Qualcomm has just released a technology under their mirasol division that looks to be the number one contender in replacing e-ink. Not only does the display not use power when the display is stable, the frame rate is fast, 30fps, fast enough for video, and let’s not forget it COLOR!!! The question remains, how much. To see how it works just click here. There’s a video below demoing the technology.

more about “Qualcomm’s mirasol showing color vide…”, posted with vodpod

Qualcomm’s mirasol showing color video @ 30fps! from IntoMobile on Vimeo.

Einen interessanten Artikel zum Thema digitale Bibliothek gibt es bei ORF.at.

So I love the fact that The Brunei Times has a great looking website, started Twittering, had video news and most importantly has an E-Paper which is an exact replica of their actual newspaper available online. It’s great that they allow people to read the papers in such a way, but my distaste for Flash led me to be curious of how to get the actual images displayed for offline reading. While looking in Firefox’s web cache I found the URL of the pages:

Page 1 default view: http://www.bt.com.bn/e-paper/images/page1.jpg
Page 1 zoomed in: http://www.bt.com.bn/e-paper/images/page1_zoom.jpg

Armed with that knowledge I started building a script that would let me download these files onto my computer for reading at a later time and possibly even copying the files to my phone and reading it there.

Requirements:

• Mac/OS X
  • wget for Mac/OS X
  • Mac download script
  • Ensure that the wget file (not folder) is in the same directory as the download script

    

• Windows
  • wget for Windows
  • Windows download script
  • Both wget binary and dependencies are required. Extract the dependencies put it in the bin folder that wget.exe is in.

    

  • Ensure that the wget folder is in the same directory as the download script
    
• Linux
  • wget and Bash shell: This is typically not needed, but check your distribution documentation on how to install applications
  • Linux download script

Usage:

• Double click the download script to download the news for the day. This will download the news into a folder of the given date
• Open the folder and read the news

The Brunei Times has their official E-Paper which is a digital version of their actual daily print edition but it’s based on Flash and it’s pretty cumbersome to navigate and read the papers. So I managed to extract the URLs of the images and create…

The Unofficial Lite Edition of the Brunei Time’s E-Paper

Perfect to load up the Complete version, let it load and have the entire newspaper right in front of you to start off your day.

Update (19/Nov/09): Seems that Brunei Time is blocking direct image loading. While a fix is being worked on, use Brunei Times E-Paper Downloader to get the news.

hi friends,
this section is actually for the epaper of samaja,dharitri,times of india.currently i am working to get the epaper link of the newspaper so that the user do not require to go the epaper home site and can view the paper directly by clicking the link only.

here is the link just click the below link to go the epaper section.
epaper

+++

Est-ce qu’on réinvente la roue? Je m’interroge comme dirait le gars dans la pub de ROGERS. Ces derniers temps, je me suis mise à cogiter là-dessus pour toutes sortes de raisons personnelles et professionnelles. Comme ma phrase dans ce billet le dit si bien :« On a inventé la roue, certes, mais cela n’empêche pas Michelin d’améliorer ses pneus d’années en années…» [ je remarque que je m'auto-cite souvent, ça veut dire quoi: que j'ai un narcissisme virtuel ou bien que mon blogue est cohérent...hummm...pensons-y]

En tout cas, hier soir, je suis tombée sur cet billet et ce matin, sur celui-ci de Martin Lessard. Dans le premier cas, je ne connaissais pas du tout l’existence du blog de Marc Boivin et j’ai donc adhéré à ses flux RSS afin de poursuivre mes lectures dans le futur. Dans le deuxième cas, il m’est arrivé à certaines occasions d’avoir eu la chance de discuter en personne avec Martin Lessard et je l’ai toujours trouvé franchement interessant et objectif dans ses pensées. Je suis contente que le Québec ait un penseur du Web comme lui. Ça vaut la peine de le lire et/ou de le connaître, c’est selon.. (hé non, il ne me paye pas au clic)

Ce qui m’a donné l’envie d’écrire ce matin est cette photo tirée du blogue de Monsieur Lessard:

Pour citer Martin : «Cela fait sourire, mais le principe de Twitter, envoyer de courts messages accessibles à tous, semble bien être un besoin qui précède Internet : voir l’annonce du «Notificator» un service d’affichage de notes en public à Londres en 1935.»

Ok, alors le principe existait déjà…Fallait s’en douter mais je suis quand même étrangement «flabergastée». Ce n’est peut-être pas le bon mot car il veut dire «surprise» alors que je ne le suis pas tout, mais je pense que je suis contente d’apprendre l’existence du notificator car je pense que pour moi, cela a quelque chose de rassurant et de tout à fait évolutif. Quand on le compare à aujourd’hui avec nos multiples moyens de communication, la seule différence est que le notificator est restreint à une zone géographique donnée alors que Twitter, le téléphone, Internet en général sont world wild web quand les adresses IP ne sont pas géo-bloqués.

D’ailleurs, cette image me fait à penser à l’arrêt d’autobus EYESTOP du futur inventé par le MIT dont j’ai parlé ici (coudonc, je suis en feu)

+++

Amazon and the Kindle have the clear lead in the eReader wars. However, numerous competitors to Amazon’s Kindle are cropping up and it’s worth taking a moment to review the state of the art in ePaper.

The ePaper Leader: PVI eInk

PVI bought eInk and consolidated the Kindle’s screen technology into one company. Its the leader in ePaper technology. 

ePaper Technology: Electrophoretic.  
eInk Roadmap: Flexible Screens and Color Screens are on the roadmap with ETAs ranging from 2010-2012.
Color and Video Support: Color might be here as soon as next year. Video unlikely in the next 3-4 years.
Advantages: Actually available. Used by most eReader companies.
ePaper Video: Just take a look at the ‘Kindle Review Videos’ section at the top to see videos of the Kindle 2’s screen in action. Or see the video below for Kindle vs Pixel Qi.

The LCD ePaper Dark Horse: Pixel Qi

Pixel Qi is modifying LCD technology and transforming ePaper.

ePaper Video: Here’s a comparison video of the Kindle screen Vs Pixel Qi screen –
ePaper Technology: Modified LCD.
In Development Since: Just a year, built on OLPC technology.
Roadmap: Mass Production end 2009, In devices early 2010.
Color and Video Support: Yes.
Advantages: Built on LCD technology so cheaper and more features.
In Kindle 3? Perhaps. If Pixel Qi’s technology works, Amazon will have to incorporate it into the Kindle sooner or later.
In Apple iReader/MediaPad? Perhaps.

The Out of Left Field ePaper: BridgeStone QR-LPD
 
Bridgestone surprised everyone with its gorgeous looking epaper earlier in 2009. It already supports color, touch, and is super-thin.

ePaper Video: Bridgestone showed its very impressive ePaper earlier this year –
ePaper Technology: QR-LPD (Quick Response Liquid Particle Display) consists of particles suspended in air (eInk has them suspended in liquid).
Roadmap: Being used in supermarkets and retail stores in Japan and abroad. Unknown ETA for eReaders.
Color and Video Support: Color Supported. No ETA on Video.
Advantages: Color and Touchscreen work. Only color epaper other than Fujitsu’s that’s already available (not in eReaders though).
In Kindle 3? Unlikely. Perhaps Kindle 4 or later might use this if Amazon doesn’t go with Pixel Qi or Fujitsu.

The In-Color ePaper: Fujitsu with its FLEPia Color EReader

While eInk and every other ePaper technology (except Bridgestone) have been talking about color in 2011 or 2012, Fujitsu released their super-expensive color eReader in Japan earlier this year.

ePaper Video: A very comprehensive video showing off the FLEPia’s touch and color abilities –
ePaper Technology: Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Display, developed at Fujitsu Frontech Labs.
Roadmap: There isn’t that much more they can add. No ETA for Video.
Color and Video Support: Color yes. Video ETA unknown.
Advantages: The only color eReader, the only color ePaper currently being sold in an eReader. Touchscreen.
In Kindle 3? Highly unlikely. Fujitsu will probably bring the technology to the rest of the world and be a Kindle competitor.

The Butterfly Wings ePaper: Qualcomm Mirasol Display Technology

Qualcomm has taken inspiration from the design of butterfly wings to create a new display technology that’s really impressive. The Mirasol website has more details.

ePaper Video: Here’s my edited mini-video – done

The Business ePaper: Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic has created a huge buzz with its flexible, unbreakable, business focused Plastic Logic eReader. Its big contributions to ePaper technology will be flexibility and larger size.

ePaper Video: Check out the videos at the Plastic Logic website.
ePaper Technology: Organic Thin Film Transistors. Using this instead of silicon to get flexibility and lower prices.
Roadmap: Jan 2010 release estimated.
Color and Video Support: No known ETA.
Advantages: Very clear screen. Flexible and screen can’t break. Touchscreen. Will be available soon.

The ‘Flexible Display’ ePaper: ASU, US Army and HP

ASU’s Flexible Display Center has used $100 million in investments over the last 5 years to come up with some amazing flexible, flat, displays that could become really important as ePaper in the coming years. They build the backplanes for the ePaper and use various technologies as the actual ‘ink’ to create their displays.

ePaper Video: Here’s a video that explains the technology –
ePaper Technology: Organic Light Emitting Diodes, eInk (electrophoretic), Kent Displays (cholesteric LCD)
In Development Since: 2004.
Roadmap: Please see the video. They don’t give ETAs. 
Color and Video Support: Yes.
Advantages: US Army is supporting the program. Using a variety of ‘ink’ technologies.

The Video ePaper: LiquaVista (Philips Spin-Off)

Liquavista uses an ePaper technology (electrowetting) that allows for Video. They are also working with Plastic Logic on a 3 year, $20 million program to build full color, full video, low power ePaper.

ePaper Video: Check out the video at the liquavista downloads page.
ePaper Technology: Electrowetting.
In Development Since: 2003.
RoadMap: They don’t have ETAs (apart from the PL tie-up dates above).
Color and Video Support: Yes. Top Pros: Compatible with LCD manufacturing and supply chain. Flexible, Color, Video. Operates in transmissive, reflective and transflective modes.

Full-Spectrum Color ePaper – Opalux’s P-Ink

Opalux steals the structure of opals (and again butterfly wings) to create an epaper that diffracts and reflects different bands of color depending on the amount of change in the structure of the ePaper.

ePaper Technology: Photonic Crystals.
ePaper Video: An Opalux P-Ink video (guess what country Opalux are based in) –
Roadmap: Unknown.
Color and Video Support: No Video. Changing across the full spectrum takes 0.9 seconds so full-color eReaders are the ideal use.
Advantages: Full Spectrum Color, very flexible and can be bent and rolled, continue to work even if a part of the screen gets damaged (supposedly).   

The NextGen ePaper – Gamma Dynamics and EFD

Prof. Jason Heikenfeld of the Univeristy of Cincinnati’s Novel Devices Lab, in partnership with Polymer Vision, Sun Chemical and University of Cincinnati, has spun out a company called Gamma Dynamics that might well be inventing the future of ePaper -

1. EFDs (electrofluidic displays) have white reflectance of >85%. 
2. It supports video. 
3. Its flexible and rollable.  
4. These pictures from Gamma Dynamics illustrate the difference (do scroll down on the page).  

ePaper Video: No interesting videos of the screen itself.
ePaper Technology: Electrofluidic Technology.
Roadmap: Unknown.
Color and Video Support: Yes.
Advantages: Highest Light Reflectance, Video and Color support, Flexible.

More ePaper Contenders

1. Nemoptic – An interesting company that is already selling Point of Display and Point of Sale ePaper products. They have a good looking color ePaper prototype worth a look –
2. Sipix – Uses electrophoretic technology like PVI/eInk.  
3. Samsung’s ePaper- It can switch between electronic paper mode and video mode. Its based on Cholesteric LCD technology.
4. Kent Displays – It produces cholesteric LCD displays including these LCD writing tablets.
5. Here’s an OLED display from Sony.

I’ve added a recent post that covers the State of the eReader – do take a look.

And if you’re looking for a more in-depth dive into the technologies check out ePaper Central’s Guide to ePaper.

Color ePaper looks gorgeous and hopefully it arrives in Kindle 4 (rather unlikely to be ready by Kindle 3).

Another tangent. Design. At the moment I’m writing an essay-cum-paper endeavouring to evaluate the place for epaper/rewriteable paper in our brave new world of 2012 (chosen I wonder because of its meter?), hopefully having staunched effectively the worst effects of climate change and dealt tolerably well with our need for non-fossil fuelled energy (easy, innit???). This is not the subject of this post…I’ll come to the point.

We need bookcasing. Serious bookcasing. As I’ve said before, I love wood. So wood it is (recycled or from sustainably managed forests), but with the number of books it needs to be open plan but strong and functional. Returning to the above, of course books could soon be destined to be the LPs of the literary world, so, it is hoped that our need here need not be expandable. Rather a shrine to the products of the printing press. Turning pages though still has a calming quality that will be, I feel, impossible to replace with an electronic gizmo. It may look almost like paper, but where’s the tactility? Although I, for one, won’t miss the olfactory experience of newsprint or old sticky library books .

There was almost a shrine-like feeling around Wren and Ray’s Remembrance Path at the Shift Time festival: sad to see so many worn out books (and some with a future through Oxfam shops and similar) and to reflect on things passed. And a future in charged microcapsules.

So, to design. I’m on the trail of my own, simplified take on the elusive and beautiful Massimo Castagna’s Flying Circles.. Why is nothing ever straightforward?

When thinking about ways to reduce the usage of traditional paper beyond simply changing usage patterns, some of the technologies that can contribute to that goal include electronic paper, erasable paper, erasable ink, and alternative resource (besides tree) paper.  There have been exciting developments in each of these technologies, but want to focus on two technologies: electronic paper and erasable paper.

Electronic Paper

Electronic paper (e-paper) is a display technology that is designed to have an appearance of ordinary ink on paper.  Electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later.   The most noteworthy technology using electronic paper is Amazon’s Kindle.    While Amazon hasn’t released any specific sales data, it is estimated that there are 400,000 Kindles out there from one source, while another source has much more rosy projections.  Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart, predicts The Kindle will earn Amazon upwards of $300 million in revenue this year and $70 million in profit, growing to $1.6 billion in revenue and at least $400 million in profit by 2012. Aggarwal argues that sales of the Kindle grow almost 80 percent a year from ‘09 to ‘12.

Regardless, of the contrary views—the Kindle has made a consumer splash and received lots of publicity.   Relatedly, the suppliers of the technology used in Kindles and electronic paper are clearly being recognized and valued.  On June 1, 2009, Prime View International, a leading small and medium display provider and the world’s highest volume supplier of ePaper display modules, announced that it will acquire E Ink Corporation, a leader in electronic paper display materials for approximately $215 million.

However, I still enjoy the reading experience of books and don’t believe the electronic paper experience will be suitable for majority of people.   Thus, improvements in the tradtional paper and ink technologies also need to be present.

Erasable Paper

Xerox has touted their innovative product, erasable paper since 2006.  However, it has yet to hit the market, but according to Stephen Hooever, Head of innovation at Xerox, internal discussions continue to happen at Xerox and market research and consumer focus group studies to support a launch are ongoing.  According to that same Businessweek, article, erasable paper  looks and feels like regular paper but darkens when exposed to light, similar to eyeglass lenses that adjust with sunlight and shadows. Text and images temporarily appear on the paper, via a projected light source in the shapes of letters and forms. Then they fade over time (Xerox has said between 16-24 hours), and the paper can be re-used again.

This type of technology could be revolutionary in office environments around the world.   Pricing and manufacturing scale will clearly be an issue, but lets hope this product gets to market soon.

Ultimately, the erasable paper is the more exciting technology to me.  E-paper readers to me will always be a niche product to me, so ways to extend the life of traditional paper will be the more impactful of the two.

Há algumas semanas eu e @lcampanati (que mora nos EUA) temos conversado sobre a possibilidade de compra de um leitor de livros eletrônicos… mais especificamente o Kindle, da Amazon. Há algum tempo venho usando como leitor de e-books — tanto no notebook quanto no iPhone — o aplicativo Stanza, mas a tela brilhante dos aparelhos não torna a leitura uma experiência agradável.

Foi durante esse processo de troca de experiências e idéias que acabei assistindo o programa Espaço Aberto, exibido no dia 29 de junho pela Globo News, que além de falar sobre leitores de livros eletrônicos (Kindle 2, Kindle DX, Reader, etc) e explicar como funciona o papel eletrônico (e-paper), mostrou a opinião de usuários dos aparelhos (um número muito pequeno, mesmo nos EUA).

Pros que ainda não sabem muito bem o que são livros eletrônicos (e-books) ou os que acham que e-book é sinônimo de arquivo .PDF, segue um link bem bacana (dica do Alessandro Martins, do blog Livros e Afins) sobre o ePub, padrão internacional para e-books.

Pros quem também estão pensando em comprar um desses aparelhos ou apenas se interessam pelo assunto, coloquei o vídeo do programa (dividido em parte 1, parte 2 e parte 3) no canal Dois Espressos, no YouTube. Logo abaixo, a primeira parte.