Building on its leading position in rollable displays and drawing on its considerable heritage in personal electronics, Philips Polymer Vision is revealing its Concept Readius at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, September 2-7. Philips Concept Readius is a prototype of a connected consumer device for business professionals unwilling to sacrifice readability, mobility, performance, or weight in a pocket-sized, e-reader concept.
Polymer Vision does not intend to commercialize this concept as a product in the market. Instead, it is demonstrating the fitness of its rollable displays for use in the mobile devices of tomorrow.
The Readius is the world’s first prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. With four gray levels, the monochrome, 5-inch QVGA (320 pixels x 240 pixels) display provides paper-like viewing comfort with a high contrast ratio for reading-intensive applications, including text, graphics, and electronic maps. Using a bi-stable electrophoretic display effect from E Ink Corp., the display consumes little power and is easy to read, even in bright daylight. Once the user has finished reading, the display can be rolled back into the pocket-size (100 mm x 60 mm x 20 mm) device.
Based on Philips Polymer Vision’s PV-QML5 rollable display reference design, the Readius was created in order to demonstrate the viability of the rollable-display concept in mobile applications and to gain customer feedback at the IFA 2005.
“Making displays thinner and flexible will have advantages in power and weight. But the only way to add the key advantage of size—allowing larger displays in smaller, pocket-size mobile devices—is by actually making the displays rollable,” says Polymer Vision CEO Karl McGoldrick in the press release. “The Readius demonstrates this, as well as showing that we have taken this technology a major step further towards product and market.
More info here.
way cool!
Like that mars movie with Val Kilmer, where he takes out the map and pull out more area. Very cool indeed.
not all that impressed. i’m waiting for that virtual screen that Tom Cruise used in the movie Minority Report. but i guess this is a step in the right direction.
Man, I’ve been thinking about that for laptops for years. I should have patented my idea.
that is cool!!
Now we can have a iPod video!
I want one as soon as it goes to market. What a great way to read on the go.
Looks highly breakable.
Now we can have a iPod video!
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Very smart
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Years ago I imagined a calapsable kiosk with this type of technology… friends called me nuts… hah, hey wait a minute, one of my friends works for Philips! Damn!!!
I can’t remember how many years ago, probably 6 or 7.
http://www.grapegraphics.com/media/kiosk.mov
Jb
your next subscription newspaper/magazine,
I’m waiting for ‘Movie in a Can’, you just spray it on your eyeballs.
Send money to the Red Cross. Just do it.
Awesome!!!!
I can imagine displays like these being used on store shelves to display different prices depending on what products are placed on them. \
Exactly what I thought, Ray.
Magic Word: cases, as in iPod cases would be harder to build for this.