e-paper

Smart watches are not a new concept.

In June 2003, Microsoft announced its grand plan to bring the Internet to wristwatches using its Smart Personal Objects Technology. The company partnered with various watchmakers, including Citizen, Fossil, and Suunto, to create timepieces that allowed you to check messages and calendar appointments, as well as weather, news, stock prices, and sports scores, all from your wrist.

While novel and interesting, the watches never took off, and in April 2008, Microsoft decided to pull the plug on the smart-watch business. But were those watches really a bad idea or simply a case of an idea being ahead of its time?

It may be the latter, as smart watches seem to be making a comeback.… Read more

Could an Amazon tablet reach consumers later this year?

Sources quoted by tech site DigiTimes claim that Taiwan-based Quanta Computer has already gotten orders from Amazon to build the retail giant's first tablet PC. The new tablet will apparently use E Ink's Fringe Field Switching LCD technology, suggesting it will be a color LCD touch panel (a departure from the black-and-white E-ink Kindles we've seen to date)."

The tablet will start shipping as soon as the second half of the year with monthly orders expected to hit 700,000 to 800,000 units during the peak … Read more

Japan's Keio University has seen the future of touch interfaces, and it looks to be disposable. A research group at the school has its finger on a touch interface that uses paper as the point of contact. You could one day touch a museum ticket to the curved display, for example, to learn more about a piece of artwork.

What's more, because it uses shape deformations, the display can be operated by blowing or shaking rather than actual touch. A projector and camera create active 3D images, so the processing speed is fast, and input is immediately returned as output.

But don't take our word for it. Check out the paper interface in action in the video below. … Read more

LG is developing a type of flexible e-paper that we could see in a new line of e-readers, tablets, and even electronic newspapers. According to an SEC filing, the company expects to start mass-producing 9.7-inch color e-paper and 19-inch flexible e-paper.

Vinita Jakhanwal of iSuppli told IDG News the 9.7-inch color e-paper could potentially be used in a new generation of e-readers and mobile devices. But he warned it could make them more costly and reduce battery life.

The 19-inch flexible e-paper would be monochrome, and Jakhanwal said it could be used in e-reader devices the size of … Read more

Electronic paper is stacking up to be a high-growth market, according to a new report.

Sales of e-paper displays are projected to soar from $431 million this year to $9.6 billion in 2018, market researcher DisplaySearch said Wednesday.

The number of units sold is forecast to grow 22 million this year to 1.8 billion in 2018.

E-books are currently the main use and sales driver for e-paper. Most e-book readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, use the electrophoretic display technology from E Ink. A few e-readers, such as Fujitsu's Flepia, use a different technology … Read more

There's been some buzz this week around Pixel Qi's 3qi display technology, which integrates e-paper attributes with LCD to create a versatile and potentially very energy-efficient screen. The idea is that with a flip of a button you can go from a traditional high-resolution color LCD experience to a low-power black and white mode to an even more energy-efficient e-paper mode that allows you to easily view text in bright sunlight.

This week the technology was demonstrated at Computex in Taiwan, and it seems very impressive. If these types of displays can be produced cost-efficiently, they may revolutionize … Read more

One of the questions related to client computing that I've been exploring of late is whether we're likely to see a mainstream mobile device or devices emerge between a smartphone and an ultra-portable notebook.

My Illuminata colleague Jonathan Eunice and I debated this subject on a video recently--mostly in the context of long battery life, instant on/off mini-notebooks of various sorts. The HP Jornada 820 of the late 1990s is one possible prototype for such a device, suitably updated for a wirelessly connected world. The stillborn Palm Foleo is another take.

I'm perhaps more skeptical than … Read more

Does the world really need Post-it 2.0? Ask those of us with Post-its habitually plastered on our monitors, walls, backs, and foreheads, and we'd probably be hard-pressed to come up with suggestions for improving the classic attachable notes.

Still, the designers at Sequoia Studio have come up with an inventive concept product called E-notes. The notes use tactile and flexible electronic paper technology and are powered by a solar captor. They can be stuck and unstuck to surfaces easily using a glue inspired by the adhesive that keeps the gravity-defying gecko in place. The best part? They can … Read more

Telecom Italia and Philips Electronics spinoff Polymer Vision have announced plans to develop what they say is the first mobile device with a rollable display. Yes, the gadget clearly rolls, but we'll have to wait 'til launch later this year to see if it rocks.

While smaller than a typical mobile phone, the new device, dubbed the Cellular-book, has a display that extends up to 5 inches and can be folded and stored away when not in use. It features 16 gray levels combined with a high-contrast and high-reflectivity display to enable comfortable paperlike reading of newspapers and books, … Read more