Pixel Qi's Mary Lou Jepsen answers your questions in a new video

[junkyardwillie]

Originally Posted by Lbooker

The fact is they did not show the three modes.
At no moment did they tell us clearly: here is mode 1, now is mode 2, now is mode 3.
I think they are either not very good at precisely demonstrating their interesting new screen, or they do not want to show the darkest mode, because their screen may then appear as too dark compared to the Kindle; the risk would be that it could be labeled as the "dark crap".
So when do we get a clear demo of the three modes? Because I may want one in my next laptop, especially if the e-reader mode is clear enough. But even if that mode is too dark, the fact that this screen is very readable under the sun is a great advantage over my current laptop, which is totally unreadable outdoors, and prevents me from watching movies in a garden for example, a thing I found very frustrating the first time, and which led me to use it less.

Very true. From what I've seen in their videos there is a color mode and their no backlight (eReader) mode but I can't seem to quite figure out what the third mode is besides dimming the backlight in color mode which would be similar to what you could do with a laptop now, a clear video displaying the three modes would be helpful. They had me at the eReader mode but it'd be nice to get a clear indication of the full functionality of the screens.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

Very true. From what I've seen in their videos there is a color mode and their no backlight (eReader) mode but I can't seem to quite figure out what the third mode is besides dimming the backlight in color mode which would be similar to what you could do with a laptop now, a clear video displaying the three modes would be helpful. They had me at the eReader mode but it'd be nice to get a clear indication of the full functionality of the screens.

It may be that the third mode is really present all of the time to some degree. If you study the human eye characteristics the eye is much more sensitive to large areas of color than small. You can take advantage of this in a sub-pixel mode by ignoring the fact that the pixels are in color and use them to define outline. This is what Microsoft does with its cleartype technology to provide well defined edges on text characters.

Dale

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Perhaps even MID's and cellphones could benefit from it as well!

Like this one?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

Very true. From what I've seen in their videos there is a color mode and their no backlight (eReader) mode but I can't seem to quite figure out what the third mode is besides dimming the backlight in color mode which would be similar to what you could do with a laptop now, a clear video displaying the three modes would be helpful. They had me at the eReader mode but it'd be nice to get a clear indication of the full functionality of the screens.

This is mostly speculation, but I suspect the third mode is a combination of a dimmer backlight and reflected light. That's why it's referred to as "transflective" (transmitted + reflective). The combination of the two is what current laptops are unable to do.

The dimmed backlight provides the color and the reflected light makes up for the brightness.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Like this one?

Love that one! It's like a Barbie Mac!

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

This is mostly speculation, but I suspect the third mode is a combination of a dimmer backlight and reflected light. That's why it's referred to as "transflective" (transmitted + reflective). The combination of the two is what current laptops are unable to do.

The dimmed backlight provides the color and the reflected light makes up for the brightness.

So Mode 1 is Color, Back light LCD

Mode 2 is Color, Slightly backlight, but readable in Sun with Color LCD. this currently does not exist to any major degree. is this different from mode one, or is it just the ability to see a color screen in full sun?

Mode 3 is LOW power, no backlight, and colors get washed out by the sun, in the videos, only blue(and black) shows thought in full sun with the back light off.

correct me if I'm wrong anyone.

[ProDigit]

like mentioned about 4 times on the forum:

All 3 modes are color, and are essentially one setting. The only difference that the backlight is on (with levels of intensity) or off.

Due to LCD's properties, the higher the intensity of the ambient light VS backlight, the more the colors will be suppressed (and display as some form of grey or black).




PQi might want to try creating a transparent plastic bezel around the screen, (or transparent back) that could focus more ambient light on the internal screen... Just but an idea to experiment with...

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Andybaby

So Mode 1 is Color, Back light LCD

Mode 2 is Color, Slightly backlight, but readable in Sun with Color LCD. this currently does not exist to any major degree. is this different from mode one, or is it just the ability to see a color screen in full sun?

Mode 3 is LOW power, no backlight, and colors get washed out by the sun, in the videos, only blue(and black) shows thought in full sun with the back light off.

Sounds right to me, but we're all basically just guessing.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

like mentioned about 4 times on the forum:

Lots of people have speculated as to what the modes really are. If you have definitive sources for your information, please post them. I'd love to read something that specifically describes how their technology works and what the modes are. As far as I know, nobody has really seen that though, and we're all just taking educated guesses as to what they're really doing.

[olis]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I'd love to read something that specifically describes how their technology works and what the modes are.

You might find this page helpful :
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Display

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by olis

You might find this page helpful :
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Display

Thanks. That's talking about the previous generation, not the 3Qi screen, but it seems to fit pretty well with what we're speculating.

The two sources of light are the backlight and reflected light. In a compltely dark room you'd have the backlight on full and no reflected light. In total sunlight you'd have the backlight off and use reflected light. In between conditions could use a combination of both.

That basically jives with what we've said the 3 modes are as far as the light source.

(1) Backlight on
(2) Transflective, which is a combination of a dimmer backlight and reflected light
(3) Reflected light only, with the backlight off.

As far as color vs B&W, the link about the XO screen does specifically say that color comes from the backlight as it passes through a filter and that the reflected light only gives monochrome. The dimmer the backlight (or the more directly sunlight it's competing with), the more "washed out" the colors will be. With the backlight turned off it's monochrome.

However, I don't know if that is 100% accurate for the 3Qi screen as well, or if they have changed it.

[ProDigit]

The base of PQi's screens are LCD screens, just a bit more optimized.
(thinner screen,some plastic layers removed), but the very essence is still an LCD screen.
They optimized the polarization filters to not have that 'green-grey-ish' look normal LCD's have.
They reduced the thickness of the LCD by a small margin,
they used a reflective background, be it reflector type or just a plain white plastic I don't know.
Probably use LED backlight too.

If they did not, I assure you you could make a screen like this yourself at home, and have about the same effect (provided if you know how to remove and paste some polarization filters on the LCD, which can be tricky because pasting always leaves bubbles like a sticker does unless you have some device to paste them without bubbles).
Also, I have not yet seen the right polarization filter. they sell some filters on http://www.polarization.com/ but I have not yet seen completely transparent ones.
Most of them are light grey at best.

If you would be able to do that, you would end up with a screen probably not as efficient as PQi's in contrast, but you will have the same battery benefit.
On some laptops you can use the original pol filters, you just need some reflective background.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

They reduced the thickness of the LCD by a small margin,
they used a reflective background, be it reflector type or just a plain white plastic I don't know.
Probably use LED backlight too.

What I got out of the article describing the XO screen, is that the reflective layer is more like a "one way mirror" than solid white plastic.

Their description is that it has 4 layers. From back to front:

LED backlight -> color filter -> reflective layer -> LCD

So, light transmitted from the backlight goes through the color filters and then passes through the reflective layer. Light coming in from the front hits the reflective layer (without getting to the color filter) and then bounces back out the front.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Their description is that it has 4 layers. From back to front:

LED backlight -> color filter -> reflective layer -> LCD

NB The "color filter" isn't really a filter, it's more a complicated prism - it splits the backlight into bands of colours rather than filtering it.

[Shaggy]

Yeah, you're probably right. I was just parroting the terminology from the article.