Slashdot Log In
Electronic Paper Plant to be Built in Germany
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Jan 04, 2007 01:17 AM
from the my-aibo-ate-my-homework dept.
from the my-aibo-ate-my-homework dept.
Aqua_boy17 writes "BBC News is reporting today that Cambridge based firm PlasticLogic is set to build the world's first manufacturing facility dedicated to producing plastic circuits. In particular the company is focused on developing flexible plastic circuits that cost much less than silicon and would soon enable electronic paper devices that could be used to store large amounts of text and other data. The company has secured $100 million in venture capital and is set to build its first facility in Dresden, Germany. Construction of the facility should be completed by 2008 according to the article. Industry experts expect market demand for this technology to approach $30 billion by the year 2015."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
So... (Score:2, Funny)
Electronic paper... (Score:2)
Wife (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No whoosh moment here.
Let me be the first to make this joke (Score:4, Funny)
Although I never read the information in that format since I can rely on copies that are kept elsewhere.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
A base 4 digit contains two bits of information, not four. 00, 01, 10, 11.
and there are roughly 280 million tadpoles in each puddle of love so actually your total data output is about 3,360,000,000,000,000,000 bits
That's wrong too. You can't just multiply by the count; each one contains a unique set of 3 billion bits which is always a different subset of the same 6 billion bits, chopped up into cont
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Electronic paper is the future. (Score:5, Informative)
Enter their unique display which uses Electronic paper which is developed by the US based E-Link. This cell phone doesn't need power to constantly display an image on the screen. It only needs a little charge when the text (or whatever) needs to be changed. The display stays on even when the battery is pulled out! And more over it is a beautiful phone sleek and thin.
I believe more and more gadgets are going to be manufactured using this new technology. Sony has already released its e-book reader which has the same effects of reading a real book. So PlasticLogic the company is on to a good thing.
Finally! (Score:2)
Ecological Horror (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Ecological Horror (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
So that's what has been causing ReiserFS corruption; they were chopping down the dancing trees!
e-book vs dead-tree formats (Score:5, Interesting)
If this works and can link with eInk screens to create an easily held, clearly visible book format then I'd be happy to switch away from the dead-tree format.
And we'd save a few trees along the way
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is not with the screen, it's with the interface. A book on a computer should be 3D and handle just like a book in the real world. Except you dont have to apply force to keep the book open or the pages from flopping over.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sony eReader (Score:5, Informative)
Sony's software sucks, but there are plenty of ways to get around having to use it, and they REALLY need more books in their bookstore. BTW, it costs $350USD.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I, too, have one of the new Sony e-book readers (QReader) and I can say the screen is simply outstanding for book reading. The screen is as easy on the eyes as reading on regular paper. It is a vast improvement over the PDAs I've used in the past for e-book reading.
Due to the backlight, I've found that using a PDA for e-book reading becomes hard on the eyes after several minutes, plus the size of the screen is a disadvantage when reading e-books. Besides the screen quality of the QReader, another advantag
It's not about the technology (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is, was, and for the foreseeable future will be, as you say, "they REALLY need more books in their bookstore." (By the way, how are those books priced? There is also a problem with overpricing and greed. Circa 2000-2001 I had numerous conversations with interested onlookers about my Rocket eBook and there was always mounting interest until they said "What do the books cost?" I'd answer "Same as hardbounds for books that aren't in paper, otherwise same as a paperback." Their jaw would drop in disbelief and that would be the end of the conversation).
But it wasn't the price. It was lack of titles. An electronic bookstore with a thousand titles may give the impression of plentitude, but it's less than a good airport bookstore and it doesn't even compare to a plain old brick-and-mortar mall bookstore.
At one time, I went over the list of books chosen for Oprah's book club. At the time there were about forty titles. Something like thirty of them were available as audiobooks, yet only about six were available as eBooks in any format whatsoever. For no eBook format were more than three or four of them available.
There are numerous ways of reading eBooks that are good enough to provide a comfortable, enjoyable, "ludic" reading experience, but until you can buy the books you want at a reasonable price, it ain't gonna happen.
I own approximately $300 worth of content I purchased for my Rocket eBook which is locked down to the particular serial number of my physical device. Nuvomedia and Gemstar are long gone, the servers are shut down, there's no customer service available, the battery life on my device is now down to a couple of hours... and when the device fails I'll be the proud possessor of expensive content which is completely inaccessible to me.
I hope you have better luck with your Sony.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The battery is easily fixed. Buy a new REB from eBookwise to scavenge the batte
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If the reader could be made available relatively cheaply say $100USD (around $130 NZD atm) then titles could be sold at current market rates - eventually as the technology becomes more widespread then even title prices would drop
Impact on design and style (Score:4, Insightful)
If price drops enough, this may lead to inventions such as memory-cards with previews of the content showing right on the card, elecronic labels right in store shelves, changing walls in buildings, floors with directional arrows flying around, guiding you in unfamiliar places, electronic wallpaper for your appartment... add a few giftet artists to all this potential, and I'm sure the world would never look the same again (:
More and more, I think Clarke's third law holds true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws [wikipedia.org]
Impact is what matters (Score:2)
Yes, I can imagine how it's going to be: World's Worst Website [angelfire.com]. Walk trough Walmart low price products will be a unforgettable experience.
Re: (Score:2)
First company making these I found online; Electronic Shelf Labels [elabelsys.com]
Re: (Score:2)
OTOH, I'd hate to see this become yet another outlet for annoying adverts that could be seen everywhere you go. It already drives me completely nuts w
Interesting but... (Score:2)
I thought the world wanted to become less dependent on oil and not more dependent?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
But imagine if e-readers take over. Less newspapers and books. Less logging and distribution of paper products - daily newspapers and magazines. Shipments from Amazon.com. Less factories set to refine paper and recycle it (our biggest export to China is used paper so they can print their newspapers). Less printers to print crap. Less storage cabinets to store paperwork. Less oil and other materials used all around.
I also imagine companies like Ama
Re: (Score:2)
And who else is based in Dresden? (Score:5, Interesting)
Cambridge, Mass. and Cambridge, East Anglia. There must be something about those freezing cold winters that encourages people to stay indoors and invent things.
Re: (Score:2)
Ever been there? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cobol wasn't designed by a woman. It was designed by a committee. Of men.
M.
ObGodwin (Score:2, Interesting)
E-paper... in Germany? (Score:2)
Gotta love English! (Score:3, Funny)
So, is this an electronic plant that makes paper, or a plant that makes electric paper?
Q: How many Lojbanists [wikipedia.org] does it take to change a broken light bulb?
A: Two: one to decide what to change it into, and one to figure out what kind of bulb emits broken light.
Gotta love /. (Score:2)
"Electronic Paper Plant to be Grown in Germany"
There, happy now?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Yep, looks like a contradiction to me. You're 100% wrong
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
What the summary is missing is that the polymer electronics built in this factory will be laminated to electrophoretic imaging materials made by E Ink Corporation to form flexible electronic paper displays. Thus, the final output of the factory will indeed be electronic paper.
Re:Kinda dumb (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Try look for the Sony Reader. They are recently going with color screens that look amazing as portraits and the power consumption is really low.
Re:Kinda dumb (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing is, the cost of content will have to drop. If I no longer get a physical copy, I shouldn't have to pay for the printing process, and all the overhead that implies. Lower prices might well mean a higher readership because more people would buy more books if they were cheaper and they had the time to read more than they currently do. Well known authors wouldn't have to go to a publisher anymore. They'd write their book, pay an editor out of pocket, and Amazon will let you sell a book download for 3-5 bucks, and take 2 or 3 dollars for themselves. Amazon could host a million books in the size of a small data center, and each book would pay for itself in Amazon's eyes in the first 10 copies. A hundred thousand in sales would be a quarter of a million in profit for the author. Dozens of niche authors would come out of the woodwork because the cost of self publishing would drop through the floor, and we would see an American Idol type of situation in literature, because there are all kinds of talent out waiting to be found. Further, in episodic type literature, an author might even let you download the first 2 books of a series to entice you to read books 3-4 after the first couple have been out a few years, since your downloading the first two books would cost him nothing. Hopefully, this sort of situation would yield higher quality material as well, since the author's current and ongoing sales outlook would depend directly on the number of units sold instead of getting a large contract up front before the book is even written.
Obviously, I've been looking forward to electronic paper for a while now. Just a while longer until it's really affordable.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
With this mechanism, you would also have a lot of noise:signal ratio, which would be kind of sucky.
And while free-market may determine who comes out on top, do remember that most people are not particularly bright and would much rather read brain dead stuff than something that makes them think, analyse and question.
That is what worries me. Finding the wheat from the chaff would be hard.
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention contract breakers, history revisionists, etc.