Fujitsu FLEPia released!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by CTH

Why does it update the screen from one side to the other? That just has to be a controller issue. I mean why would the pixels on the right be faster than the pixels to the left

It seems to me that the screen itself could be much faster than shown in the vidoes. I would like to put my hands on a development kit for this one

If anyone could come up with a good explenation why the refresh has to go from one side to the other, I would be very intressted in hearing it!

All screens work that way, even your TV set. The only difference is that the speed is fast enough that you don't see it. One way to speed it up might be to slit the screen into smaller increments and then paint the data in a smaller area thereby increasing the apparent speed of the display. Computers are very serial devices and can only deal with one thing at a time but if fast enough you don't notice. The limitation is dependent on how much money you have and how much hardware you want to throw at the problem.

Dale

[Max]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

This is not an e-ink reader. It's based on reflective LCD technology, which has some of the same benefits as eInk, but it is not eInk.

As I understant is a kind of eink technology, I found this :


Fujitsu’s electronic display is based on reflective cholesteric selective technology. Fujitsu claims that a key advantage of its e-paper is the semi-permanent memory display system, which maintains the image without power; the absence of flicker; and the color that is three times as bright as other developed products.

http://www.epapercentral.com/epaper-technologies-guide

[Max]

Originally Posted by Max

As I understant is a kind of eink technology, I found this :


Fujitsu’s electronic display is based on reflective cholesteric selective technology. Fujitsu claims that a key advantage of its e-paper is the semi-permanent memory display system, which maintains the image without power; the absence of flicker; and the color that is three times as bright as other developed products.

http://www.epapercentral.com/epaper-technologies-guide

pd: sorry, I read a little more of the article and found this

Cholesteric LCD Technology

[CTH]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

All screens work that way, even your TV set. The only difference is that the speed is fast enough that you don't see it. One way to speed it up might be to slit the screen into smaller increments and then paint the data in a smaller area thereby increasing the apparent speed of the display. Computers are very serial devices and can only deal with one thing at a time but if fast enough you don't notice. The limitation is dependent on how much money you have and how much hardware you want to throw at the problem.

Dale

Yes you are right, but surely it cant be a question about processing power? The processor is indeed seriel but works fast enough for us to think it is doing stuff in a parallell way. I cant see any reason why it wouldnt work here. And if it doesnt work here why does it work with eink displays?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by CTH

Yes you are right, but surely it cant be a question about processing power? The processor is indeed seriel but works fast enough for us to think it is doing stuff in a parallell way. I cant see any reason why it wouldnt work here. And if it doesnt work here why does it work with eink displays?

Processing and controller hardware I think. E-Ink is enough faster that you don't notice. E-Ink is a multi-step process in 3/4 second, the flash to black and a quick draw. The actual screen drawing is fairly small increment of that time. The color process for 64 color (6 bits) is 1.8 seconds and perhaps could do some magic to flash the screen and get the colors on faster but the second or third pass can't touch the screen data that is already present. Enough hardware could avoid the multiple pass approach with more peak current. If you notice the second and third scans take 3 more seconds each time which is really what you are seeing in the display.

Dale

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

E Ink is actually the name of a company. It is actually not a generic term even though many use it that way. The generic term is e-paper or epaper and this display meets that criteria as a bistable screen that does not require refresh.

Right, I'm just saying that it's not the same technology as the eInk screens that we are familiar with (there seems to be some confusion about that). Many things can be epaper, including this, but not all epaper is electronic ink. The Flepia screen is based on LCD.

[Max]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Right, I'm just saying that it's not the same technology as the eInk screens that we are familiar with (there seems to be some confusion about that). Many things can be epaper, including this, but not all epaper is electronic ink. The Flepia screen is based on LCD.

here you can found a brief description of epaper technologies.


http://www.epapercentral.com/epaper-technologies-guide

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

E Ink is actually the name of a company. It is actually not a generic term even though many use it that way. The generic term is e-paper or epaper and this display meets that criteria as a bistable screen that does not require refresh.

Dale

There are several basic types of epaper. EInk has what is generically known as a Electrophoretic display. Fujitsu appears to be exploiting a form of Bistable LCD.

[recycledelectron]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Thanks, I am eating my "bleh."

Wow! This is something. I want one

8" is a perfect size, me thinks.

But no .mobi format

It runs CE, which means any .mobi viewer for CE would work. CE makes it usable for me - the list of formats will never be lacking.

Andy

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

It runs CE, which means any .mobi viewer for CE would work.

Unfortunately, a WinCE device will not necessarily run all WinCE apps. It is certainly possible that reader apps will work, but this is much more likely if the developers have confirmed this (and added all the necessary system libraries) before releasing the device. Note that old WinCE apps will never have seen a 1024x768 screen.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Unfortunately, a WinCE device will not necessarily run all WinCE apps. It is certainly possible that reader apps will work, but this is much more likely if the developers have confirmed this (and added all the necessary system libraries) before releasing the device. Note that old WinCE apps will never have seen a 1024x768 screen.

True, but Mobipocket Reader 4.8 was more than capable of handling 800 by 600. I don't see why 1024 by 768 would be a problem.

[amgoforth]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

It runs CE, which means any .mobi viewer for CE would work. CE makes it usable for me - the list of formats will never be lacking.

Andy

I don't know anything about this, but isn't software dependent on the processor and must match it or else be modified.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by amgoforth

I don't know anything about this, but isn't software dependent on the processor and must match it or else be modified.

It's dependent on the processor type (ARM, MIPS, SH3/SH4), not so much the specific processor.

[hermanrj]

I am an academic (professor in logic) and book-person - and have recently got a BeBook. Some comments about the FLEPIA from my view point

- it is most important that the reader can present a4 - pdf documents in a reasonable way. Our documents are usually a4 - pdf - both the scientific ones and those more administrative. The scentific ones are either produced within the community (using LATEX) or on the net from JSTOR or other places. Most classical papers in my field are easily available but can only be read on my computer or laptop. The a4 - reader is an important improvement.

- it is not important to have the colors. This may be important for approaching a web-browser - but the scientific papers are almost exclusively in black-white. Colors may be used for introductory text books - but so far have no important function in the serious parts of science.

- it is fine to have the possibility to annotate papers.

- I am a little sceptical about the wireless connections. They are fine on their own, but may make too much emphasis on proprietary formats. The scientific community is basically open and should remain so. I would prefer to have open exchange of papers and readers able to read many different formats, rather than wireless connections.

- which formats should the reader cope with. I like the BeBook here. It is good that it is able to read DJVU - which few other readers do. I would also like it to read postscript and sony-lfr. I may do some programming to have this done. But the important are pdf, html, txt and then fine with rtf, djvu and mobi.

As you can see the FLEPIA is not aimed at my community. The one that will be is Hanlin V9 - if it will ever be released.

As a book-person I enjoy your site. The book you release are mostly excellent. One wish - some of the other books by Freeman Wills Croft (beyond the Pit Prop Syndicate) or books by John Dickson Carr (Carter Dickson). They would be most welcome.


hermanrj

[sashas]

Hi guys,

I know a lot of you would like to see the contrast and vibrancy compared with other e-reader devices. I have gone ahead and posted pictures of the Irex e-reader side by side with the Fujitsu Flepia. Keep in mind that these photos were taken while Fujitsu Flepa was demoed in a cafe in Tokyo. The production unit which we have not tested has slightly better contrast.

View pictures here: http://www.epapercentral.com/fujitsu...r-ereaders.htm

cheers,