This week the folks at ISORG and Plastic Logic are ramping up for their first full showing of their flexible plastic image sensor with a demonstration video that scans an image of the Mona Lisa. This demonstration comes after the technology was first introduced back in June with a description and first push for manufacturing. […]
Bendable cameras and sensors that can flex around corners could be on the horizon, with the first flexible image sensor built on plastic being developed by Plastic Logic and ISORG. The 40 x 40 mm sensor uses a flexible, transmissive backplane created by Plastic Logic, on top of which ISORG layers an organic photodetector material
Plastic Logic showed off its ZED (zero-energy display) earlier this year, a flexible display that requires almost no energy and can be powered entirely from solar panels, making it ideal for many situations. Now the flexible display company is back, this time showing off a concept color e-paper smartwatch that could one day be part of our wearable-gadgets future.
This prototype smartwatch utilizes a flexible e-paper color display that wraps around the wrist and uses e-ink in combination with a color filter to produce the colors. The concept watch is incredibly thin at only 900μm, although that thickness could go up if a touch panel was imbedded in the watch, which would be likely if it ends up in mass production.
As with other smartwatches, the Plastic Logic watch demonstrates a variety of different features the watch could end up offering, such as a heart-rate monitoring ability, information displays from a connected smartphone, such as message notifications and call alerts, and more. One big potential feature that makes it stand out from some other smartwatches is its durable nature.
Jim Watts, an engineer with Plastic Logic, called the display in the smartwatch “effectively unbreakable,” with the device said to be durable enough to handle the pounding daily use would give it. Of course, while the prototype is appealing, the practical application of the display in a smartwatch would result in a larger device once a battery and backlight, among other hardware elements, were implemented.
[via Pocket Lint]
Plastic Logic shows off color e-paper smartwatch concept is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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.
Tablets are getting thinner and thinner, and the end result is bound to be tablets that are paper thin. Well, we’re almost there, it’s a just a question of exactly how handy that’ll really be. More »
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Plastic Logic, Intel, and Queen’s University have revealed a new tablet using a flexible plastic display, the PaperTab, with a 10.7-inch near-indestructible display and a Core i5 processor. The PaperTab, part of Canadian university Queen’s Human Media Lab research, aims to finally replace paper with a color display and an innovative new interface which tries to mimic physical stacks of documents.
The teams call those stacks “PaperTabs” and the eponymous slate can show several of them, on-screen, at the same time. That streamlines workflow, so for instance you can easily attach a photo to an email by previewing them at the same time and simply tapping them.
However, there’s also support for less traditional methods of control. For instance, flex-sensors allow for an email to be sent if the top corner of the screen is bent; you could also trigger a send by dropping the PaperTab into your outbox tray on your desk.
Multiple PaperTab units can be placed side-by-side, with the on-screen interface automatically extending to take advantage of the extra real-state, while the UI can be stretched out with simple gestures. There’s also interpretation of physical distance: for instance, when the PaperTab is out of reach, the interface switches to an icon mode to show what’s happening across all apps.
As you might have guessed, PaperTab is just a prototype right now, though Intel, Plastic Logic, and the Queen’s University team say the technology is all functional. Exactly what sort of battery life you could expect from a commercial product based on the hardware, and what kind of price you’d be looking at, is unclear; we’ll find out more at CES 2013 this week.
Plastic Logic and Intel team on PaperTab to finally undermine trees is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The must-have smartphone accessory of tomorrow might just be an unbreakable touchscreen epaper tablet, saving your eyes from squinting at a mobile display. Plastic Logic revealed its work-in-progress slate to us today, as SlashGear browsed the goodies in the company’s UK R&D center, confirming that talks with several manufacturers and carriers are ongoing to bring the companion device to market. Potentially bundled with your next smartphone could be a 10.7-inch super-light touchscreen pane for easier viewing of webpages, documents and more.
The concept behind the idea is straightforward: smartphones are incredibly capable, powerful devices, but in being portable they also demand a huge compromise on screen size. Even the Galaxy Note, with its 5.3-inch display, is considerably smaller than the average tablet, and that can make reading news, ebooks, presentations and other content frustratingly uncomfortable.
Plastic Logic’s idea is an ultra-thin companion device using one of its plastic-transistor based displays, paired with a wireless technology such as WiFi or Bluetooth, a battery, touchscreen, and a smartphone app – currently a hastily-cobbled-together Android app – that exchanges data between the two devices. With that app, users could squirt over emailed documents or webpages to the epaper, paging through using the onscreen controls. Alternatively, you can do the same thing with photos taken with the phone, which could be useful for those with partial-sight wanting to enlarge pages.
Although Plastic Logic bills its displays as flexible, in this context the company says its potential carrier partners are more focused on a rugged device: something that can be dropped into a bag or briefcase without concerns that the screen might crack. Rather than the Heath Robinson prototype, the final design is envisaged as a slim frame with a carry-handle on the top that would contain the electronics, battery and other components.
Battery life could be a real advantage over existing tablets. Since the Plastic Logic display only uses power when it changes the on-screen image, it’s far more frugal than a traditional LCD or OLED. That could mean 2-4 weeks use on a single charge, potentially, though final runtimes haven’t been confirmed.
In practice, use is a simple affair. The rudimentary app allows you to pick a file and share it to the display – in this prototype’s case, using a WiFi connection – and, after a couple of seconds, it blinks into life. Photos are shown full-screen and, while it’s currently monochrome and obviously lower resolution than a new iPad, it’s still easier to look at than a compact phone screen. As for multi-page documents, like PDFs, they can be paged through with a few stabs at the on-screen buttons, though there’s the usual blink-refresh we’re familiar with from other e-paper products. That should change if Plastic Logic uses one of its video-capable panels, which has a higher refresh rate.
The deciding factor is likely to be price: Plastic Logic and its partners would need to bring this in significantly lower than regular tablets, which could be a challenge given the $199 Nexus 7 announced yesterday. The company wouldn’t give us an estimate – it depends on who supplies the rest of the components and builds the slate, as well as how carriers decide to market it – but the idea of it being supplied as a freebie with a new phone was vaunted.
Plastic Logic flexible smartphone epaper companion hands-on 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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