The dual-sided YotaPhone, which slaps a 4.3-inch E Ink display on the back of an Android smartphone, has gone on sale, with the ability to switch content between its double screens. Revealed at CES back in January, the YotaPhone is up for order now priced at €499 ($679) in Russia, Austria, France, Spain, and Germany, […]
The Kisai Rorschach is the newest watch from Tokyoflash, maker of timepieces that are intentionally bad at presenting the time. The display looks similar to the ink blots used in the eponymous test, but it’s actually easy to decipher. The top right shows the hour and the bottom left shows the minutes. The other two symbols are just mirror images.
The watch has three difficulty modes. Why? Because Tokyoflash. From what I can tell changing the difficulty doesn’t change how you read the display, it just switches to hard-to-read symbols for the numbers. The date and alarm settings are also displayed in the same manner.
Because the watch uses an ePaper display, Tokyoflash added a power-saving sleep mode to the watch. As you may know an ePaper or e-ink display does not consume power if it’s just showing a static image. So in sleep mode the watch will only display one symbol, which will be different depending on what day it is.
Tokyoflash even made a fan video to promote the watch, starring none other than The Watchmen‘s Rorschach. Is it still a fan video if you’re promoting a product? Hmmm.
I wish they didn’t use such a tacky font to print “Rorschach” on the display. Other than that I think it’s a neat design. You can order the watch from Tokyoflash for $179 (USD).
Once upon a time, the possibility of a color e-reader seemed a reality just around the bend. As the sun set on the 2000s, though, prototypes and the potential for multi-hued e-paper devices seemed to disappear. In this issue of our weekly, Sean Buckley examines the events surrounding the once bright future of the tech and why we’re still e-reading in black-and-white. As far as reviews go, we offer up our detailed analysis of the TiVo Roamio Pro, OLPC XO Tablet and Motorola Droid Ultra. Eyes-On peeks at Blue Microphone’s latest, Weekly Stat examines the broadband build-up and Recommended Reading profiles Marissa Mayer. The weekend is finally here, and there’s plenty to peruse, so go on cozy up with a fresh copy via the usual download spots.
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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile
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Earlier this week, we learned of Sony’s plans for a 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus support pitched at students, and now Diginfo has caught up with the prototype device at the Educational IT Solutions Expo in Japan. The A4-sized tablet is said to be the first piece of hardware with an E Ink Mobius display that’s flexible and light due to its new plastic construction. Co-developed by Sony and E Ink, the display only contributes 60g to the overall weight, which is apparently 50 percent lighter than similar screens built with glass. Sony says the software isn’t quite as slick as it’d like it to be just yet, but nevertheless, you can check out people scrawling, annotating and highlighting on the prototype in the video below.
Filed under: Sony
Source: DigInfo (YouTube)
Sony’s no stranger to the odd e-ink device, but its latest prototype creation isn’t targeted at the bookworm, it’s intended to educate. The e-paper slate is quite a lot bigger than most tablets, let alone e-readers, sporting a 13.3-inch screen (1,200 x 1,600) to match the standard A4 size of normal, boring paper. That display is also an electromagnetic induction touchscreen for poking at menus and scrolling, but more importantly, it supports stylus input for scrawling notes and annotating PDFs (the only file format it currently supports). The prototype device is also only 6.8mm (0.27 inch) thick and weighs 385g (13.6 ounces) — perfect for slipping into school bags. There’s 4GB of on-board storage (with a microSD slot to increase that) and WiFi, which Sony plans to use for sharing notes with those who didn’t make it to class on time. With WiFi off, the rechargeable battery inside is expected to last for three weeks of solid learning. These specs are for the prototype, of course, so after the late-2013 field trials at three Japanese universities, we might see some revisions before commercialization goes ahead sometime during the 2013 fiscal year.
Filed under: Sony
Source: Sony (Japanese)
Flexible displays are still a novelty at this point in time, as they have yet to be turned into a component in smartphones and tablets that are cost effective to warrant inclusion without causing the customers to balk at the final price tag. Still, it is nice to see companies continue to work on flexible display technology, and hopefully they will stumble upon a low cost yet effective approach sometime down the road. Both Toppan Printing Co Ltd and Plastic Logic Ltd recently showed off a prototype of flexible electronic paper (e-paper) that has a size which is equal to a 42-inch display, using it as a large-size digital sign at Retailtech Japan that happened earlier this month in Tokyo, Japan. This unique flexible e-paper was manufactured by using 16 pieces of 10.7-inch black-and-white e-paper, where the pixel count stood at a respectable 1,280 x 960.
In order to churn out a display device that is worthy of the e-paper, E Ink Holdings Inc’s electrophoretic front plane laminate was summoned to report for duty. As for the front plane laminate, it was driven by an organic TFT substrate which was manufactured at Plastic Logic’s Dresden Plant in Germany. Plastic Logic has long been working on flexible organic TFT substrates for the better part of the last six years, and they successfully established a volume production system a couple of years back, and has since been producing organic TFT-driven displays by using the 3.5th generation-size plastic substrate.
At the R&D facilities, a single piece of 10.7-inch e-paper was used per substrate, although at the manufacturing plant which saw the 3.5th generation-size plastic substrate being used, up to 9 pieces of 10.7-inch e-paper were obtained per substrate, and Plastic Logic figured out that the e-paper will eventually see action on subscreens of smartphones and tablets, as well as the digital signage industry. The ad industry would definitely take a huge leap forward with such e-papers being more affordable.
Source
[ Flexible electronic paper could be future of public advertising copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Flexible display specialist Plastic Logic has cooked up a new, weatherproof and permanently-connected display that aims to keep public transport users up-to-date while remaining vandal resistant, as the company’s technology gradually makes it out into the mainstream. The ZED (Zero Energy Display), produced in partnership with signage specialist SERELEC, is expected to show up at bus stops and tram stations in Q2 2013, pairing two 10.7-inch monochrome Plastic Logic panels into a display with clear outdoor visibility and super-frugal power consumption.
In fact, since the Plastic Logic screens only require energy to change what they’re displaying, not to maintain an image, the two firms say the ZED can be entirely solar powered. That, coupled with integrated 3G and/or GPRS, means replacing traditional paper timetables needn’t require a significant infrastructure roll-out, just a secure mount and a nearby solar panel with a good view of the sky.
The ZED measures under a centimeter in thickness, and achieves IP54 ratings for resistance to water and other substances. It’ll work in temperature extremes of -15 degrees centigrade to a toasty 50 degrees, and the companies will also be offering it with an optional front-light illumination system.
According to Plastic Logic, color versions of the ZED are in the pipeline – the company has already developed and demonstrated the technology – which will then mean colored metro lines and other information will be clearer. Exactly how much it’ll cost for cities to replace their paper boards with the ZED is unclear, though being able to offset that upfront installation price with reduced staff keeping printed timetables current may help sway things in the plastic panel’s favor.
Plastic Logic titillates travellers with always-accurate digital timetable is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Tokyoflash has got a great track record of turning user-submitted designs into reality. This new concept watch created by Peter Fletcher from the UK looks pretty cool, and if enough of you guys like the design, it could be produced some day.
Peter says that the layout of his concept watch is supposed to remind you of the way that subway maps look. When you push a button, the LCD watch will light up thanks to animated chain links, which will help display the proper time. The first “stop” on the line is the first digit of the current time, and so forth. This seems pretty straightforward and you’d probably get used to reading the time like this quickly enough.
If you like this concept watch and would like to help make it real, head on over to the Tokyoflash Design Blog and vote for it.
E Ink is grabbing a majority share of fellow e-paper maker SiPix Technology, the company has confirmed, and aims to snatch up 100-percent of shares in a deal worth around $50m. The agreement, which his expected to be finalized by the end of the year, is part of E Ink’s aim to corner the e-paper market, and will see SiPix tech – including that of its SiPix Imagine subsidiary – integrated into future E Ink products.
E Ink is already found in the vast majority of ereaders, including the Kindle, NOOK, Sony Reader and more. However, that market has seen significant attack from the growing number of tablets such as Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and the new Google Nexus 7, with LCD displays proving more flexible for multimedia beyond text alone.
“Today, E Ink’s products are finding homes in a number of new applications which can be better served with the inclusion of SiPix’s products, technologies and intellectual property to our portfolio” Felix Ho, vice chairman of E Ink said of today’s deal. The company will initially include SiPix displays in the overall range it offers, but plans to integrate more of the behind-the-scenes technology – perhaps including slow video-capable e-paper – into future products.
That could also mean more use of e-paper in embedded environments, with E Ink keen to emphasize the low power consumption of its panels as ideal for its “E Ink On Every Smart Surface” strategy. Possibilities include tablet cases – such as Apple’s recent display-integrated Smart Cover concept – and other implementation where power supply could be insufficient or impractical for LCD or OLED.
Initially, E Ink will buy 82.7-percent of SiPix’s shares, though the goal is to buy 100-percent.
E Ink grabs majority share in SiPix for e-paper dominance is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Plastic Logic revealed a big shift in strategy last month, pushing its own flexible plastic-based epaper displays for third-party products, and its new video-capable color panels are top of the agenda. SlashGear caught up with Plastic Logic at the company’s Cambridge, UK, R&D center today to see one of the very first demonstrations of the new screen, a flexible panel that can support color video playback at up to 12fps. Read on for the video demo.
Video-capable e-paper has been something of a holy grail for ereader manufacturers, who so far have had to deal with the flickering page-refresh of existing E Ink screens. Plastic Logic’s display isn’t up to the sort of framerates you’d want for true video playback – that demands around 25-30fps – but it’s sufficient for animations and reasonable clips, or indeed Flash content on websites.
Plastic Logic showed us two versions of the screen technology, one a color panel that uses a special filter layer over the top of the e-paper screen itself, and another smaller, monochrome version better suited to a pocket-sized mobile device. Both use the company’s unique plastic transistor technology, meaning they’re virtually indestructible: you can bend and twist them, drop them, or hit them with hammers, and they’ll still keep working. Right now, the color screen shows six smaller video preview panes, something Plastic Logic says is down to its own test driver equipment, rather than a limitation of the panel technology itself.
Although streaming video on an ereader is one obvious possibility – and Plastic Logic confirmed it’s in talks with various ereader manufacturers, though declined to name specific names – another benefit of the faster refresh rate is more natural navigation on a tablet-style device. Flicking between pages using a touchscreen overlay layer, something else Plastic Logic can integrate, would thus allow you to see previews of each page’s content, much as paging through a document on an iPad does today.
We’ll have more from our visit to Plastic Logic very soon.
Plastic Logic color video-capable e-paper hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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