Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Watch video on paper!

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Posted by Ron Keillor (Member # 1790) on 09-29-2003, 12:49 AM:

from nature.com
Electronic paper reaches video speed
Colour movies might soon be playing on single sheets.
25 September 2003
PHILIP BALL

One display device could hold an entire library.
© Philips Electronics

Paper capable of playing videos has been invented at the Philips Research laboratory in Eindhoven, the Netherlands1.

A single sheet looks pretty much like ordinary paper. But the ink can be rearranged electronically fast enough to show video movies.

Its devisers, Robert Hayes and Johan Feenstra, have also figured out how to create full-colour displays. Their colour screens would be four times brighter than the flat devices currently made from liquid crystals, they reckon.

The invention is the latest version of 'electronic ink'. Researchers hope to combine the convenience, robustness and readability of printed material with the vast and flexible information content of laptop computers.

In principle, a plastic sheet covered with electronic ink could display an entire library, page by page. The information would be stored in a portable chip, and the display would be powered by a slimline, lightweight battery. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would weigh no more than a feather.

Switch in time

High-resolution monochrome electronic paper is already on the verge of commercialization, produced by Massachusetts-based company, E-Ink, in collaboration with Philips. Here the 'ink' consists of countless tiny, transparent capsules of black and white powdered pigments, which are drawn by electric fields to the front face.

This system is fine for viewing successive pages of a book, but its switching time is too slow for moving pictures. Hayes and Feenstra switch the colour of their e-ink in a completely different way.

Each pixel of the new display contains a drop of coloured, oily ink that spreads over a reflective white background. The white backing is coated first with a transparent material that conducts electricity - permitting electrical control of the pixel colour - and then with a transparent film of a water-repellent plastic.

Left to its own devices, the ink droplet spreads across the entire pixel. If a voltage is applied, it retracts like a bead of water in a Teflon pan, exposing the white area below. If the pixel is small enough, these white and inky regions are not visible, just an average brightness. When the droplet is fully spread, the pixel looks dark. When it retracts, the pixel looks much lighter.

Full-colour displays can be made with three sub-pixels of yellow, cyan and magenta.
© Hayes & Feenstra

The larger the applied voltage, the more the ink retracts. The ink is therefore capable of a continuous grey scale, not just of a two-tone contrast. So monochrome images can look very smooth.

The key to the system's success is its switching voltage. It is low enough that controlling the electronic ink requires only a small power source. Switching between dark and bright states takes only about ten milliseconds - fast enough to produce sharp video images.

In principle full-colour images might be produced this way, Hayes and Feenstra show. Pixels can be composed of three sub-pixels inked with the standard yellow-cyan-magenta tricolour system.

References
Hayes, R. A. & Feenstra, B. J. Video-speed electronic paper based on electrowetting. Nature, 425, 383 - 385, doi:10.1038/nature01988 (2003). |Article|

© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-29-2003, 04:23 AM:

What happens if it gets bent or folded? Or perhaps a small tear? Ripped in half? Will they make it in poster size for hometheater? Can you surf the internet with it? Do they have a touchscreen (touchpaper?) version available? Can it play my MP3's? Can I record on it?

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-29-2003, 12:01 PM:

I remember reading about this a year ago or so. Except i thought Xerox was the company behing it. They were talking about the possability of wallpapering rooms with it, allowing the rooms occupant to change the wallpaper with the click of a mouse.

I'm not quiet sure how it will be "brighter" than LCDs. If its literally ink on paper, then it would require a light source to light it from the front. Brigtness would depend on light reflecting off it's surface.

If I got one in 40 x 20, I could put it in theatre 8, and just leave thhe lamp on without film running through - that should be plenty bright! [Cool]

j/k

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 09-29-2003, 02:17 PM:

We are now just about 357 steps away from non projection movie screens. Just think about it, no projection booths at all! What the hell will we be doing as projectionists? We will be reassigned to "screen cleaning and reinking" detail.

Dave

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 09-29-2003, 03:57 PM:

That is not funny Dave...

[Razz]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 09-29-2003, 05:12 PM:

Dave, it just goes to show ya that we all will be relegated to "paper-pushers". [evil]

>>> Phil

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 09-30-2003, 02:16 AM:

I've seen lots of movies from the Library of Congress paper print collection:

http://members.tripod.com/~cinefan/ppart1.htm

Posted by Steven Privett (Member # 718) on 10-02-2003, 02:11 PM:

My morning paper already comes like this. One page, little button to "turn the page".

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 10-03-2003, 08:43 AM:

.....matinees at the drive-in? [Big Grin]

I think it'll be WAY too expensive to make a screen out of it, but such a thing would be quite a tool for outdoor ads and sports replay boards etc...