Bridgestone Shows Off Ultra-Thin, Full-Color e-Paper

Bridgestone, the company which debuted the "world's thinnest" sheet of two-color e-paper last year, has turned around and delivered a new version which is capable of displaying over four thousand colors. "In case that wasn't enough, the company is also touting what it calls the "world's largest full color e-paper that is A3 size, which is equivalent to a 21.4-inch screen." As you'd expect, the latter is expected to be used solely for advertising and could hit the market as early as next year, while the former technology is set to be commercially available in 2009."

Two Words: Refresh Rates

[Serhei]

As in, the fact that they aren't revealing them means that they aren't anything to write home about. Refresh rates are going to keep this technology confined to ebook readers and advertising posters. I want stuff like this [blogspot.com].

Slightly better picture

[pavon]

Wow, the e-paper he is holding in that picture has a full 4,096 shades of brown. Perfect for Doom!

Seriously, Here is an article with a better picture [i4u.com]. Still not much contrast, but getting better.

Re:Now about distortion...

[moogied]

http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/01/bridgestones-super-thin-qr-lpd-e-paper/ [engadget.com] Seems pretty damned flexible to me?

Plugging the analog hole

[tepples]

You can't DRM digital paper because you can just photocopy it, right?

To make high-quality analog reconversion more difficult, the manufacturer can have the e-paper display turn off while exposed to light that's as bright as a flatbed scanner's lamp.

Re:Full-Color?

[tepples]

4k colors -- 12-bit color -- is "Full-color"? Really?

Print is 4-bit (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black either on or off). The difference is halftoning. How much full color can you get out of a 12-bit display using appropriate dithering?

Re:Colors

[AnotherSteve]

I dunno. I haven't read the article or even just looked at the pictures. But I'm thinking that the answer to your question is "Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black."

Re:Colors

[Feanturi]

It's not 1024*4. Although that is mathematically correct, it's not the correct way to interpret colour depth on a computer. 4096 in this instance is 16*16*16. There are 4096 colours available to the display because it is using a range of 16 values (4 bits) for each of the three channels, Red, Green, and Blue. 0 means none of that particular colour and 15 means the most intense shade of that colour. The three base RGB colours get combined with their various values of 0 to 15 to give new colours like shades of purple, or yellows, etc. When all three have the same value you get some shade of grey (black with all at 0, white with all at 15). Together all 3 colour channels use 12 binary bits (3 base colours * 4 bits for each) which gives you, in decimal numbers, 4096 different possible colours that can be expressed this way.