Samsung has sold Liquavista to Amazon!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

But Liquavista's screen is also kinda like LCD in that the screen will not hold an image after the power is turned off.

This is true, but it requires an amazingly tiny amount of power to maintain (or change) the image, which is why it would be good for an ebook reader. eInk requires a surprisingly large amount of power to change the image.

[Namekuseijin]

another great news

[Barty]

It's interesting. The YouTube video looks good.

What I'm wondering is, if it is so good, why did Samsung give it up. Why don't they develop it for their own devices.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Barty

It's interesting. The YouTube video looks good.

What I'm wondering is, if it is so good, why did Samsung give it up. Why don't they develop it for their own devices.

I think it's because Samsung needs to make screens as pretty as on Apple's devices:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...en-tech-video/

Liquavista screen tech can't do that, so there was little reason to keep it around.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

eInk requires a surprisingly large amount of power to change the image.

Hundreds of thousands of material objects, each far more massive than millions of electrons, have to actually move.

[evanft]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Yes. Not to be nitpicky but there are 2 questions muddled in there.

Liquavista's screen tech is reflective like E-ink, meaning it doesn't have a backlight. This is one way it saves power.

But Liquavista's screen is also kinda like LCD in that the screen will not hold an image after the power is turned off.

Ok, so it illuminates with ambient light, like e-ink.

Does it have a refresh rate, i.e. if I turn the page does the screen not doing anything until I turn it again or is it still refreshing the image XX number of times per second?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by evanft

Ok, so it illuminates with ambient light, like e-ink.

Does it have a refresh rate, i.e. if I turn the page does the screen not doing anything until I turn it again or is it still refreshing the image XX number of times per second?

There's no refresh rate. When displaying a static image, the water droplets just stay in position, held by a constant electric field. They don't flicker on and off.

[jocampo]

Related

http://www.techhive.com/article/2038...time-soon.html

[sneakyspider]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I'm a bit confused about exactly what the Liquavista display would be capable of - is it basically like an ereader display with color? Or would it be like a LCD screen with no glare, in that it could refresh fast enough to play videos?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by sneakyspider

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I'm a bit confused about exactly what the Liquavista display would be capable of - is it basically like an ereader display with color? Or would it be like a LCD screen with no glare, in that it could refresh fast enough to play videos?

It is a cross of both.
It can flash images fast enough for full motion video, like LCD, but uses maybe a tenth of the battery power of LCD to do so--it is outdoor viewable like eink, but the color saturation is higher than eink's pastels. Unlike eink, electrowetting displays can be backlit as well as frontlit. (Backlit versions are only three times less power hungry than LCD).

Here:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-el...ghter-displays

In practical terms, electrowetting displays will start costing more than LCD or eink and will not be as bright and saturated as current LCD. But they will be outdoor viewable, require smaller batteries to provide better-than-LCD charge life, and weigh less than comparable LCD, while providing better color than eink.

Figure a $200 8in color Kindle slightly lighter than an iPad Mini with maybe 30hours non-stop runtimes. Image quality won't be National Geographic grade but it likely will be better than the sunday comics in those newspapers that still carry them.

[sneakyspider]

So basically it's like an ereader/tablet hybrid? I've wanted something like that for awhile now, but I imagine you're right that it'll start out being costly.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by sneakyspider

So basically it's like an ereader/tablet hybrid? I've wanted something like that for awhile now, but I imagine you're right that it'll start out being costly.

It will have to.
Nobody is making them in volume and pricing is a function of volume.

Look to the pricing of the Kobo Aura, which is built off the first batch of a new eink screen, for what an initial Liquavista might cost *at best*. At worst, it might run over $300, like the Kyobo Mirasol reader did at launch.

Hopefully, Liquavista will perform a lot better than Mirasol.

[Fourl29]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There's no refresh rate. When displaying a static image, the water droplets just stay in position, held by a constant electric field. They don't flicker on and off.

It's actually oil droplets, coloured oil droplets, as far as I 've read on the implementation of the technology.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It will have to.
Nobody is making them in volume and pricing is a function of volume.

Look to the pricing of the Kobo Aura, which is built off the first batch of a new eink screen, for what an initial Liquavista might cost *at best*. At worst, it might run over $300, like the Kyobo Mirasol reader did at launch.

Hopefully, Liquavista will perform a lot better than Mirasol.

Just a couple of days ago mirasol came up with, qualcomm that is, with a 500 ppi screen (!!!!) on a mock up mobile phone and they were showing it around. The idiots at engadget commented that the image didn't really pop as lcds do (that's the whole point, they don't pop because they don't have bright light shone from bellow) and missed the point of the screens altogether. Of course this will easily be another prototype that's never going to come to market apparently. Still, it's something to see that they are still putting in some effort with mirasol, when all indications pointed towards it being dead and buried.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Fourl29

It's actually oil droplets, coloured oil droplets, as far as I 've read on the implementation of the technology.



Just a couple of days ago mirasol came up with, qualcomm that is, with a 500 ppi screen (!!!!) on a mock up mobile phone and they were showing it around. The idiots at engadget commented that the image didn't really pop as lcds do (that's the whole point, they don't pop because they don't have bright light shone from bellow) and missed the point of the screens altogether. Of course this will easily be another prototype that's never going to come to market apparently. Still, it's something to see that they are still putting in some effort with mirasol, when all indications pointed towards it being dead and buried.

They're putting effort into marketing at least:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20.../#.UZ7Fv2LD_MI

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fourl29

It's actually oil droplets, coloured oil droplets, as far as I 've read on the implementation of the technology.

Quite right. I'd gotten mixed up. It's coloured oil in water, not coloured water in oil.