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LG.Philips Develops World's First Color E-Paper

Posted by Zonk on Sun May 13, 2007 11:34 PM
from the i'd-love-me-some-of-that dept.
Displays Hardware Technology
An anonymous reader writes "LG.Philips LCD has announced it has developed the world's first 14.1-inch flexible color E-paper display, equivalent in size to an A4 sheet of paper. The 14.1-inch flexible color E-paper uses electronic ink from E-Ink Corp. to produce a maximum of 4,096 colors. It can be viewed from a full 180 degrees, so that images always appear crisp, even when the display is bent."
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[+] News: Hearst's Seattle PI to Test Market E-Paper 84 comments
NewsCloud writes "The Hearst Corporation plans to use the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to test market LG Philipps' recently announced flexible color E-Paper. 'The electronic P-I will carry real-time news, same as the Internet, not yesterday's news like traditional papers. Readers will turn the e-paper's pages by touching the flexible screen. And when those readers head off to work, they will roll up the electronic P-I and stuff it in their pocket, purse, or briefcase.' The announcement comes amidst the recent settlement of bitter co-operating disputes between Seattle's two newspapers and Bill Gates' recent comments on the shifting of the advertising market away from traditional media." Update: 05/18 21:51 GMT by Z : Michelle Nicolosi, Assistant Managing Editor for the PI, emailed this correction: "Someday, Seattle P-I readers may be able to carry around their news in a bendable, electronic paper device -- but not any time soon. Hearst Corp., which owns the Seattle P-I, has no plans to use the Seattle daily newspaper to test a newly announced E-paper gadget." The original site linked apparently got it wrong.
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  • Wonderful (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dirtside (91468) on Sunday May 13 2007, @11:36PM (#19109601) Journal
    Now how about a damn picture?

  • An advertisers dream (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GFree (853379) on Sunday May 13 2007, @11:37PM (#19109611)
    Now you just know the advertisers are gonna get a hold of this technology and slap animated ads on cereal boxes or something.

    Minority Report anyone?
    • Actually, I doubt it, seeing as this stuff still looks to be too expensive and fragile to be treated as disposable.

      I think a lot of these "e-paper" technologies kind of miss the whole point of paper, which is not that it happens to be flexible and reflective, or even in color, but that it's cheap enough and portable enough to bring with you literally anywhere. Paper was ubiquitous long before the invention of four-color separation.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by mrchaotica (681592) *

        I agree that it's not nearly as "revolutionary" as some people think it is, but still -- if it gives me better battery life on my portable computer (while, ideally, retaining my ability to watch videos (I know the refresh rate isn't there yet)), I'm all for it!

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by CastrTroy (595695)
          Isn't the whole point of ePaper that you don't have to refresh it 60 times a second to keep the image there? Isn't that where all the power savings come from? It makes it ideal for books and things, where the image only changes once ever minute, at most, but nto ideal when you're playing a video, where you would need to change the display at least 24 times a second. Idealy you would only have to change the pixels that change (like how mpeg encodes video), but that's still a lot of changes. Maybe i'm jus

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by walt-sjc (145127)
        No, I don't think they do. The point is to be able to create a device that is "portable enough to bring with you literally anywhere" that doesn't require 5kg of batteries to keep it running. It's about high-resolution, low power, persistent image display. Think about a newspaper. Now think about something the size of a pad of paper that can hold every current issue of newspaper and magazine in the world... Try lugging around the paper equivalent... Cost is not an issue since it's not a "disposable" device.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by walt-sjc (145127)
            I specifically don't want something I have to worry about keeping track of.

            You must have a devil of a time with your cell phone, laptop, keys, etc.

            it's cheap and ubiquitous enough for me to be able to pick up and read the folded AM New York someone else left

            You wouldn't need to read someone else's copy because you would have your own on your tablet.

            Once we have reasonably priced e-ink tablets (and I think they would need to get down in the sub $300 range,) I would hope that tree-killing paper magazines and

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Zaatxe (939368)
        seeing as this stuff still looks to be too expensive and fragile to be treated as disposable.

        Paper was once a very expensive media too!
    • Though it will make for some awesome novelty toilet paper!
    • It's interesting how many recent developments in visual technology have largely been used for advertising - I'd say the majority of animated GIFs and SWF's on the web are advertisements of some sort, and check out those huge animate billboard displays that are getting more and more common place.

      The end goal of advertising seems to be the elimination of any visual stimulus that doesn't somehow alert you to the existance of a product.
    • Now you just know the advertisers are gonna get a hold of this technology and slap animated ads on cereal boxes or something.

      Minority Report anyone?

      Oh yea, Minority Report! We better stop those e-paper guy before they also come up with the maglevs and precogs.

      Seriously though, Minority Report used lots of real world scientific data about upcoming technologies in the next 20 to 60 years, this is why Minority Report features a lot of the technology it does. As we see, their research was accurate about the e-p
    • Now you just know the advertisers are gonna get a hold of this technology and slap animated ads on cereal boxes or something.

      Minority Report anyone?

      Bring it on - "free", probably hackable e-paper, anyone?
  • Once they get more colors I'd like to tack it to my wall and use it as a monitor.

    • Re:It is transparent? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mr Jazzizle (896331) on Sunday May 13 2007, @11:42PM (#19109653)
      This just gave me an awesome idea: E-Paper post-its! Imagine having standard looking post-its around your moniter, or your office, or wired down to your kitchen (or, as long as I'm dreaming, wireless) that change corresponding to your Outlook to-do or however you wish to program them. That'd be rad. And some stuff tacked onto a bulletin board. I just love the idea of just tacking a screen to something.

  • bedside use (Score:5, Funny)

    by Spy Handler (822350) on Sunday May 13 2007, @11:41PM (#19109647) Homepage Journal
    i predict this will become a success since we can use it while lying in bed like a paper magazine and look at photos and stuff, unlike current monitors :thumbsup:

    • i predict this will become a success since we can use it while lying in bed like a paper magazine and look at photos and stuff, unlike current monitors :thumbsup:

      I happen to be in my bed with my laptop right now. What I want is to take it to the park.
      Imagine it's a beautiful day, and you can just grab your notebook and sit in the sun. There are batteries/solar panels, UMTS flat rates and eskies, but I still can't read my screen in the sun.

      BTW, anything about the resolution somewhere?

  • The opportunities for this kind of technology are limitless. Really - books, notes, travel, magazines, anything can be digitized and made incredibly accessible.

    Not to mention there is no doubt that the low power nature of it makes it ready for solar power, making it an incredible communication tool in non-power friendly places, like say deserts or jungle for military use. The fact that it's flexible makes it able to handle harsh environments - simply roll it up, stick it in a tube and keep on going. Computer on top of Everest, anyone?

    Really, this is an incredible breakthrough and deserves plenty of attention; I'm not sure the market is ready for it yet, but this kind of technology will absolutely become a part of our day-to-day lives in short order.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Mr Jazzizle (896331)
      regarding harsh enviroments, does anyone know if e-paper IS robust? being able to "simply roll it up, stick it in a tube and keep on going" would definitely be great, I'm just curious how far the tech has gotten as far as real-world usability. Maybe that's why it hasn't caught on?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Urusai (865560)
      This stuff is less flexible than your average overhead projector film. Let's get serious: until you can fold it, it's not "e-paper".

    • The opportunities for this kind of technology are limitless. Really - books, notes, travel, magazines, anything can be digitized and made incredibly accessible.

      Not to mention there is no doubt that the low power nature of it makes it ready for solar power, making it an incredible communication tool in non-power friendly places, like say deserts or jungle for military use. The fact that it's flexible makes it able to handle harsh environments - simply roll it up, stick it in a tube and keep on going. Computer on top of Everest, anyone?

      Really, this is an incredible breakthrough and deserves plenty of attention; I'm not sure the market is ready for it yet, but this kind of technology will absolutely become a part of our day-to-day lives in short order.
      The PORNOGRAPHIC opportunities for this kind of technology are limitless. Really - PORNO books, SEX notes, travel WITH JENNA, PLAYBOY magazines, anything can be digitized and made incredibly accessible.

      Not to mention there is no doubt that the low power nature of it makes it ready for solar power, making it an incredible communication tool in non-power friendly places, like say MASTURBATING in deserts or jungle. The fact that it's flexible makes it able to handle harsh environments - simply roll it up, stick it in a tube and keep on going (oh good lord, am not even going to try that one). PORN on top of Everest, anyone?

      Really, this is an incredible breakthrough and deserves plenty of attention (of course it does); I'm not sure the market is ready for it yet, but this kind of technology will absolutely become a part of our day-to-day PORN in short (ouch) order.

    • Computer on top of Everest, anyone?

      And if you think the response time of LCDs is bad... just wait for EPaper displays!
    • Not to mention there is no doubt that the low power nature of it makes it ready for solar power, making it an incredible communication tool in non-power friendly places, like say deserts or jungle for military use. The fact that it's flexible makes it able to handle harsh environments - simply roll it up, stick it in a tube and keep on going. Computer on top of Everest, anyone?

      While I also expect we'll (of course) see more and more e-paper around us (it's already widely used on airports and other such build

  • Excellent! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 13 2007, @11:53PM (#19109753)
    Clearly, this new technology will rapidly sweep aside the many current applications of black-and-white e-paper.

  • Sony eReader (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Usquebaugh (230216) on Monday May 14 2007, @12:06AM (#19109843)
    I have the eReader and it's great for reading paperbacks. But tech docs fall short due to it's smallish screen. If this is really the size of an A4/Letter and has a high dpi then I see it taking off. If it's just color with a low dpi then it'll fail. I'd love an eReader with a letter display and 300dpi :-) They grey screen is cool.
    • I'd like that too. I can't see any info anywhere about the dpi resolution, alas, and the image in the picture looks rather dim. Even so, this is a cheering advance.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by kalidasa (577403)
        The problem with the Sony Reader (I have one, too) is that it does not reflow PDF documents. I thought I'd be able to read stuff from O'Reilly's Safari on mine, but on average, it's more trouble than its worth. Gutenberg books work, but there's too much work involved reformatting them so they will reflow properly (i.e., fixing the line breaks). The books purchased from the eConnect store work perfectly, but the selection is awful, you have to use Windows to download them (which in my case means using virtua
  • or whatever people want to call them have failed to catch-on in any meaningful way, mostly for the same reasons that the paperless office hasn't caught on yet. People where I work have more or less given up giving me anything on paper because I don't like it. The last two things I printed were tax form and a joke photo for my cube wall, and that counts months without/between printing anything at all.

    Electronic books exist, making them in color won't make them more appreciated by consumers. I don't think thi
    • The amount of paper I've faced during the course of getting my degree has been verging on the obscene. If I could have a reasonably durable sheet of e-paper the same size as a standard sheet of regular paper, I'd do cartwheels! While I'm wishing, the device would have enough flash memory to store a few hundred sheet-images and a touch-screen with stylus for note-taking. A simple USB connector would let me transfer pages to and from my main system or laptop.

      Tablet notebooks have definitely been a step

  • Black and white version (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tsa (15680) on Monday May 14 2007, @12:16AM (#19109885) Homepage
    I've never even seen a device with black and white e-paper in it, and now they smugly announce the colour version. Why aren't the B&W e-paper devices more popular? Does it have to do with the fact that they don't work very well, or that they are extremely expensive?

    • They're too small. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by xtal (49134) on Monday May 14 2007, @12:41AM (#19110045) Homepage
      I've yet to see a A4 display. This is a real breakthrough, if it's affordable and available for purchase.

      I want one for viewing electronic spec sheets - all PDFs, all A4, and I have thousands of them. It would be nice to have a real "paper" like display instead of doing what we do now, which is print them. I've played with the e-ink stuff before, but the resolution was far too low and the screen size was paperback-sized.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by trawg (308495)
        Hmm, funnily enough the ones I've seen (well, the Sony one which is really the only one I have seen) is too big for me.

        I just want an e-book reader that I can easily hold in one hand. I'm using an ipaq at the moment which is almost the right size, but a little bit too small - another inch or so wider would probably be good. Then I could comfortably hold it in one hand whilst reading in almost any position.

        I suspect e-book readers are still too far away though due to the DRM issues. The Sony one is probably

    • Re:Black and white version (Score:5, Informative)

      by Lisandro (799651) on Monday May 14 2007, @12:42AM (#19110047)
      Motorola is selling a cellphone [mobileburn.com] sporting E-Ink display - it's rather crude, as the display is not dot-matrix but a segmented display (not unlike LCDs) sporting some assorted graphical icons. The kicker is that the phone sells well under 50 bucks unlocked and it's 9mm thick. Apparently, the E-Ink display is way cheaper than LCD displays to mass produce, and, since it doesn't need glass nor polarizer substrates it allows the phone to be this thin.

      As for the device itself, it's a nice barebones phone, which feels very study. The display looks great, and i only wish they used a finer dot matrix display, as SMSs can be rather hard to read on it. I've been considering getting one for myself lately.
      • O yes, that one. Although I like barebones phones, this one is a bit too bare for me. I'll wait for the next model. Hopefully that one has bluetooth and a bit better screen. I don't care about mp3, colors and a camera, but I like to be able to read SMS's without troubles, and that is mainly where the Motorola F3 falls short.

    • Re:Black and white version (Score:5, Informative)

      by Axello (587958) on Monday May 14 2007, @01:57AM (#19110421)
      There are two commercial black & white e-paper devices available to my knowledge. I happen to have one.
      The iRex iLiad http://www.irextechnologies.com/ [irextechnologies.com] is the one I have, but Sony also makes one http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/read er/ [learningcenter.sony.us]

      The quality of these b&w displays is phenomenal. The difference with colour or b&w LCDs is striking, especially outside and in full sunlight.

      One reason they're not so popular might be that E-Ink is prohibitely expensive; they have a monopoly on the digital ink liquid.
      Also a lot of people tend to think colour is very important, neglecting the fact that 99.9% of their book library is monochrome.

  • Advertising campaign (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2007, @12:26AM (#19109939)
    "Get Bent"
  • Apparently they have not improved it, otherwise they would have given it in the PR.
    If memory serves, it's higher than 1s, waiting that long each time you "turn the page" on your book reader must be quite annoying..
  • It might be 'color', but looking at the photo [lgphilips-lcd.com] on Philip's website, it seems that the quality still leaves a lot to be desired... Especially when it comes to brightness & contrast

    Don't get me wrong -- it's a great start, but I doubt it will replace your monitor any time soon.
  • .... flushing the fucking thing if you thought the words on the e-paper were only good for wiping your ass with. Or in emergency TP shortages, what are you going to use now?
  • ..the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, like what they use in the movie? something like that could be a reality in 5 years, voice activated and all, with a few hundred GB of flash memory.

  • after images (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OrangeTide (124937) on Monday May 14 2007, @12:53AM (#19110105) Homepage Journal
    When I played with some eInk a few weeks ago it had a lot of after images. It's not (yet) appropriate for animation or video. But it is amazingly easy on the eyes. At first I thought the e-reader at the store was just a model with some fake image on the display, not so it was a real working unit.

    eInk won't be replacing your PC monitor any time soon, it seems to only be practical for specialized users.

  • I want an E-Shirt (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CrazyJim1 (809850) on Monday May 14 2007, @01:51AM (#19110383) Journal
    I want my E-Shirt to be tye dye, and all the colors to continually go towards the center of the shirt and disappear

  • what we would like to see now (Score:3, Insightful)

    by v1 (525388) on Monday May 14 2007, @07:22AM (#19112253) Homepage Journal
    is a video of this display in action. I'd like to see someone bending and flexing the panel while playing Terminator on it or something,

    Also, I did not notice mention of how the panel is lit. Is this like a color LCD display that requires a backlight, or is it self-luminescent? There's no point to a flexible panel if it has to be backlit by an inflexible light source. The e-ink I have seen in the past requires a backlight.

    • It's just there hasn't (for me anyway) been a *perfect* application yet. The Sony eReader came close, but still missing a few things. If the Sony eReader has 1) a color screen and 2) had touch input, it would be perfect (eReader Wikipedia anyone)? Gimme that and i'll be set, hell, it would basically be the hitchhikers guide.

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