A new challenger emerges: OLED overshadowed by EPD.
I've been excited by OLED technology before. OLED screens are pretty impressive. Fast refresh rate, high image quality, wide viewing angle, and low power usage. The technology has a lot of potential.
Lately it's occurred to me that the potential of this technology is really overshadowed by the potential of electronic ink, or electronic paper displays (EPD). It's still primitive stuff -- common screens are capable of around 8 shades of grey, with a refresh rate of close to 1 second. All the same, I find it hard not to be impressed by a technology that can display a static image without consuming any power. The Amazon Kindle can be left on for a week before needing its battery recharged.
Yesterday I had a small discussion/argument with Tycho. He said that paper and stationery were things that would always be needed in schools. While these things have endured, I feel that with the Kindle we're seeing the beginning of the end for books and old fashioned paper-and-pencil. Not that books will be obliterated from the earth, but I can see them getting pushed to the sidelines simply because electronic libraries are so much more expansive. A physical library can never compete with something like Questia, and getting e-books from Amazon for the Kindle sounds incredibly fast and easy. Nevermind the ability to carry these libraries with you wherever you go. EPDs are already beginning to replace paper in the Netherlands.
Tycho's main argument against it was that he felt that they would never take off, because the screens cause eye-strain. "No," I had to explain, "they use electronic ink screens, and that's basically the same as paper." "Well sure," he replied, "they don't emit radiation, but..."
Seriously, it's like paper. They don't emit any light, radiation or anything. The surface of the screen changes colour. That's all. When idle, the screen uses no power, and it's no different from looking at a page from a book. That can certainly cause eye strain, but there are already plenty of people who have been forced to wear glasses because they've spent too long with their nose in a book. EPD is even friendlier than paper, because you're able to do things like adjusting the text size so that it's comfortable to read.
Some people complain that it's worse for your eyes than LCD if you're trying to read in the dark. Reading in the dark is bad for your eyes either way, so it's not a very good point. A real problem with EPD is that it's not very good with zooming. With a refresh rate of around one second, it'd be practically impossible to move around the image once you'd zoomed in. The biggest case against EPD at the moment is the basic problems with image quality.
There are advanced models of EPD that support 12-bit colour. Anything less than 16-bit colour is still pretty pathetic, but they're getting there. It'd allow for much better than the digital photo frames currently available, which rely on power-hungry LCD technology. It also would have some awesome implications for billboards and such things.
I wonder how much they can improve the refresh rate, and if they can get it down to the 2ms advertised by LCD manufacturers. It'd be great to have a 32-bit EPD that's worthy of full-motion video and video games (and great for everything else).
Until then, I'll just have to hope I'll one day be able to get myself an e-book reader like the Kindle. It's only for the US at the moment. :(
Lately it's occurred to me that the potential of this technology is really overshadowed by the potential of electronic ink, or electronic paper displays (EPD). It's still primitive stuff -- common screens are capable of around 8 shades of grey, with a refresh rate of close to 1 second. All the same, I find it hard not to be impressed by a technology that can display a static image without consuming any power. The Amazon Kindle can be left on for a week before needing its battery recharged.
Yesterday I had a small discussion/argument with Tycho. He said that paper and stationery were things that would always be needed in schools. While these things have endured, I feel that with the Kindle we're seeing the beginning of the end for books and old fashioned paper-and-pencil. Not that books will be obliterated from the earth, but I can see them getting pushed to the sidelines simply because electronic libraries are so much more expansive. A physical library can never compete with something like Questia, and getting e-books from Amazon for the Kindle sounds incredibly fast and easy. Nevermind the ability to carry these libraries with you wherever you go. EPDs are already beginning to replace paper in the Netherlands.
Tycho's main argument against it was that he felt that they would never take off, because the screens cause eye-strain. "No," I had to explain, "they use electronic ink screens, and that's basically the same as paper." "Well sure," he replied, "they don't emit radiation, but..."
Seriously, it's like paper. They don't emit any light, radiation or anything. The surface of the screen changes colour. That's all. When idle, the screen uses no power, and it's no different from looking at a page from a book. That can certainly cause eye strain, but there are already plenty of people who have been forced to wear glasses because they've spent too long with their nose in a book. EPD is even friendlier than paper, because you're able to do things like adjusting the text size so that it's comfortable to read.
Some people complain that it's worse for your eyes than LCD if you're trying to read in the dark. Reading in the dark is bad for your eyes either way, so it's not a very good point. A real problem with EPD is that it's not very good with zooming. With a refresh rate of around one second, it'd be practically impossible to move around the image once you'd zoomed in. The biggest case against EPD at the moment is the basic problems with image quality.
There are advanced models of EPD that support 12-bit colour. Anything less than 16-bit colour is still pretty pathetic, but they're getting there. It'd allow for much better than the digital photo frames currently available, which rely on power-hungry LCD technology. It also would have some awesome implications for billboards and such things.
I wonder how much they can improve the refresh rate, and if they can get it down to the 2ms advertised by LCD manufacturers. It'd be great to have a 32-bit EPD that's worthy of full-motion video and video games (and great for everything else).
Until then, I'll just have to hope I'll one day be able to get myself an e-book reader like the Kindle. It's only for the US at the moment. :(