Bridgestone shows off ultrathin, full-color e-paper

Just last year Bridgestone was feelin' pretty good about itself for unveiling the "world's thinnest" sheet of two-color e-paper. These days, the outfit is busy showing off a new version that measures in at just 0.29-millimeters thick and is capable of displaying 4,096 colors on an eight-inch display. In case that wasn't enough, the company is also touting what it calls the "world's largest full color e-paper that is A3 size, which is equivalent to a 21.4-inch screen." As you'd expect, the latter is expected to be used solely for advertising and could hit the market as early as next year, while the former technology is set to be commercially available in 2009. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

[Via Japan Today, image courtesy of NewLaunches]

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 22nd 2007 5:21PM]

I know this read link does need the subscription but last time you said that for an article I got in fine

[oGMo @ Oct 22nd 2007 5:37PM]

This needs a subscription. BugMeNot doesn't seem to help...

[Qays @ Nov 22nd 2007 10:17PM]

FYI: the article loads fine from my school (.edu) network, but requires a subscription if I access it on my home network. Certain domains (including educational institutions) have "subscriptions," so you might have been on one.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:00PM]

I am always on my home network. never anywhere else

[Zach @ Oct 22nd 2007 5:50PM]

No, second.

[zsyco @ Oct 22nd 2007 5:53PM]

I've not heard of e-paper...but I would imagine that it's a super thin display (almost like paper).

It would be cool if these support FMV.

[Tony @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:00AM]

Damn, why are you even allowed to read engadget! They must be letting ANYONE access this site these days! ;-)

[zsyco @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:23AM]

Wow.... I get semi-flamed for trying to be a nice guy....

In all seriousness, I've read alot about e-paper and I'm looking forward to it becoming mainstream tech.

This is one of the first articles I read about it a couple of years ago: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/05/58765

[zsyco @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:27AM]

After coming back to this one, I see where the semi-flame originated.... I posted that first comment to reply to a comment that's not there anymore. I should have replied instead of creating a new post to keep it simple.

[Seung-Hwan @ Oct 22nd 2007 5:54PM]

Good stuff.
I am still dreaming of the day when journal publications are available in full letter size with original colors in their vivacious glory.

[Josh Warner @ Oct 22nd 2007 6:02PM]

Apparently entering the singular term "e-paper" into Google, hitting enter, and picking the first link (which is to Wikipedia as follows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper ) is too difficult, so I have conveniently done this for you.

Used the intertubes much lately?

[M Burke @ Oct 22nd 2007 6:02PM]

e-paper is a media on which a static image is displayed until a specific current is applied to it and then it shows a different image. It is not permanently powered and may have uses in magazine advertising and billboards/pop etc.

[bob @ Oct 22nd 2007 7:15PM]

meh, epaper is a computer dspla similar to LCD, only thinner and more flexible. It can be rolled, bent crumpled, etc, like real paper, is just as thin as paper, hence its called "electronic-paper"

It is very power effecient, because the images stored on it dont require power to maintain them, only to change them. Try hitting the wiki link, its better at explaining it than I am.

I would love to see a e-paper rolling display on IBM Thinkpads, a small canister (like for film) is a lot smaller and more durable than the current flat board. make the keyboard rollable/foldable, and you could actually fold your laptop in half (provided you dont mind snapping it back together when you want to use it, and that could get a little dust (think SNES cart, but having a full size X60 that can fit in my pocket instead of under my arm. Brilliant.
I can't wait until e-paper hits the commercial sector.

[m.edgar @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:21AM]

"epaper is a computer dspla similar to LCD, only thinner and more flexible. It can be rolled, bent crumpled, etc, like real paper, is just as thin as paper, hence its called "electronic-paper"

Sorry to do this but: epaper is ENTRIELY DISSIMMILAR to LCD. It works using little globes with different charges on different coloured sides, so running a certain charge through the planes enclosing the globes attracts/repulses a different coloured side of the globes. This takesa while though (to get the different coloured sides of teh globes all lined up), so refresh rates are slow compared to any other display tech.
Whilst it can be rolled (up to a certain point), as yet it CANNOT be crmpled (not without breaking it, at least).

It's most commonly refered to as E-ink, one of the most oftused implementations of epaper technology.

What surprises me is that reading the blurb here it still seems the most advanced implementation here (full colour) is still first used in advertising; I would have expected that by now the latest greatest would be sold for use in phones/pda's. I know I want that.

[John Stracke @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:19AM]

"Sorry to do this but: epaper is ENTRIELY DISSIMMILAR to LCD." -- Yeah, but, when talking to someone who's never heard of it, it's a reasonable analogy.

"It's most commonly refered to as E-ink" -- Isn't E-Ink a company name?

[bob @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:16AM]

yeah, I intended to explain it to those who had never heard of it, see. I know how it works, seeing I have a LITTLE experience with it, and yeah you can't crumple it yet, but were working on that at UCLA.

Yeah, I'm not a noob.

[Tony @ Oct 22nd 2007 7:18PM]

I would read the article, as e-paper seems plenty interesting.

But that face!

[NHAnimator @ Oct 22nd 2007 7:30PM]

If he hasn't heard of e-paper, what makes you think he's heard of the intertubes?

[nathan.wong @ Oct 22nd 2007 7:47PM]

One thing about these ultra-thin things is that you'll need some bulky thing that weighs a few ounces in support of the unit to provice power, data, etc. So, it might be great to proclaim that "I have the thinest screen in the world" but in actuality it's just as bulky as any PDA. Just look at the picture and the thing he's holding.

[DarkAardvark @ Oct 22nd 2007 10:21PM]

but what if they use those paper batteries?

[bombastinator @ Oct 22nd 2007 8:39PM]

speaking of inner tubes, didn't bridgestone originally make tires? And wasn't it an American or British company rather than a Japanese one?

[Konrad @ Oct 22nd 2007 8:56PM]

There is auite a few ereaders out ther allready. The one I would like at present is the Iliad by IRex. its not just a reader but contains a Wacom tablet as well.

The current downside of epaper is that the refresh rate on current devices is somthing like 1 frame per second or less, and has very visible refresh artifacts, so no video for you.

The advantage is that it reads like paper, based on reflected light, so it can be read in full sun just like a book. Still it would be handy to carry thousands of pages of books in a unit which is about the size of a single book.

[Will @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:57AM]

Some of the QR-)LPD (Quick Response Liquid Powder Displays) that Bridgestone make have a very fast refresh rate - capable of video rate. E-Ink / SiPix e paper media is much slower (for now).

E paper is a generic term for many types of display that are "paper-like"...

E Ink, SiPix, Gyricon (now no longer in business), Bridgestone, LiquidVista (Electrowetting technology) are all examples that work in different ways.

All e-paper is not the same!!

[Will @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:01AM]

I seem to remember that LPD displays require (very) large voltages to run...

[B W @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:15AM]

I would like to be able to purchase some book-length (ie. 200-300+ page) e-paper "blanks" that I could then have some e-book thingies (USB sticks, whatever, I don't care) that I could energize them with at any time so that I could invest in 6-10 book "chassis" and then plug in the set of reading materials I'm currently working with. I like the idea of saving trees, but I'm old-fashioned in that I much prefer working with a "book" style object to read, flip through, bookmark and come back to, etc. My fear is that the people who make this stuff and go to market it are going to take the idiot route and price it very high in hopes of getting a lot of money per sheet, rather than to price it very low and make an astounding pile of money when the whole world starts converting books to this new format. Think libraries, schools, businesses, book publishers, etc-- all will have a serious need for book-length "blanks" to stock their shelves with. And you could get Newspaper and Magazine length blanks too. So your subscription could come electronically and then just be loaded into the blank. You could go back however many issues you like and have it as clear and crisp as the day you first saw it. And think of all the microfiche that's out there with archival information-- that could be transferred to e-book (newspaper) format as well to make it more easily disseminated and used. Lots and lots and lots of possibilities exist for this new e-paper. I am *totally* stoked and waiting for this stuff to hit the consumer market for real. And I've got my fingers totally crossed hoping they price it cheap instead of expensive (even though I know that's complete wishful thinking)

[Primax @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:39PM]

Saving trees? last time I looked trees were a renewable resource. Especially trees used for paper. saving trees makes as much sense as saving carrots.

[Lonnie McClure @ Oct 24th 2007 9:05PM]

"Saving trees" has less to do with saving the trees themselves (since as you pointed out, there are renewable), and more to do with saving the energy and chemicals involved in processing them into paper.

[Ray Romanczuk @ Oct 29th 2007 12:13AM]

Why does he look so angry?

[Yubastard @ Oct 22nd 2007 11:30PM]

jaja LOL!