Our man Nicholas Negroponte was certainly excited about pushing the state of the art forward with future versions of the OLPC when
we hosted him on The Engadget Show earlier this month, and now he's got one more tool to help make that happen: the OLPC Foundation and
Pixel Qi just signed a permanent and free cross-license on a slew of next-generation screen technology patents, including Pixel Qi's sweet
dual-mode displays. If you're recall, Pixel Qi's Mary Lou Jepson actually developed part of the 3Qi screen tech while at OLPC, so there was some mild confusion over who owned what -- but the two organizations have solved that problem by cross-licensing all future and current IP covering multi-mode screens. See, it's easy for two tech companies to get along... especially when one is actually a charity that's not at all concerned with profits.
Super simple. So -- let's get working on that
OLPC XO-3, shall we?
posted March 30th 2010 1:51PM
I REAALLYY hope the Pixel QI screen makes it into the Courier!
@Nitesh I think it will have a nice and shiny LCD glossy screen like almost al laptops and tablets these days.
So Pixel Qi is more an e-ink display that does color and can be backlit, than a good laptop display that works as e-ink, right?
@chispito
actually it's the other way around.
Pixel Qi has absolutely nothing to do with eInk (or electrophoretic displays in general). It's simply a new form of transflective LCD.
@chispito http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/07/pixel-qis-3qi-lcd-screen-sized-up-with-kindle-cto-sheds-light/
I would say it's more of a low power LCD that can operate in a no backlight / monochrome mode.
I can has Pixel Qi laptop plz?
Battery life for the win, plus you don't need to melt your eyes staring at a backlight.
Actually, I really want a desktop display that uses Mirasol. I'm probably the only one, but you probably make one so thin that you could slip it in front of an LCD display and use it when you don't need color accuracy (like writing papers, lab reports, even programs).
@Old fogie late bloomer
You're not the only one. Mirasol is a beautiful technology and you may see it sooner than you think in a well-known tablet. Liquavista Color is also very impressive due to its low energy consumption and ability to be manufactured with current LCD factories.
@Raikus
I have to admit some of my fondness for the technology probably stems from the way it works and its inspiration from nature, but seriously, my dream tablet device would have a 15" 1600x1200 Mirasol display. And if they could pop out a 1920x1200 standalone display I'm sure I'd buy several, just as soon as I'm rolling in dough (being a poor college student sucks). I hope that they determine that the market would make manufacturing those devices worthwhile....
More on topic, though, the presence of Pixel Qi displays in the laptop market would influence my next portable computer purchase considerably. 12-13.3", 1366x768, MATTE; make it happen, Pixel Qi, I'm beggin' ya'! Eight hours of portable use is gonna look pretty lame in comparison....
If they put these screens in netbooks I would imagine lower costs. $10 says sub-200 dollar netbooks will use e-ink displays.
@Emanuel Ortego
just because they CAN make tech with those specs at that price point, doesn't mean they will.
if the Qi screen is an added "feature", it will likely cost more to start, even if it is cheaper to produce. only if it catches on, will be competition to drive prices lower, capitalism, etc. etc.
This tech is the missing link. The power of having a convertible netbook (with Windows 7) + having an optimal eReader experience is the best of all worlds. If pricing can get to $350 or so, this will decimate the eReader business and jump-start tablet computing.
this stuff should have been out years ago
@BOGRASH This should be in iPad, but it probably can't do a good enough job on video to make Apple happy. It's a neat cross product that can be a higher resolution black-n-white screen or a lower resolution color display AND it's transreflective so it can be backlit but it is also daylight readable. The draw for OLPC is that that device would primarily be used in daylight conditions... and not needing a backlight all the time saves the hand-cranking!
"So -- let's get working on that OLPC XO-3, shall we?" I know thy canceled it but i still want the XO-2... it was like the courier before the courier.