely flexible (though, maybe sticking the prototypes in hard cases isn't the best way to highlight this feature). The 300ms response time is still pretty far from displaying video, but any content needing a constant refresh will nullify the main power benefits of e-paper anyway. We're just one step closer to the Holy Grail of electronic displays: crumpling them up throwing them in the trash like basketballs. – Mark Wilson

LG Announcement [via mobilmag]

Bridgestone E-Paper

johnb — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 13:18:46 EDT

Bridgestone doesn't just make tires that explode. They also make e-paper that looks absolutely killer. It has a Fresnel surface that lets it bend and twist and it's only two colors right now, but it looks to be the thinnest solution yet.

What I'm really wondering is when all these good e-papers are going to start hitting the streets. Strangely enough, I suspect Nintendo will drop the first e-paper handheld gaming solution, although their young audience might gum the display a little too much. I'd love to read the paper on this, though. – John Biggs

World's thinnest e-paper from Bridgestone [MobileMag]

Fold-Up DVD Player Concept

Charlie White — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:29:10 EDT

Here's a techno-concept that's more like real origami than those overblown PDAs we've been ~~ridiculing~~ reporting about for the past few months—it's an e-paper DVD screen that folds up into a tiny package that's easy to carry around.

Of course, this is not real; it's a design concept from Inventables, a concept studio just north of Chicago. But it's a nice, fanciful graphic and we thought it might give you a peek into what technology could be like a few years from now. That e-paper screen itself is actually being developed by Mag-Ink in Israel (among others), but no one is saying when we might see a product like this in the real world. This concept is a little anachronistic, though, because by the time we see screens like this, won't DVD players be a forgotten relic, long since discarded to the ash heap of history?

Origami DVD Player [Inventables, via bornrich]

iRex Announces Its First ePaper Device: The Iliad ER 0100

Joel — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:04:55 EST

We've known that iRex Technologies, a spinoff of Philips, would be releasing a nice ePaper device sometime in 2006. The company has finally revealed details of its first product, the ER 0100 (codenamed Iliad), a 8.1-inch ePaper reader with 1024 x 768 resolution and 160dpi fidelity. That's just a hair under the Sony Librié's 170dpi, but with greater resolution.

Inside, the specs are modest but seemingly ample, with a 400MHz Xscale, 64MB of RAM, and 224MB of flash storage (not to mention USB, CF, or SD card storage). It has a touchscreen for input and built-in Wi-Fi for connectivity.

But here's the part you should have been wondering about: Yes, the iRex ER 0100 supports plain text, XHTML, and PDF out of the box—no DRM muss. At least that's the current spec—we better hold them to it, because otherwise what's the point?

We've been waiting for a solid eBook device for ages. Hopefully the ER 0100, when it's released in April for an as-yet-unannnounced price, will be the one.

iRex FAQ Page [iRexTechnologies]

Big Bendy Clock

Noah R — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 16:00:07 EST

Watch company Citizen announced the development of an e-paper-like technology for use as a clock. "Yawn", I hear you say — but wait, Citizen's e-paper is really BIG. Measuring 4.2 feet x 1.7 feet, Citizen's giant, bendable timepiece can reportedly run for a whole year on two regular button batteries. That's all very well, but I'm skeptical about the real-world uses a bendable clock might have. Given the way digits appear on a digital clock like this, asking a friend what the time is when this thing is half bent around a corner would elicit a response such as "well, it's either 1:45, 7:45, 8:45 or 9:45." Which might be a lot less useful than, say, looking at my watch.

Citizen's Big Bendy Clock. No, Clock [The Daily Yomiuri]

NEC's Flexible Battery

Noah R — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 09:27:36 EST

NEC announced an exciting foray into the world of bendy things today, with the revelation of their development of a 0.3mm thick flexible battery technology, that can also (allegedly) recharge in about 30 seconds.

NEC sees it being used in the future for self-powered IC cards and powering electronic paper in as discreet a manner as possible. A real breakthrough in battery technology, and I definitely like the idea of being able to stumble into a taxi a drunken, shambling mess and simply hold up my SELF-POWERED TALKING ID CARD which tells the taxi driver how to get me home.

NEC announce flexible battery technology [Daily Yomiuri]

E-Paper Display In Tokyo Station

Noah R — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 08:30:40 EST

A new display set up at Tokyo station makes interesting use of e-paper. Six A4 sheets of e-paper are on display for commuters in a snazzy transparent blue housing — allowing them to see how thin the e-paper is. The sheets of e-paper are being fed with the latest news stories via a wireless Internet connection and are updated with new content every five minutes. Rather cool, although to the casual observer (read: soulless, speed-walking salaryman zombie that make up most of Tokyo station's commuters) it will simply look like someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to frame today's weather report.

E-Paper Bendie Watch From Seiko

gizmodo.com — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 10:43:11 EST

Seiko is going ultra-tech with this awesomely rad new watch made from e-paper. If you want one, though, you'd better show up with a baseball bat, crowbar, or something to wield off ~~John Biggs~~ other watch fiends, because only 500 are being produced. Yes, 500. It's being done on purpose to generate hype around these new ultra-tech watches, and Seiko thinks we're gonna fall for it. So what's so great about this watch, anyway?:

"The braclet-wristwatch features a thin, bendable e-paper trimmed in stainless steel which makes it a high-tech accessory without the geeky look. A black-and-white pattern of stripes on the watch changes every hour."

Ok...I ah....have to see a man about a baseball bat and ah...fly over to Japan.

Bendable e-paper watch [Popgadget]

Gizmodo Ink

Noah R — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 11:00:31 EST

Add HP to the list of manufacturers working on a practical form of e-paper. Trees shouldn't be breathing sighs of relief yet: the technology's not quite ready for prime time. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Stanford braniacs laugh at current consumer GPS devices' measly 5-10 meter margins of error. Their goal? A navigation system accurate enough to pinpoint objects within a centimeter of each other. [Seatte Times]
As always, search titans Yahoo! and Google have been busy. Both make the news today with wireless services; Yahoo! plans to release a cellphone, made by Nokia, through SBC Communications. Meanwhile, the Goog introduced its cellphone map app which out of the gate is compatible with over 100 types of phones on the major carriers' networks. [Wall St. Journal (reg)] [USA Today]
The Boston Globe has some personal tech news nuggets for you. First up is Kodak's Mobile Service Postcard Application, which for 2 bucks, remotely prints out a 4x6 glossy of your mobile phone digipic and snail mails it to family n' friends. The paper also mentions biometric cellphone lockers for students enrolled in schools that ban phones in the classroom, plus the Soldius1 solar charger for powering up your juice-thirsty mobile devices. [Boston Globe]

Bend that Color e-paper Like it's Your Job

gizmodo.com — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 17:44:10 EDT

Fujitsu debuted bendable color e-paper xtreme ultra at CEATEC. The screen/paper/whatever won't break or anything when bent, thus making it the ideal replacement for paper. Lots of visions are in the works for this new e-paper such as advertising in transit, books, manuals, and other various paper replacements. One cool feature is the ability to transfer images from a mobile phone or the such, to a large e-paper display for possible image viewing or advertisement transfers. My question is this: How long until the porn gets released in e-paper?

Bendable electronic color paper... [New Launches]

Try Tacking This to a Wall

Noah R — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 09:30:00 EDT

Fuji Xerox plans to start selling these E-Paper Visual Index Cards sometime next year. The e-paper is ultra-thin and does not need electricity for its display, according to CNet. The article—a photo caption, really—goes on to talk about "photoconductivity seats that contain an LCD layer." I'm hoping that someone reading this can decipher what that means. All I know is, I want a stack of them.

Reader Caswal says: "The way the E-Paper works, is it requires electricity to set the image, but once it is set, it is held there by a static charge. Bit like an Etch-A-Sketch. You ground the charge to reset the screen to blank."

Reader Benjamin says: "...the photoconductivity implies that you set the e-paper down on a table and shine a negative of what you want on it and then the spots on the paper that are light have the LCD turned on and the ones that are dark don't, so you get the positive of the what you wanted on the paper."

Fuji Xerox Announces Power-Saving E-Paper [TreeHugger]
E-Paper Chase [CNet]