|
|
 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
| |
JUNE 8, 2004
Computing's New Screen Gems Display technologies are moving rapidly to thinner, more flexible, and efficient systems. Even CRTs are getting rethought At first glance, the display of Sony's (SNE ) e-book reader, called Librie, looks oh-so ordinary. But the simplicity of its glass-encased screen is deceiving. Not only is the display lighter and thinner than your typical flat-panel screen but it doesn't require power to maintain an image -- only to turn the pages. A batch of four AAA batteries can keep it going for 10,000 page turns, or nearly seven volumes of War and Peace. That's at least 100 times more efficient than your typical display. What's more, "it has more of a newspaper-like look," says Darren Bischoff, senior marketing manager at startup E Ink in Cambridge, Mass., whose display material was used. "It has high resolution and is easy to read in sunlight or dim light." Indeed, Librie may herald a new era in computing. The display technology it uses could, in a few years, lead to screens that use very little power, offer superb image quality, and are able to bend, fold, even roll up. This rare combination of capabilities could spawn scores of new applications such as displays that can be folded like newspapers, embedded into fancy furniture, or rolled into tubes so military commanders can take a ream of digital maps into the field. PENTAGON BOOST. Such advanced displays could hit the market within three years and are so promising that some experts say they could replace today's reigning display technology known as liquid crystal display, or LCD, in applications as early as 2007. The likelihood of such an impending clash is setting off a battle between LCD makers Samsung, Sharp (SHCAY ) and joint-venture partners Toshiba and Matsushita (MC ), vs. new display makers Motorola (MOT ) and its partners. These companies hope to grab a chunk of the flat-panel display market, which is pegged to grow 39%, to $60 billion this year, and continue growing at double-digit rates for years to come, according to consultancy DisplaySearch in Austin. Long in the works, new display technologies are now gaining increased government and commercial interest -- as well as funding. Seeking ways to reduce space occupied by displays in its mobile command centers and vehicles, the Pentagon invested $43.7 million over the past five years in the Army Flexible Display Center (FDC) in Tempe, Ariz. Opened in April, the center should accelerate development of flexible displays by coming up with cheaper and more efficient processes for manufacturing display materials such as that from E Ink. The center hopes to release its first prototype, based on E Ink's technology, next year, says Director Greg Raupp. Since flexible displays easily go into a wide range of shapes and sizes, they're the holy grail of display technology. How do they work? At E Ink, the display's surface is covered in tiny microcapsules containing tiny white and black particles suspended in clear fluid. When negatively charged, white particles move to the top of the capsule and become visible to the user -- that's how text is formed. COLOR NEXT? When a thin film of the microcapsules is applied to plastic film, the resulting display is flexible. The trick here, though, is in creating plastic film that's durable enough to protect the images and keep them from degrading. Already, electronics heavyweight Koninklijke Philips Electronics (PHG ) has created thin but durable plastic foil that can protect E Ink's material from being spoiled by water and air. Philips also has designed special electronic components that bend. And it hopes to start a pilot line for flexible displays in the next year. Initially, these will be aimed at niche applications such as electronic readers, says Edzer Huipema, senior scientist at Philips Research in the Netherlands. The display's price is still being worked out, but Philips says it already has interested customers, which it can't yet name. The displays by E Ink and Philips will be monochrome, though their goal is to create flexible color displays. E Ink is experimenting with shining light onto the microcapsules through a filter, which would color that light in an appropriate shade. The company expects to have a rigid color display available in 2006, with a flexible version soon thereafter, says E Ink's Bischoff. "You'll be able to read it in bright sunlight. And it will be in color, which is something that today's displays don't allow for," he says.
BW MALL
SPONSORED LINKS
Buy a link now! | | |
 Copyright 2004, Bloomberg L.P.Terms of Use | Privacy Notice |
Printer-Friendly Version