[NatCh]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

I submit that we are generally no longer in the dark ages in the business world. Employers are expected to provide well lit and generally, where possible, provide other environmental controls as well to keep their employees comfortable.

Ah, but what about meetings with powerpoint presentations going?

Originally Posted by Mambo

I have to disagree I think you can put a light behind, well, normal paper and it could improve the contrast and readability in dark, although it is not completely transparent.

Similarly I am sure you could put a backlight behind the screen of the iliad as well - I don't think that it would not have any effect - the E ink layer is not so thick.

Well, that's not an unreasonable assumption, Mambo, but it doesn't consider that paper only has ink where you want it, so the light comes through more on the white parts than the black parts.

E-Ink, on the other hand, has ink everywhere across the display all the time. It works by moving black and white particles around, but they don't go away just 'cause they're at the back of the little bubbles, they're still there, and I expect they block light just the same whether they're at the front or the back.

It's actually more opaque than paper is, which can be translucent under the conditions you describe. I think what you'd end up with if you tried backlighting it would be a kind of mostly uniform gray, probably quite dim.

Originally Posted by Mambo

On the other hand people say that many LCDs are now visible in the sunlight and have less electricity consumption so why bother with eink? Well could be but I have not seen any yet, specifically ereaders.

The LCD's couldn't have less energy consumption than e-ink, all they could do is equal it. It's hard to have less than none ... unless they built in a solar cell, hmm.

But seriously, e-ink doesn't use any power except when you're changing the display. There are some LCD based display techs out there that are able to do that, but having seen one example of the LCD, I'd rather read from e-ink. The cholesteric LCD I saw seemed a bit ... shimmery. I don't know how else to describe it.