A reporter of the Times just got a sneak peek (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1620550.ece) at the prototype of a still unnamed, bendable e-reader from Cambridge spin-out Plastic Logic (http://www.plasticlogic.com/), sounding quite thrilled:

One of the trial designs seen by The Times comprises a screen backed by soft, white leather, which is folded over and buttoned in the manner of a wallet. The fact that it looks more like something one might buy in Gucci than in Maplin will no doubt add to its appeal.
There are some hints in the article of what we may expect from Plastic Logic's first e-readers:

"dimensions of a magazine", three available sizes ("A4, handbag and pocket")
"black and white" initially (2 colors)
matt display
no backlit
"upload content from a source"
in talks with "a number of leading newspapers"
"display the text in a publicly available format"
color and video maybe in later models
price of first model: £100 ~ $200

Rumor also has it that the reader is due on the US market for the 2008 holiday season.

I wonder how difficult it would be to add some kind of touch-sensitivity to a flexible display? Not full Wacom-style pressure sensitivity, but just the ability to have some kind of navigation and markup. I think this would be very useful even without stylus interaction (especially the A4 version), but I really use the stylus a lot on my iLiad.

Cool stuff!
Hope more and more e-reader come out, then we can get those reader at more cheaper price.

It sounds almost perfect. I will definitely be getting one of these. If anyone from Plasticlogic is reading this I would be more than happy to try out an early prototype if you want. :wink:

I'd like to have more information about the user interface. It seems that you can turn the page by bending one of the corners of the device, but I wonder how we'll be able to select books etc...

nekokami I agree, if this flexible, thin, epaper can become writeable somehow, it would be ideal.

Could it be possible, given its plastic nature, that the underlying matrix might itself directly react to a stylus? Could micro-pressure sensors be laid into the matrix itself?

Direct writing would be really something. Zero calibration issues, direct from screen to processor recording. Ah just dreaming I suppose - still how many ways are their to record writing movements, perhaps the pen could pick up signals from the epaper's underlying matrix, or the pen like in the iliad, sends positional information.

Perhaps the lag between the epaper's response would be too great.

I must admit a flexible page, also suggests docking, perhaps two sided pages into a binder, and having a number of things opened at once. Gets exciting just thinking about it.

Writablity is needed, for that would make it perfect.

Could not help myself. A binder could keep the library, the epages could load the reading material and be taken out of the binder, the bulk of processing and storage in the binder, the epages being lightweight in every respect (bluetooth page loading? Processed by the binder and sent for simple display when needed? - interesting when things get this flexible and thin, the possibilities just seem explosive).

How about a binder being an interactive, writable, PDA (even if it had an LCD screen). I could see that working on a whole lot of levels (GPS maps sent to the handheld page from the cover/binder dangling from a belt perhaps).

It is multiple epages, displaying different documents, that gets me especially, I often work with four or five books and articles in front of me. I read a lot of history for pleasure, and a map open as I read, an encyclopaedia (biographies of people mentioned etc.,.), perhaps a dictionary, using the tablet/binder for interaction (searches, lookups, notes, and scribbling on pages being read even if I read them on the epaper, but mark them on the LCD).

Sorry about all the wild speculation, but for some reason this has really hit me, I think it may have been the pictures of the epaper being used and the controls being a "stick" on one side, so simple it would seem a shame to overburden the thing, but rather keep it as the simplest type of page flipper doing the minimal amount of processing, and holding enough memory to hold a really really big book but not a library.

I'll stop posting, I promise. even if this is a slow page turner, two overlapping pages "hinged" on opposite sides, would allow the epaper to anticipate the next page.

One epage covers the other completely, but the next page (covered) has already loaded the next epage. Lift the top one, pull the bottom one up, the page is literally turned, for the previous top page now falls behind and begins loading the next page.

The use of plastics, is bound to be a much cheaper production cycle than anything involving glass, or indeed any rigid material. Manufacturing might well be more like printing (because of the flexibility of the substrates) allowing for a very cheap product, and with cheapness the possiblity of making a gigantic impact.

GregS, have you read Neil Stephenson's The Diamond Age? I think you'd like the technology he describes, whether or not you liked the story.

I'll stop posting, I promise. even if this is a slow page turner, two overlapping pages "hinged" on opposite sides, would allow the epaper to anticipate the next page.

One epage covers the other completely, but the next page (covered) has already loaded the next epage. Lift the top one, pull the bottom one up, the page is literally turned, for the previous top page now falls behind and begins loading the next page.

The use of plastics, is bound to be a much cheaper production cycle than anything involving glass, or indeed any rigid material. Manufacturing might well be more like printing (because of the flexibility of the substrates) allowing for a very cheap product, and with cheapness the possiblity of making a gigantic impact.
Hey don't stop!
Those are good ideas. You never know, maybe the powers that be have ears around here to pick up on such functions or ways to implement them.

Wow! This sound squite phenominal, if it actually makes it to distro in the time period mentioned. I would be all over this like white on rice! One problem I might forsee with it will be, as GregS mentioned, the durability factor. Any who has ever been a kid knows what happens to plastic, metal, etc., that gets repeatedly folded and opened; over time it simply becomes two pieces. Now if it's somehow linked/adhered to the leather in some way... I'm not sure how, but it would be interesting to see in action.

When this device comes out (provided it has PDF support), I'll be dumping my Sony Reader, Words Gear, and TabletPC!

How about transparent rubber that's been plasticized? 5mm thick.

How about transparent rubber that's been plasticized? 5mm thick.

Oh, let's be facetious :smack: Though 5mm seems a little thick to be folding in half. Interesting take though. :2thumbsup

GregS, have you read Neil Stephenson's The Diamond Age? I think you'd like the technology he describes, whether or not you liked the story.

That's an incredible story. It set me to thinking about the possibilities of electronic books.

Andy

I absolutely love this book. I have both a Palm eReader version and an Audible audiobook version. I've both read and listened to the book numerous times. I want an "Illustrated Primer" of my own. Forget this Star Trek data-pad nonsense.

I just don't understand... what's the appeal of bendable ebooks? Is there any additional value in being able to bend it?

I mean, sure, it's a little more like paper.... it would be hard to turn pages in a book if paper didn't bend. an ebook doesn't need to literally flip pages though. So maybe you can bend it once in half and thus store it more easily? I wouldn't want a crease in my screen though. It just seems kind of silly.

The major advantage for me would be that bendable epaper is not that vulnurable. you would not have to bee that careful with it. And it should be alot cheaper.
This would make it ideal for school books.

Though there probably will not be any devices with plasticlogic screens on the market before 2009.

I duno... I imagine a flexible screen would be more expensive not cheaper, since it would add complications.

I also think if the epaper is not mounted in a rigid case would be more vulnerable to damage, not less. Why would getting rid of the case make it safer? I don't think it would be so flexible to allow a creased fold, unless maybe in one designed in spot. They can't even make a decent flex-cable in a flip-style cell phone, so I can't imagine anyone would be able to make e-ink that would fold in a crease anywhere the user pleased, and still allow flow of electricity to all parts of the screen. If rolled in a tube and then sat on, wouldn't it just break? and the corners wouldn't have any good protection.

I think if they're implemented, it'd end up being likely to be some kind of plastic tube with a pull out e-ink scroll. They'd have to have somewhere to put the CPU anyways, so it could go in the tube. they're just making flexible e-ink, not flexible CPU's and batteries and such. Or maybe they'd also make things like e-ink wallet covers with little batteries built into the wallet. I guess on the outside of a wallet, it wouldn't be such a hard crease. Maybe they'd just cover one side in e-ink though to be on the safe side. I don't want to read off a wallet. I'd rather just have something more like the iliad or cybook.

Flexible screens don't have to be completely flexible to see an advantage. You'll notice that the Readius mounts its flexible display on ridged segments. It's still flexible enough to collapse in, though safe from potential creasing.

Umm, one reason ridged displays are vulnerable though is because, well, they're "ridged". What I mean is that with enough force applied, the materials that they're made of will simply *crack*. On the other hand, a screen made of flexible materials could absorb this type of abuse.

I duno... I imagine a flexible screen would be more expensive not cheaper, since it would add complications.

Depends on the manufacturing. Flexible displays would mean printed electronics, which are very cheap to do. Although i guess this price advantage will only be noticable once there is really a mass production.

I also think if the epaper is not mounted in a rigid case would be more vulnerable to damage, not less. Why would getting rid of the case make it safer?

You can put your elbow on the screen or even hit on it with your shoe and the display will not break. Thats what i call less vulnurable. Although there might be other dangers to the display then.

I don't think it would be so flexible to allow a creased fold, unless maybe in one designed in spot.

The displays are supposedly to be like laminated paper. So bendable, but only to a certain extend. I assume that folding it would damage the screen.

If rolled in a tube and then sat on, wouldn't it just break? and the corners wouldn't have any good protection.

Depends on how they are made. Although it willl most definately leave a mark on the paper.

they're just making flexible e-ink, not flexible CPU's and batteries and such

Thats right for the time beeing. But i could think of a book with pages, which has maybe 100 pages in it, a processor in the cover, and you can batch program these pages. Easy to flip through. But thats more the future. See the attached image for what the devices are supposed to look like.

I just hope they won't be as reflective as this one Tribble. I think the reader screens we have today reflect the heavy lighting they require too much already.

As for the foldability, in an other thread I wrote about the possibllity of a clamshell like dual display that could fold over. This bendable plastic screen could be the perfect candidate for such an application. It could make the two halves of one piece instead. The middle wouldn't have to crease, if the two halves leave some space, the screen could kind of roll into a "U" shape at the joint. The best way to describe it would be a sheet of paper pinned at each corner inside two halves of a box. The sheet rolls of floats to the shape it wants to take with no force or other restriction than the space it's set in to. You could open it part way like a laptop and have a virtual touch keyboard on one half of the display and e-media on the other half, or, the device opened flat to make a uniform display of one page, vertical or horizontal. All of which is dependant on customizable software "à la iTouch".