CREDIT: Polymer Vision
CNET News is reporting from a Berlin tech trade show that Philips is showing off Concept Readius, a “concept device” that uses a rollable, flexible polymer screen. (The photo above shows the concept far better than I can describe it in words.) From CNET:
The Concept Readius from Philips Polymer Vision is a prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can be folded and squeezed into a pocket. Philips calls the Readius the world’s first prototype of a functional e-reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. All rolled up, the Readius measures in at about 4 inches by 2.5 inches by an eighth of an inch–the display stretches out to provide a 5-inch monochrome screen with a resolution of 320 pixels by 240 pixels.
There are no plans to produce and sell the Readius, according to CNET’s report: it’s a “concept device” to show off the “fitness of its rollable displays for use in tomorrow’s mobile devices.”
This seems to me a fairly big (but not immediate) step toward the inevitable arrival of inexpensive, low-power, easy-to-carry and easy-to-read “computer screens” that, when combined with cellphone or wireless technologies, will spell the end for ink-on-paper delivery of much of the information we now get that way.
A design note: it’s interesting how the Readius, in its collapsed form, looks like an iPod.
AN ASIDE: Regular readers will note posting has been erratic. Preparing for, and surviving, the first day of classes, was a killer. I’m slowly working my way back to some sort of school semester browsing and posting rhythm.
TAGS: ePAPER, PHILIPS, FLEXIBLE DISPLAY
