Electronic paper

According to University of Cincinnati electrical and computer engineer Jason Heikenfeld, there are two types of electronic devices: things such as e-readers, that require little power but have displays with limited performance, and devices such as smartphones and laptops, that display bright, full-color moving video, but that guzzle batteries. After seven years of development, however, Heikenfeld and collaborators from Gamma Dynamics are now presenting a new type of electronic display. They claim that their “zero-power” electrofluidic system combines the energy efficiency of the one type of device, with the high performance of the other. Read More

Fujitsu's new wireless outpatient registration and information system has just been launched. Should a user need to visit a medical center operating the system, slotting a chipped-card into a special device will wirelessly register the outpatient and provide information about a scheduled appointment, where to go and what wait time can be expected. Read More

E-paper has some compelling advantages for the next generation of handheld and tablet devices. It provides an image which is very stable and easy to read in comparison to commonly used screen technologies, it consumes negligible power and is lightweight and paper-thin. Color paper arrived in 2007 but it hasn't really been good enough, until now. The principal developer of color e-paper to date has been Fujitsu which has just announced a dramatic increase in color e-paper display quality. The technology will be shown this week at Fujitsu Forum 2010 (May 13 - 14 at Tokyo International Forum) and can be expected in Japanese market e-book readers and advertising billboards by Q3 this year. Read More

There’s been a definite buzz around eBooks and eBook readers in recent times, and despite Asus challenging the price point last year we’re yet to see what we’d guess to be an affordable enough solution to break the mass-market. There are some pretty tidy devices on the shelves though, with Amazon’s Kindle proving popular enough to ‘go global’ last October, a move that has now been repeated with the spacious Kindle DX. Read More

Rather than using e-paper technology just for displays, the research arm of Dutch technology company Philips Electronics has developed a relatively cheap, light, thin and energy efficient means of turning the whole of the surface of a device into a digital canvas. E-skin technology could be used to change the color of a mobile phone when a call comes in, alter the appearance of a kettle when the water is boiling or even be applied to wallpaper so you can redecorate your room at the flick of a switch. Read More

Alex from Spring Design is the first Android-based e-book reader that comes with dual screens. The upper display is a 6-inch E-Ink monochrome electronic paper display (EPD) screen, while below it sits a 3.5-inch color LCD screen. The device features full Internet browsing capabilities that, through the use of the device’s Duet Navigator interface, allows hyperlinked text displayed on the main EPD to be clicked on to bring up supporting multimedia information such as video, images, and notes on the secondary color LCD screen. Read More

Sony has added a third child to its eBook reader family – the Reader Daily Edition – a sibling to the Pocket Edition and the Touch Edition products, which were released earlier this month. The Daily Edition eBook reader, however, is the ‘big brother’ to the other two, boasting a larger page view (seven inches wide) and 3G wireless connectivity. Read More

Wrinkling, blisters and delamination on stickers applied to curved or bendable surfaces are usually an annoyance, but examining this phenomena has led researchers to a new, powerful approach to fabricating stretchable electronics that could pave the way to the production of components with very high mechanical resistance. Read More

A new electronic ink display technology has been developed at the University of Cincinnati. This new technology, called an electrofluidic display (EFD), creates a reflective display that can produce color and contrast ratio of up to 85 percent what normal paper can achieve, promising a new generation of full-color electronic readers. Read More