Everything you need to know about E-Paper display

Overview

Machines invade us all day, so why not succumb to it totally by ushering the ultimate sign of the mechanical age, which has been looming thus far in the shadows of time. I over-dramatized it a little just to emphasize how the most fundamental aspect of our daily lives the newspaper has also come under the technical spell. An electronic paper display (EPD) is an electrically charged surface which resembles the good old newspapers. It is powered by a new technology called ‘electrophoresis’, which is the movement of electrically charged particles in an electric field.

e paper display

Once the text has been loaded, it can hold that infinitely without drawing electricity, unless one needs a change of image. The new technology helps it reflect ambient light, and the plastic substrates helps it in being as flexible as any paper news display.

So it is thin, flexible and has a wider viewing angle to promise a comfortable read and fulfill your early morning curiosities.

Pricing and Availability

So many e-papers are available in the market within the price range of $99-399.

What’s great

First, they represent the high-tech age and secondly, they come with great benefits and features. As we discussed, they use low energy and can maintain text without drawing electricity infinitely. It is flexible as it is made of plastic and offers great resolution and wide screen viewing. It is light and portable and the display info can be downloaded easily from a computer or cellphone. This feature makes it reusable where one just has to update the news on it daily, thus saving the massacre of trees for paper. It also comes with ambient lighting which, unlike the lighting of computer monitors, is not harsh on the eyes. And lastly, they present the possibility of storing libraries where material can be read on hand-held paper e-readers.

What’s not so great?

Since these e-papers have a very low refresh rate, they prevent the producers from implementing interactive features like scrolling, zooming or pointers. For instance, they cannot offer a zooming function without extreme blurring of the data.

Another drawback is that ‘ghost images’ may be visible on the surface even after refreshing several times. This is the imprint of the image, while white pixel is turned black and then again white to normalize the contrast of the pixels.

Things to watch out for

There are a range of e-paper products available in the market with each of them offering a different resolution and size. One should be careful while selecting the one which is more economical and offers better features. Moreover, as the screen is normally very thin, one should take care not to scratch it. One should also avoid destroying the flexible, fragile plastic body.

Verdict

Well, if one can carries around a laptop and a phone, then why not a thin, flexible and easily updated alternative to a newspaper. It is reusable, thus freeing of the hassle of buying a new newspaper everyday and stacking it up in your place. Just plug it into your phone or computer to have all the world news at your fingertips, arranged in the old-fashioned paper new format.`Also think about all the trees that will still breathe oxygen into the air due to this innovation.

Best 8 Gadgets that use E-Paper

Some good options that the market has on offer are:

Sony - PRS700BC

sony prs700bc

This e-paper helps you to search, browse and buy new releases from the e-book store. It also has an in-built eBook Library 2.0 PC Software, where you can easily transfer Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft Word documents, BBeB format. If you buy a pair of headphones with it, you can also play MP3 and AAC audio files on your e-paper. Now, where in the world will you get that cool a feature?

Price: $399.99

NoteSlate, 13-inch Tablet with ePaper Display

noteslate

With a 13 inch capacitive touchscreen display and a resolution of 750X1080, this future tab provides PDF support. The battery guarantees a long life (that’s a few weeks) and it weighs only 240 gm, so it a jet-set product too.

Price: $99

KDDI’s E-Paper Display

kddis e paper display

This 13.1 display screen can display up to 4,096 colors and refresh the onscreen image in 12 seconds. Here a cellphone is used to broadcast a signal to the display via infrared. KDDI e-paper is mainly an accessory suitable for the finance industry as the requirement of viewing A4 size documents is more of a criteria there.

Sony’s flexible electronic paper display

sonys flexible electronic paper display

Another Sony e-paper, which is made from plastic substrate, makes it extremely flexible and bendable. It hosts strong flexibility so that you can roll the e-paper up like any normal paper newspaper and still not run the risk of breaking the item. Only care has to be taken to disallow any scratch on its surface, so that the product does not get irreparably damaged.

LG Announces 19 Inch Flexible E-Paper Display

lg announces 19 inch flexible e paper display

Wider with a 19″ touch panel, it gives the reader the bona fide newspaper reading experience. The display is only 0.3 mm thick and weighs a mere 130 gm allowing it to be flexible and light at the same time.

Bridgestone’s A4 and A3 AeroBee e-paper display

bridgestone e ink display tablet

Deemed as the world’s largest e-paper solution with A3 and A4 size, the Bridgestone e-paper offers a refresh speed of 1.3 seconds per page, which gives it a more natural, paper reading kind of feel. This tab comes with a 13.1″ 4,096 colors touch panel with a 800×600 resolution. It also runs on Linux 2.6.24 with an ARM11 533MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM as well as 4GB of internal memory.

Kindle 2

kindle 2

This is one e-paper which has the ability to read itself out loud, thanks to the text-to-speech option. The Kindle 2 has 1.4 GB of accessible memory and can hold about 1500 non-illustrated books. It is slim and portable and features a Freescale 532 MHz, ARM-11 90 nm processor, 32 MB main memory, 2 GB moviNAND flash storage and a 3.7 V 1530 mAh lithium polymer battery.

HP’s unbreakable e-paper prototype

hps unbreakable e paper prototype

HP e-paper prototype is flexible and unbreakable, uses less energy and is quite economical in terms of the price and the features offered. It is a perfect newspaper prototype which is developed in association with Arizona State’s Flexible Display Center.