e-paper
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Polymer Vision plans to commercialize foldable paper this year
If there's one thing the business-savvy CEOs of the world know, it's that you don't want your competition to get too far ahead of you, and just as Plastic Logic announced its plans to build the first electronic paper plant in Dresden, Germany, Polymer Vision is trying to make good on its nearly two-year old promise. During 2005's IFA expo, Philip assured us all that we'd be blown away by the firm's rollable, bendable displays in a mere two years, and now that 24 months have nearly elapsed, a company spinoff is looking to make it happen. According to a German report, Polymer Vision is still on track for "commercializing the foldable PV-QML5 display" that we've all grown quite fond of. Planning to use the technology in e-books and electronic map guides, the initial 4.8-inch display will tout a 320 x 200 resolution, 10:1 contrast ratio, support for four gray tones, and be only 100 micrometers thick. Sadly, no hard dates were passed down as to when we could expect the first production batch to head out to consumers, but now that there's some serious competition brewing just a few miles down the road, we'd bet a good bit of effort goes into making that 2007 date a reality.[Via I4U]
Hitachi showing off color version of Albirey e-paper
Now that monochrome e-paper is a pretty standard affair, those at the forefront of e-ink technology have moved on to perfecting the real killer app, which is full-color displays. We've already seen a tiny color model from Fujitsu, and a larger, but only two-color offering from Bridgestone, and now Hitachi -- maker of the black-and-white Albirey e-paper -- is showing off a 13.1-inch version of this product will an impressive 4,096-color palette. Apparently the power-saving "RGBW" filter enables the device to display bright whites as well as deep blacks, but the trade-off is the unit's rather underwhelming resolution of just 512 x 384 pixels. Therefore, we probably won't be seeing color eBooks anytime soon, but the low res should be adequate enough for certain types of signage that would benefit from the paper's ability to hold a picture in the absence of power; we think they would look great advertising all the quality products found at Engadget's retail location.[Via MobileRead]
Epson's 7.1-inch, QXGA e-paper
Seiko Epson, consistently at the forefront of new flexible display technology, has once again announced a breakthrough in plastic-substrate-based electronic paper manufacturing. Using its proprietary SUFTLA (surface-free technology by laser annealing) technique, combined with electrophoretic technology from US-based E-Ink, the company has managed to produce a 0.47-millimeter-thick, A6-size (7.1-inch) sheet of e-paper that sports an impressive 2,048 x 1,536 pixels (QXGA) and a maximum drive voltage of six volts. The new display, which also features a 10:1 contrast ratio and almost border-less design, was announced at the Society for Information Display's (SID) recent international symposium in San Francisco.[Via Akihabara News]
Bridgestone's super-thin QR-LPD e-paper
Everyone and their cat is working on flexible e-ink displays these days, so it takes a pretty special bit of e-paper to stand out from the crowd, and Bridgestone thinks its new quarter-millimeter-thick, two-color model will do just that. Being billed as the world's thinnest sheet of electronic paper (for its size) (and sparsity of colors), the so-called Quick Response Liquid Powder Display (QR-LPD) performs all the same neat tricks as devices shown off by other companies, including the ability to maintain an image when bent or powered down. And because its from Bridgestone, there's a good chance that you'll soon be able to score a set of customizable tires to match your classy PimpStar rims.[Via Akihabara News]
Moving newspapers to e-ink has already begun
William Gibson was certainly right when he said "The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." But not for long. The New York Times has a very interesting piece on newspapers going e-paper -- and we aren't talking Internet editions. Besides the obvious discussion of dynamic ads, how much e-papers will cost, and the when, where, and how, we're presented with something interesting: De Tijd, a Belgian financial newspaper, has already put their paper on iLiad e-ink eBook readers; Les Echos in Paris, the IFRA group in Germany, The New York Times, as well as the International Herald Tribune are all in discussions to roll out e-newspaper subscriptions for devices like Sony's Reader later this year. Sure, for now it's still in monochrome, but that won't be for long; besides, it was Earth Day this weekend, people, time to make some sacrifices. Think of the trees, won't you?
