Hitachi presented at a private show (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20050721/106936/?ST=english) their idea of future e-paper technology. Expecting to hit markets by April 2006, the 13.1 100dpi monochrome display will feature 802.11b WLAN technology and enough space for a secondary battery. Although valuable treats to equip a e-book reader with, the technology has one caveat: it takes about 10 seconds to switch from one screen image to the next.

That's quite a caveat. Could be a deal killer for most. 10 seconds is an eternity for reading.

You did notice that they didn't intent it for e-book readers (yet)? From the article referred to:

The company is planning to place it on the market at a lower price than LCD panels in around April 2006, targeting applications such as signboards at public buildings.

I'm sure that the latency will go down in time with technological advances. I'm just loving the technology for it's future potential. Is this the same e-paper that's flexible? I have an idea that would use this e-paper, but the paper needs to be shaped.

Time to research papenting procedures.
POL9A

I don't think this is the flexible paper Fujitsu (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4468) and E-Ink are working on.

That's quite a caveat. Could be a deal killer for most. 10 seconds is an eternity for reading.
Er? Can you read a page in ten seconds? I can not. So a two-sheets book would make the trick.

If it takes 10 secs to change after i read the text and whant to proceed...

Not so bad if you're just reading a book, but 10 seconds is unworkable if you're browsing a magazine, or newspaper, or reference manual, etc...

Er? Can you read a page in ten seconds? I can not. So a two-sheets book would make the trick.


How long it takes you to read a page is irrelevent. You only change the page after you are done reading it. Then you have to wait 10 seconds to read the next one.

How long it takes you to read a page is irrelevent. You only change the page after you are done reading it. Then you have to wait 10 seconds to read the next one.
When reading fiction, I could easily live with that latency, given that there is enough text on one page that I don't have to switch pages every 2 seconds.

When reading fiction, I could easily live with that latency, given that there is enough text on one page that I don't have to switch pages every 2 seconds.

Maybe I am missing something, but don't you change pages after you finish reading the page? or would you change it halfway through, knowing that you had 10 seconds of reading left on the page you are on?

If I took 5 seconds or 5 minutes to read a page, I would still have to wait 10 full seconds to wait for the next page to come up when I finished reading the page I was on. To me, this is too long and frustrating a wait.