How often do we hear about new wonderful display technologies for mobile computing? Heads up displays that you wear like glasses. The perfect new paper-thin display for pdas and ebooks. Bright, but tiny screen projection that fits into pdas.
We've heard it all. But when will it be in our pockets and purses? Always disappointed, but never giving up hope.
But is the wait finally over? I saw an article today in PlanetEbook and my heart lept in excitement. What a wonderful thing...
Quote:
E Ink has announced the development of world's thinnest active-matrix displays and recently demonstrated the technology at the Society for Information Display Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, in Boston, Massachusetts. The company has shown two prototype displays, one (1.6 inch diagonal, 80 ppi) for small devices like cell phones, the other (240x160 pixel, 96ppi) for slightly larger handheld devices like PDAs and eBook readers.
...
"These displays represent an ideal solution. They offer not only the great ink-on-paper look of electronic ink, but begin to take on the form and utility of paper with ultra-thin, flexible structures and ultra-low power," said Dr. Dan Button, vice president of Business Development at E Ink.
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Some of the highlights of this wonderful technology are:
* Only uses power for screen updates
* 90% thinner than LCD displays
* Can be placed on curved surfaces
* Less fragile
It is already real -- it has been included in an existing 1cm thick ebook reader prototype with a 7" display, expected to cost about $300. And two additional prototypes were shown a year after that.
And you know for sure that it's coming to market soon when the VP of Research and Development says it's "compatible with existing display production technology, cutting years off time-to-market!" Right?
Only one small problem... the article is from June, 2002. And the prototype was made in 2001! Promises, promises, promises.
Surely it will eventually come, but I suppose all that display technology will continue to tease us for quite a while. Thank heaven for our good old LCD active matrix displays!