Fuji Xerox shows e-paper colors without filter

(Phys.org) -- Fuji Xerox has come up with an electrophoretic type electronic paper (e-paper) prototype that can realize a color display without using a color filter. The company showcased the e-paper model at SID Display Week 2012, which ran this week in Boston. The Fuji Xerox model has a screen size of 5 inches, pixel count of 600 x 800, resolution of 200dpi, gradation of four, reflectance of 30 percent and contrast ratio of 10:1. Without the filter, the paper can render a color display that is brighter and more vivid, said the company. Its color e-paper concept involves moving colored particles for each color.

The threshold value (electric field) of electrophoresis becomes different for each color. The e-paper has two substrates, and the color of a particle drawn to the front board can be seen, according to technical notes posted on Tech-On! The prototype displayed colors by moving red and cyan colored particles up and down.

The prototype shown in Boston uses just two elementary colors to realize its color display but Fuji Xerox is working on a full-color e-paper using three elementary colors. The company developed a cell (pixel) using cyan, magenta and yellow-colored particles. Fuji Xerox will search for a way to put all three primary colors into their screen. Other companies looking at next steps in color e-paper include E-Ink, founded in 1997 as a spinoff from the MIT Media Lab. E-Ink has “Triton Imaging Film,” for color e-paper solutions.

Roughly one year ago, at SID 2011, technology watchers at that time noted how tonally limited e-paper still was. The number of shades was limited and colors looked washed-out.

Ricoh last year used the SID 2011 event to publicize its new color e-paper technology that could offer four times the color range of existing systems, along with cleaner text and images. Ricoh’s solution used a lamination electrochromic method of production forming separate cyan, magenta and yellow organic layers between two substrates.

The upshot is that color e-paper has continued to be a mainstay of “next generation” displays at shows. The latest prototype from Fuji Xerox joins the ranks of those companies offering consumers more reasons to hope for color e-paper progress.

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Sonhouse

1 / 5 (3) Jun 09, 2012

One nice thing about real books: If the power goes out, you can still read it. E books will never be able to overcome that one.

pjkarn6

5 / 5 (3) Jun 09, 2012

So when my reader finally runs down because the power is out for three weeks, I'll pick up some of the books that remain after the bookstores have been looted.

antialias_physorg

4.2 / 5 (5) Jun 09, 2012

Once these e-books are energy efficient enogh to run off of a small patch of solar cells then even that 'advantage' of regular books will be gone. Because if it's THAT dark that the cells don't give any juice even regular books are of no use.

There are some haptic qualities that an e-book cannot reproduce...yet.
But there's no real reason -besides cost- why you couldn't have a book that has 300 pages of electrophoretic paper and where it just configures itself to the book you want to read.

We should really be objective about this and use the medium that works best and is most convenient.

fmfbrestel

3.6 / 5 (5) Jun 09, 2012

What a waste of research dollars. Any money spent for anything other than cold fusion is proof the conspiracy against cold fusion. Therefor I now hate Fuji.

/sarcasm

not rated yet Jun 09, 2012

I agree with you, regular books takes trees to make them, they don't last, have to be made of acid free paper to last at all but I still am stuck on paper books.

The thing I don't like about e books is the companies providing the product are taking advantage and pumping up the price as high as or higher than regular paperbacks when all it is is data that sits on a server somewhere and fed over some kind of connection.

I read science fiction and there is not a huge selection in ebooks yet. The e book industry can save trees for sure but they are taking advantage of the public, way overcharging for their product.

Sorry, just thought that this shouldn't be the only thread on the site without any snake oil. :-

But anyway...

These type of advances are what will eventually bring us low power flexible screens. Think 30 years from now and think newspapers from Minority Report.

1 / 5 (1) Jun 09, 2012

I agree with you, regular books takes trees to make them, they don't last, have to be made of acid free paper to last at all

oh come one, i think you are not giving books enough credit here. How many 30 year old pieces of electronic gadgetry do you own? How many 30 year old books do you own?

Eikka

1 / 5 (2) Jun 09, 2012

The other advantage is that regular books last longer than the e-reader ever will. Flash memory has a data retention time of about a decade, and the physical device itself will probably break as well.

Then again:

How many 30 year old pieces of electronic gadgetry do you own?

One. An oscilloscope.

How many 30 year old books do you own?

None.

Vendicar_Decarian

You mean Harry Potter

"Think 30 years from now and think newspapers from Minority Report." - fmf

kris2lee

5 / 5 (2) Jun 09, 2012

I own several books that are older than me. Physically, not just written before my birth. One of them is about 80 years old - in mint condition.

We live in the information age but information is so fragile these days. Imagine how much cultural value would be lost when Twitter goes bust. 100 year old news papers still can be read.

utomo_prawiro

There is huge market for e paper display for office use.
By using e paper display, user will not feel eye fatigue. and can work better.
current display are too bright for office use/long time use.
and color paper are on the market. so I hope soon we will find e paper display available on market

nkalanaga

"How many 30 year old books do you own?" At least a hundred, mostly paperbacks. Some of them are getting a little fragile, but they're still readable, and I have them dating back to the late 60s. I've never tried an e-book, so can't comment on them, but one advantage of the paper is that the software will never be obsolete, and the content can't be "recalled" or restricted by the publisher.

MandoZink

not rated yet Jun 10, 2012

I would guess the older you are, the more likely your are to keep books. I still have my E.E.Doc Smith sci-fi paperbacks from the 60's and 70's.

but one advantage of the paper is that the software will never be obsolete

But the language on them is. And once they are indecipherable that knowledge, too, is gone.

The fear that information will be lost may have been a real one when we weren't sure whether the age of digital would persist - but it's hard to imagine that we'll ever abandon it totally in the future.

As for books 30 years old. I used to have a few of those. Threw almost all of them (and the younger ones) out last time I moved. They were just taking up space. And living space is more important than just having stuff standing around.

And I'm pretty sure we will have persistent electronic memory in the future. The 'memory race' (for ever smaller, faster memory technology) will settle down eventually.

It will be a long time before 20th century English is a lost language. Dead, maybe, just as Latin is today, but it won't be "lost". It will be continually retranslated into newer languages, in whatever media is currently popular, and scholars will be able to read it as long as civilization continues. Only if the ability to read is lost long enough for languages to change beyond recognition will today's printed material be indecipherable.

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