Starting as of today, the around 3.5 million passengers who ride on Tokyo's
Yamanote Line every day can admire Hitachi's latest e-paper advertising billboards. Three trains have been equipped with two panels each (see attached photo, courtesy of Techon); each panel consists of a 13.1-inch e-paper screen that is capable of displaying 8 colors in a rather pitiful 50 dpi resolution. A panel is equipped with 8MB RAM which is said to be enough to hold 37 ads (rotated every two minutes).
Unlike most e-paper applications we've seen so far, this one is not based on E Ink, but on Bridgestone's "electronic liquid powder" technology. Hitachi anticipates that, if everything goes according to plan, they will release the first commercial application of their new advertisement panels by March 2008.
Related: Hitachi surprises with Albirey e-paper display,
Electronic paper for shelf labels in Japanese stores
[via
Macworld]