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Polymer Vision reportedly shut down, along with its dream of rollable e-ink displays
The saga of Polymer Vision has been defined by optimistic plans braced by second chances when financial reality came crashing in, with no happily ever after or definite end in sight. Unfortunately, there may not be much more of a story to tell. CTO Edzer Huitema claims that Wistron has shut down Polymer Vision entirely: while it's keeping the intellectual property behind the rollable display company it acquired in 2009, it has reportedly dismissed all associated staff after unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer. We've asked Wistron for a more formal confirmation and an explanation, and we'll let you know if there's an update. However, it's possible that Polymer Vision's technology was simply past its prime. As +Plastic Electronics notes, Polymer Vision and the Readius came at a time before mobile tablets and giant smartphones, when it wasn't clear that we would tolerate big screens in our pockets; while flexible displays are still in development, some of Polymer Vision's biggest advantages have faded away.
Polymer Vision drops the ball on its flexible display, literally
Flexible displays may well be the future, but it's not hard to see that they won't truly be practical unless they're also as durable as they are flexible. Polymer Vision is well aware of that fact, of course, and it's now gone to some "extreme" lengths to demonstrate the progress it's made on that front. See the results for yourself in the video above.
Polymer Vision's latest display rolls up, still doesn't ship out (video)
Despite a litany of missed launch dates, bankruptcy filings, and corporate buyouts, Polymer Vision continues to trudge forward, and we're more than happy to ogle its latest flexible screen. This time, the new hotness is a six-inch SVGA display repeatedly rolled-up 25,000 times at a radius of only six millimeters. The resulting scroll is apparently slightly smaller than a dime. With that kind of repetitive endurance, this tech seems well suited for building that Readius-like eReader Wistron promised a while back; not that we're holding our breath, or anything.
Displax film could turn nearly any surface into touchscreen, make your keyboard irate
Light Blue Optics already blew our minds up with its touchscreen-creating projector, but it looks like Displax will be the one to really turn the touchpanel into a modern day commodity. The Portugal-based company is trumpeting a new polymer film that can be stuck onto or just under glass, plastic or wood in order to transform a vanilla surface into one that responds to touch and airflow. Furthermore, the tech can be overlayed on curved panels, and it also plays nice with opaque and transparent surfaces. As the story goes, an array of nanowires embedded in the film recognizes your digits or pointed breath, and it then passes the information along to a microcontroller and software suite that transforms the inputs into reactions on your system. In its current form, the solution can detect up to 16 touch points on a 50-inch screen, and if all goes well, the first Displax-enabled wares will start shipping this July. Huzzah! [Thanks, Ben]
Wistron: Readius-like ereader with pull-out flexible display launching in 2010
We've had a soft spot for Polymer Vision in the fetid hollows of that place you call a heart ever since we pressed flesh to its Readius back in February 2008. Unfortunately, we had to let go of any hope for the bendy e-reader to ever hit the market after delays turned into bankruptcy turned into cries of noooo! the world over. Now coddled in the corporate arms of Wistron we hear from Brian Chong, head of Wistron's product planning, that a 5-to-6 inch device with a pull-out flexible e-paper display of similar design to the Readius will launch in 2010. By similar design we hope they've included Bluetooth, dual-band HSDPA, tri-band GSM / EDGE, microSD expansion and SMS capabilities of the original.
Polymer Vision gets new lease on life thanks to Wistron
Poor Readius, we barely knew ye and your folding e-ink screen before parent company Polymer Vision went bankrupt and, well, that was the end of that. Or was it? Wistron apparently made a bid for the remains of the company over the summer and, as of September, Polymer was acting as a division of the Acer spin-off. The Wistron board has finally approved the €12 million ($18 million) investment and so where once there were two companies now there is one. The jury is still out on whether the Polymer Vision brand will survive, but its technology -- and legend -- will still burn.
Polymer Vision yields to bankruptcy, we bid Readius adieu
Ugh. Another one bites the gently gnashed rock particles, as they say. Polymer Vision, which was already having some pretty significant cash flow issues back in April, has reportedly caved under pressure and sought shelter under Chapter 11. According to the Hampshire Chronicle, the company famous for developing a bendable e-paper display has fittingly folded, leaving its 50 employees searching for new lines of work and millions of fans grasping for answers. The report continues to say that the promising (but oft delayed) Readius display isn't likely to ship in its current form, and now it seems that the future is quite murky for the company and its flagship product. Call us crazy, but if you're looking for an easy way into the e-paper market, you might be able to pick up whatever's left here for a song. Just sayin'.[Thanks, Charlie]
Polymer Vision has Readius ready to go, needs cash to push it out the door
A bit of delay is always worrisome, but it looks like Polymer Vision has more to worry about than just missing Readius' projected launch date: without some more cash, the little pocket-friendly e-reader might not launch at all. According the Polymer Vision CEO Karl McGoldrick, they've got the supply chain in place, but the product has been on hold since last year due to the company's financial woes. "We are ready to go into production but all depends on exactly when the funding comes through," says Karl. It's not exactly a hot market for venture capital at the moment, especially for something as potentially floptastic as an e-reader, no matter how great that e-reader might happen to be. Still, we would hope that with the device and component supply (supposedly) in the bag, and an arguably revolutionary form factor, Polymer Vision is gonna be able to scrape somebody's coffers for what it takes to get this into our awaiting hands.[Via jkOnTheRun]%Gallery-16071%
Hands-on with Polymer Vision's e-ink Readius
The long wait is over, the Polymer Vision Readius has finally made an appearance and from our quick -- and loving -- glance, it's the stuff. Featuring Bluetooth, dual-band HSDPA, tri-band GSM / EDGE, expandability via microSD, and it'll also SMS -- albeit, without a keyboard, it'll be tough -- and can make calls. The cellular calling and messaging features are likely an afterthought since connectivity to get at the content via the Readius portal was the goal. The site will push content to your device based on choices made there for feeds, newspapers, mags, audio books, and whatever else Polymer Vision sees fit to add. The device will support books in HTML, text files, and PDFs, though, we expect as they gain ground with partners the list may expand. Hit the gallery at Engadget Mobile for a pile of pics of it in action.
Polymer Vision's Readius e-ink phone coming mid-2008 to Italy
It seemed obvious back in mid-December of last year that Polymer Vision wasn't going to nail its timetable for production versions of the 3G-equipped, e-ink wonder known as the Readius. Now word is that the company will have a commercial version of the phone / e-book reader available sometime in mid-2008 in Italy via Telecom Italia -- provided that everything goes according to its diabolical plans. If you'll recall, the device features a foldable, grayscale, 5-inch QVGA display, and boasts a slew of features, including HSDPA, a 400MHz ARM CPU, and a battery life up to "six times longer" than current mobile phones. We'll admit we're intrigued, but don't make us wait too long over here, okay?
Polymer Vision announces rollable displays are in production
We've been looking at wacky prototypes of rollable displays for so long that it's hard to believe they could ever get real. Polymer Vision, a Philips spin out, has just announced that it has its production facilities up and running and its first rollable displays have made it off the assembly line. And they're not leaving it at that. Polymer Vision's first product, the 3G-enabled Readius, is supposed to be available before the end of the year. That doesn't give them much time to slap the rest of the parts together, but hopefully the Readius can be giving Kindle some competition before we get too terribly accustomed to its DRM-ed ways.
Polymer Vision's Readius rollable display gets face time
Talk about a long time coming, as what is now Polymer Vision has seemed to finally put all the pieces together and produce an actual working product from the idea envisioned by Philips around two years ago. We knew the spinoff was looking to commercialize the product later this year, but after nearly 24 months of coming up empty, a bit of understandable skepticism begins to seep through. Nevertheless, the firm's rollable, pocket-friendly "Cellular-Book" was out and showing its stuff at 3GSM, proving that there's at least something there to put on store shelves. Although the unit on display was indeed a standalone device -- sporting 16 shades of grey, USB, "10-days" of battery life, 4GB of internal storage, and GPRS, EDGE, and DVB-H connectivity just like we'd heard -- Polymer Vision is actually hoping to integrate its e-paper technology into mobile handset displays in the near future. Sadly, there still didn't seem to be any hints of a release date for the nifty pocket reader, but be sure to click on through for the very long awaited pictures of the Readius in action.[Via Slashdot]
Polymer Vision unveils "Cellular-Book" with rollable display
Phillips spin-off Polymer Vision looks to be making fast work on its most recent promise to commercialize its foldable display this year, with the company set to officially unveil the first product to use the would-be paper killer at next week's 3GSM conference in Spain. Somewhat awkwardly dubbed the "Cellular-Book," the device will initially be offered by Telecom Italia (in Italy, naturally) although it appears to be more book than cellular. The main bit of kit is, of course, that rollable, foldable display, which can extend to a full five inches yet still wrap up into a device "smaller than the typical mobile phone." The cellular part of the equation comes in the form of a combination of EDGE, UMTS, and DVB-H capabilities, which will give you access to an array of different services viewable in 16 levels of gray, including e-mail. RSS feeds and, of course, e-books, which you'll be able to purchase through Telecom Italia's mobile network. Though they won't make as heavy use of that display, you'll also be able to load up the device with music and podcasts, with a relatively hefty 4GB of storage provided to satisfy your media appetite. Unfortunately, there's no word on price or a launch date just yet, though that would seem to be likely detail to be revealed at the big unveiling next week.[Via TeleRead, thanks Richard]
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]
