Listening to: BBC Radio 1

From the Librie mailing list:

• Animation sequences of
  the new Seiko watch.
• The general E-Ink
  discussion board, ask questions about their display tech and the dev kits.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

Doogie Howser forwarded this to
me:

Plastic Logic, a leading developer of plastic electronics, announced today that
it has developed the world’s largest flexible organic active matrix display. The display
consists of a flexible, high resolution, printed active-matrix backplane driving an
electronic paper frontplane from US-based E Ink Corporation. The display will be shown
at the 12th International Displays Workshop in Takamatsu, Japan from December 6/9.
Dr Seamus Burns, Plastic Logic’s Group Leader for Displays, will give a presentation
describing the new display in the Sunport Hall Takamatsu Main Hall on Wednesday 7
December 2005 at 09.50.

The displays are 10″ diagonal SVGA (600 by 800) with 100ppi resolution and 4 levels
of greyscale. The thickness of the display when laminated with E Ink Imaging Film™
is less than 0.4mm. The backplane substrate is made from low temperature PET supplied
by DuPont Teijin Films which is more flexible and easier to handle than alternatives
such as thin glass or steel foil.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

From Gizmodo:

A new display set up at Tokyo station makes interesting use of e-paper. Six A4
sheets of e-paper are on display for commuters in a snazzy transparent blue housing
— allowing them to see how thin the e-paper is. The sheets of e-paper are being fed
with the latest news stories via a wireless Internet connection and are updated with
new content every five minutes.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

From Stuff:

Fujitsu,
one of the largest Japanese technology companies, opened a new digital media development
centre on Southbank earlier this month and predicted that commercial versions of the
prototypes it had on display would go to market within 18 months.

Fujitsu
says it has the world’s first film-based, bendable colour- capable electronic paper
with an image memory function that requires no power source to function.

Listening to: Lamacq Live - BBC Radio 1

HP have shown off their
latest achievements in the electronic paper arena.

Listening to: Lights - Editors

The new E-Ink website is up… big improvement
in design, highlighting the technology and highlighting current applications.

Listening to: The hiss of the motorway

There are a bunch of photos of
the new colour display:

• Stamps

• Dog

• Pumpkins>

• Gutenberg

E-Ink have also announced a tablet-size
display.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

E-Ink Corp has announced their
colour prototype:

This electronic paper color prototype achieves 12-bit color in a 400×300 pixel
format with resolution of 83 pixels per inch, using a custom color filter from strategic
partner Toppan. The color filter design has a high-brightness layout (RGBW) that preserves
the paper-like whiteness of the background page while enabling deep blacks for text
and a range of colors and tones for images. A smart algorithm uses color sub-pixels
to smooth black and white text, for enhanced legibility equivalent to a printer. The
display diagonal is 6 inches, similar to a paperback book in size.

Listening to: Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (Live) - Bruce Springsteen

Siemens has released
a demo of their e-Paper product… this one does colour:

The images are in colour, and can broadcast anything that can be shown
on a regular flat screen monitor or TV, although with a slightly lower quality. These
could be short film clips or flash animations like those found on the internet.

>

From the Siemens press
info:

The displays can obtain their energy from printable batteries, which
are already available. Because they last only a few months, this solution is only
feasible for merchandise with high throughput rates or short-use durations. It may
also prove feasible to use printed antennas as a local energy source. They would receive
pulses from a transmitter in the shelf and convert the pulses into electricity. The
packaging, with the displays, can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner
as a composite material.

Pictures:

• Press
  Picture 1
• Press
  Picture 2
• Press
  Picture 3

>

UPDATE: From New
Scientist:

The display consists of a layer of electrochromic material sandwiched
between two electrode layers. The material changes from one colour to another when
stimulated by an electric current. The top electrode layer is made from transparent
plastic, so the display can be seen clearly through it.

The
electrochromic mixture used by Siemens, which enables the screen to work so rapidly,
has not been disclosed, but commonly used electrochromic substances include conductive
polymers such as polyaniline.

Listening to: A silent office

There is a new eInk eBook on the market… much like the Librie, but with out the
DRM. It’s from a Chinese outfit called Hanlin:

UPDATE: Details at Engadget.