Multimode Displays from PixelQi due next month!

[Charybdis]

Originally Posted by Jadon

It's the One Laptop Per Child screen, improved. The OLPC screen was a 7.5-inch diagonal LCD display, 1200x900 monochrome-mode, with a lesser color mode (840x630, I think). It had a backlight, but it could be turned off, so there's no reason to think this one won't also be able to be deactivated. The screen had e-paper-like reading in sunlight. And it's a video display that can handle full motion. This version is also a touchscreen. Basically, you get the reading experience of e-ink, plus the options of color and backlight, with good but not super-long-eink battery life.

But in e-paper mode, the refresh rate is very low, right? So for example, I cannot surf on the internet in e-paper mode, only in video mode with backlight?

When will someone create a display, which can display color and video, but without backlight, so that it does not hurt the eyes?

[kaas]

No,
I believe that the refresh rates are equal.

Cheers,

kaas

[Jadon]

Originally Posted by Charybdis

But in e-paper mode, the refresh rate is very low, right?

No. This is not e-ink or any variety of colored fluids/balls in cells. This is a "standard" LCD screen that's been modified a bit. It handles color in a way that uses less power and has a more reflective background. The screen looks like an e-paper screen, with a bright background, and can be read purely by reflected light, without requiring any backlight. But it's still an LCD screen, which can use a backlight and display color video at standard video refresh rates if desired. This screen should be capable of what you want, if the device it's in is capable of it. Whether a device like the Astak Spectrum, which we suspect will have this sort of screen, will have wireless and the cpu/graphics power to display movies, we don't know. The OLPC X-1 machine does display video, has a backlight that can be turned off entirely, and has better than e-ink sharpness and sunlight readability.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Jadon

... The screen looks like an e-paper screen, with a bright background, and can be read purely by reflected light, without requiring any backlight....

So, it doesn't look like a non-backlit LCD screen - greenish, with not much contrast?

Also, if it really looks like e-ink, is it more like the 700, or more like the 505?

[wallcraft]

The attached image of the OLPC XO-1 is from Low-Cost, Low-Power Computing by Mary Lou Jepsen and shows its ebook capability. This presentation does not otherwise contain much new.

[AlexC]

My take is that two of the modes will be functionally equivalent to those on the OLPC XO-1: (i) a non-backlit, high resolution B&W mode and (ii) a backlit colour mode. Both of these should have fast "refresh" rates that will allow animation. The third e-paper mode sounds like it is a power-saving version of (i), i.e. it will have the same characteristics as the B&W mode, except that it will involve some form of power management that precludes fast refreshes but will yield extended battery life.

I have an XO and an iLiad, and I'm hoping that the claims that the new screen is "paper white" are true. The XO's screen is very sharp, but the contrast is quite low, making it harder to read in dim settings than the iLiad.

[Sonist]

Thanks, wallcraft and AlexC.

The attached picture seems adequate, but it does appear to have a little bit of the old Newton screen look. If the contrast is not a high as the iLiad, then, for me at least, it would fail at its primary purpose.

I've become an e-book convert, because of E-Ink's readability over extended periods. Being able to watch a video, or see color, would be fantastic, but not at the expense of readability.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by Sonist

If the contrast is not a high as the iLiad, then, for me at least, it would fail at its primary purpose.

This old/new breed of LCD screens that is coming our way will be a temptation of a different nature.

Those screens target generic "medium-sized" device, the "tablet" or "netbook" category. The ebook reading function is secondary, there is no head-on competition with dedicated e-ink reader. "Good enough" contrast might be a winner, if it is paired with generic x86 processor running MS or Apple OS.

Wintel and Apple machines can deal with ANY DRM scheme in existence. If the resolution of LCD screen is sufficient to deal with A4/letter sized PDF's...

[Charbax]

3Qi is going to have 3 modes:

1. A very low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective E-paper mode

2. A full-color, bright, conventional LCD mode

3. A low-power, basic color transflective mode !!

So the 3Qi will also offer color in low power mode for transflective use!! (transflection I think means surrouding light intensifies the perceived brightness on the color screen.) Perhaps a light sensor can be situated next to the screen, to dynamically change the backlight intensity according to the surrounding light.

I think that perhaps that E-readers with the 3Qi may just as well be built like clamshell Tablet computers, with a full keyboard either staying behind the screen when in E-reader or tablet modes, or covering the screen when closed for example in the bag. And perpendicular to the screen like a laptop on the table to input text and browse the Internet and anything you would do with a real laptop. 3Qi basically would turn the Kindle DX type device into a fully fledged laptop, or turn every netbooks into E-ink like E-readers.

Pixel Qi is launching a 10,5" and a 7,5" (OLPC XO-1 sized) model within the next to months according to http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/pixel-qi/

I have an XO-1 right here and have been updating http://olpc.tv for the past 3 years. I think Mary Lou Jepsen's XO-1 screen is amazingly awesome and a million children in developing countries are enjoying it right now every day at school and at their homes with their families.

An improved E-reader mode (more contrast, even better visibility), a color transflective mode and a higher quality full color mode would be fantastic. On top of that a 10,5" model good for the high volume commercial netbook markets, and even touchscreen capability.

[Donnageddon]

robertb, are you the "Robert Barry, director of business development for Team Research, a company that makes an e-book reader called the Astak Mentor" in this WIRED article on the Pixel Qi?

[Sonist]

"Multimode Displays from PixelQi due next month!"

----------------------------------------------------------

Yo, it IS next month!

... just saying here....

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Yo, it IS next month!

Yes, and the Wired article says

The company plans to have samples of its display out within the next two months, “and we are pulling all-nighters now to get the product ready.”

This is still very fast for a new(ish) technology, and the clock does not really start until there are samples.

[Charybdis]

Originally Posted by Charbax

3Qi is going to have 3 modes:

1. A very low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective E-paper mode

2. A full-color, bright, conventional LCD mode

3. A low-power, basic color transflective mode !!

And how do the different modes compare in terms of background lighting and refresh rate?


1. A very low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective E-paper mode: no backlit, video speed?

2. A full-color, bright, conventional LCD mode: backlit, video speed?

3. A low-power, basic color transflective mode: no backlit, video speed?

[Charbax]

I don't know. I expect that all 3 modes are able to do video-speed, but that the low-power modes might be able to do some trick in the refresh rates dynamically as required by the content that is displayed on the screen. So if you are just reading text, it would somehow speed down to lowest power consumption mode and as soon as you move your mouse or launch some animation or something needs to move, then the refresh rate might kick in and the CPU is woken up as well.

That is one of the huge amazing features of the One Laptop Per Child project, the so called DCON chip can handle the refreshes of the screen as some type of static image and the main processor can be switched completely off, and only turned on again when it's needed. So for reading ebooks, the main processor only turns on for a few milliseconds to turn the page, and then is turned totally off, in effect saving something like 99% of the power usage from the main processor.

That is why the goal with Pixel Qi is to have 20 hour of battery life using a standard and cheap 3-cell battery.

[delphidb96]

And waiting... But I *did* buy a refurbed Dell Mini 12 - and I'm loving it!

In the meantime, out here in Citrus Heights, CA, (a suburb of Sacramento, CA) we just had a billboard go up promoting OLPC XO's Give One, Get One program. The funny thing is that according to OLPC, that program ENDED December 31st! Go figure.

Derek