Cellulose electronic paper promises superior display qualities

[Alexander Turcic]

What do you get when you take regular paper (you know, the stuff that's made by cutting down trees) and add some science to it? Well, according to Real Paper Displays Inc., a penny-stock company traded on the OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB: RPPR), the result is a Paper-Like Electronic Display (PED), "with the natural appearance and appeal of real paper and advantages of electronic displays."

From the company's latest annual report:

The patented technology encompasses microbial-produced cellulose capable of displaying fine resolution text and images via the use of electrochromic chemistry and state-of-the-art electronics. In contrast to other “e-paper” applications, this technology derives added value from the fact that the preferred medium for viewing text, data, graphics and art is real paper.

RealPaper Displays claims that in comparison to other companies like E Ink, Ntera, and Kent Displays, their technology offers the widest viewing angle, lower voltage/current requirements, faster switching characteristics and superior contrast ratios. Attached is a comparison chart made by them (obviously outdated, since at least E Ink has recently improved their specs).

In an interview Dr. Robert Kline, Vice Chairman of RealPaper Displays, explains his company's short- and long-term strategies. Bad news for us e-book affecionados... right now, they are specifically targetting the Point-of-Purchase (POP) advertisement market.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I notice that they haven't got the color thing worked out yet, but they're worth keeping an eye on.

[nathantw]

Doesn't making the display out of paper still require trees to be cut down? The whole idea of using e-ink displays is so that it'll save trees and that's the reason why I bought the Reader. Instead this paper-based display appears to continue the trend of cutting trees down.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by nathantw

Doesn't making the display out of paper still require trees to be cut down?

Probably... although, if the paper is harvested from managed fast-growth sources, and assuming the paper will be re-used for a long time (and not discarded), the amount of paper used should be significantly smaller than today's use-and-discard paper lifecycle allows. Re-using the same electronic paper for a year's worth of newspapers, for instance, would be an incredible paper savings.

[Megatron-UK]

'digitalized' :-)

[athlonkmf]

huh. contrast at normal view for printed sheets like newspaper is the same as e-ink? At 4:1 and the degree of view 4:1?

isn't that a bit low?

[TadW]

You are right. Typical newspaper paper has a contrast ratio of about 8:1 to 12:1.

[arit]

their technology offers the widest viewing angle

So now I can read from the backside?

[Kosst Amojan]

Originally Posted by nathantw

Doesn't making the display out of paper still require trees to be cut down? The whole idea of using e-ink displays is so that it'll save trees and that's the reason why I bought the Reader. Instead this paper-based display appears to continue the trend of cutting trees down.

Ah, good. I was never comfortable using a product that didn't require something die to produce it. Now all we need is to make an e-reader our of baby seal hide!

Seriously though, if you care about such things, trees are much more renewable then the things they make readers out of now.

[vido]

It's a nice set of numbers, but where's the beef ? Where can we see a demo of a working implementation of this technology ?

[seamusfp]

I get the impression that the spec sheet is intentionally misleading. Lumping E Ink, Sipix, and Bridgestone, then taking the worst performance for each stat. for example E Ink has better contrast than 4:1, more in the range of 8:1 and operates at 15V, not 80-100V. The lack of pictures, and sketchy numbers has me very skeptical. A reflective display with >20:1 contrast ratio would photograph Extremely well, so where are they?

[Barcey]

It's technology from the University of Texas so the display are going to big really big.

I too find the specifications very confusing. On the Investor relations page of their web site they show "Switching Time of less then 10 seconds achieved in Nov 2007" but they claim E-Ink is slow and their technology is fast.

Oh well it doesn't appear that they're interested in the ebook market anytime soon.

[Indigo Ink]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Bad news for us e-book affecionados... right now, they are specifically targetting the Point-of-Purchase (POP) advertisement market.

What a waste If only they know how "rewarding" (in terms of our blessings) it would be if they used it FIRST for reading devices and then perhaps for other riff-raff like POP

[axel77]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

RealPaper Displays claims that in comparison to other companies like E Ink, [...] their technology offers the widest viewing angle,

Um I can read my iliad when I watch 1° over its side.

I agree with arits funny remark, the only way to improve viewing angle of eInk would be to read it from the backside

[chef]

They are probably in deep trouble. At least financially. They lost 45% of stock value at end of 2007 and another 45% on 4/24. They haven't been traded since then. The daily volume is around 6,000 shares. Shares trade at $0.06, 75% lower than 52-wk high of $0.25.