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I really love e-ink, and flexible displays are a nice gimmick—but until they improve, they are still just that. I’m concerned that flexibility will encourage pe

I really love e-ink, and flexible displays are a nice gimmick—but until they improve, they are still just that. I’m concerned that flexibility will encourage people to bend the display beyond its limit, rather than serve its intended purpose of insurance against accidental bending. What I’m really looking forward to are outright foldable (yet uncreasable) display surfaces. Done reading the e-paper? Fold it up and stuff it in your bag, worry-free.

scdc 15y ago
Or I like the idea of a rolling up an e-reader into a cylinder to tuck in a bag.
- dhughes 15y ago
  On the TV version of TekWar they had roll up mobile communication devices. Whenever I read of eink or flexible displays I always think of TekWar.
  - camiller 15y ago
    Also on the series Earth Final Conflict called the "Global Link" or sometimes simply "Global" Posts two and three in this thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/221720-Your-Dream-Device-Post-Specs-here- http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/221720-Your-Dream...) show it partly and fully opened
    - dhughes 15y ago
      Also people bought Tek (a digital drug) by connecting two USB-like devices to transfer credits which I assume going by the context are like cash not credit or debit cards. That's very similar to what Bitcoin is attempting, I wonder if the mysterious creator of Bitcoin was a fan of TekWar?
- simcop2387 15y ago
  I like the idea of having the screen pull out link window blinds myself. Need a bigger screen for something? pull it further. Don't need a big one to read on the bus? pull it out a little. it would even give you a convineint place as a manufacturer to put the batteries, and mount the control hardware for it. It ought to be even fairly trivial to determine how much of the screen is pulled out and adjust the display accordingly.
- samstave 15y ago
  I like the idea of these being unfurled like a scroll, held in front of the reader: "hear ye! Hear ye!"
smackfu 15y ago
The stiffness needed to protect a glass screen from any flexing adds weight and structure that you can reduce with a flexible screen.
stcredzero 15y ago
What I’m really looking forward to are outright foldable In many ways, foldability is just the medieval substitute for a dynamic display. Instead of switching screens, you flip pages. Instead of zooming maps, you unfold the whole thing, then fold over everything except the part you're interested in.
- corin_ 15y ago
  In some scenarios sure, in others I'd disagree. Take your maps example as a generic zooming vs. folding example. When you use something like Google Maps, if you set your browser window to show you 2cm x 2cm, would that be big enough, I doubt it. And yet your screen doesn't have to be as big as an unfolded traditional map, thanks to panning and zooming. This shows that a.) dynamic displays can reduce the need for folding but that b.) there will always be a (subjective) question of what works best. As to a more realistic example - as a kindle reader, I wouldn't want a screen smaller than it already has, no matter how much zooming or scrolling it offers. And while the device can fit in a pocket, I generally don't like having it in one. If it was half the width and I could fold it in half, I would love that.
- kijin 15y ago
  I don't think foldability is just a medieval thing. People want screen real estate. They want to see their photos and videos in a large form factor. They also want to carry the screen in their pockets or backpacks. Foldable paper is a neat idea that achieves both. I would find it rather frustrating if I could only zoom into small parts of a map and never view the whole terrain in its 40-inches-across, 60-degrees-of-angular-diameter glory. Size matters. Scrolling and zooming are not appropriate substitutes for folding in electronic displays. A real substitute would be a pocket-size device that can project an image of arbitrary size in mid-air, so that people can see their maps IMAX at a distance of 3 feet if they want to. Edit: some rewording.
  - stcredzero 15y ago
    I don't think foldability is just a medieval thing. I guess some people downvoted me because they took "Medieval" to be pejorative. I was being entirely literal. Linen-based paper was widespread in medieval Europe after the plagues. (Much of it was made of the linen clothing of people who no longer needed it, on account of their being suddenly dead.) Such paper is much more amenable to folding in the manner of a map than earlier technologies. (Though most everything seems to roll up into scrolls well enough.) Scrolling and zooming are not appropriate substitutes for folding in electronic displays. That's entirely contextual, as you also point out. You won't know how well things can take folding and how well the form factor performs in real life until you have such materials. Until then, we know zooming works. If I had something as light as and the same size as a clipboard that was daylight readable and yet as dynamic as an iPad, this would enable a whole other world of mobile applications that aren't quite there yet. I'm hard pressed to imagine an application I'd need that could fold out, which couldn't also be met by presentation/projection systems, or perhaps an interactive worktable form factor.

scdc 15y ago

Or I like the idea of a rolling up an e-reader into a cylinder to tuck in a bag.

dhughes 15y ago
On the TV version of TekWar they had roll up mobile communication devices. Whenever I read of eink or flexible displays I always think of TekWar.
- camiller 15y ago
  Also on the series Earth Final Conflict called the "Global Link" or sometimes simply "Global" Posts two and three in this thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/221720-Your-Dream-Device-Post-Specs-here- http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/221720-Your-Dream...) show it partly and fully opened
  - dhughes 15y ago
    Also people bought Tek (a digital drug) by connecting two USB-like devices to transfer credits which I assume going by the context are like cash not credit or debit cards. That's very similar to what Bitcoin is attempting, I wonder if the mysterious creator of Bitcoin was a fan of TekWar?
simcop2387 15y ago
I like the idea of having the screen pull out link window blinds myself. Need a bigger screen for something? pull it further. Don't need a big one to read on the bus? pull it out a little. it would even give you a convineint place as a manufacturer to put the batteries, and mount the control hardware for it. It ought to be even fairly trivial to determine how much of the screen is pulled out and adjust the display accordingly.
samstave 15y ago
I like the idea of these being unfurled like a scroll, held in front of the reader: "hear ye! Hear ye!"

smackfu 15y ago

The stiffness needed to protect a glass screen from any flexing adds weight and structure that you can reduce with a flexible screen.

stcredzero 15y ago

What I’m really looking forward to are outright foldable In many ways, foldability is just the medieval substitute for a dynamic display. Instead of switching screens, you flip pages. Instead of zooming maps, you unfold the whole thing, then fold over everything except the part you're interested in.

corin_ 15y ago
In some scenarios sure, in others I'd disagree. Take your maps example as a generic zooming vs. folding example. When you use something like Google Maps, if you set your browser window to show you 2cm x 2cm, would that be big enough, I doubt it. And yet your screen doesn't have to be as big as an unfolded traditional map, thanks to panning and zooming. This shows that a.) dynamic displays can reduce the need for folding but that b.) there will always be a (subjective) question of what works best. As to a more realistic example - as a kindle reader, I wouldn't want a screen smaller than it already has, no matter how much zooming or scrolling it offers. And while the device can fit in a pocket, I generally don't like having it in one. If it was half the width and I could fold it in half, I would love that.
kijin 15y ago
I don't think foldability is just a medieval thing. People want screen real estate. They want to see their photos and videos in a large form factor. They also want to carry the screen in their pockets or backpacks. Foldable paper is a neat idea that achieves both. I would find it rather frustrating if I could only zoom into small parts of a map and never view the whole terrain in its 40-inches-across, 60-degrees-of-angular-diameter glory. Size matters. Scrolling and zooming are not appropriate substitutes for folding in electronic displays. A real substitute would be a pocket-size device that can project an image of arbitrary size in mid-air, so that people can see their maps IMAX at a distance of 3 feet if they want to. Edit: some rewording.
- stcredzero 15y ago
  I don't think foldability is just a medieval thing. I guess some people downvoted me because they took "Medieval" to be pejorative. I was being entirely literal. Linen-based paper was widespread in medieval Europe after the plagues. (Much of it was made of the linen clothing of people who no longer needed it, on account of their being suddenly dead.) Such paper is much more amenable to folding in the manner of a map than earlier technologies. (Though most everything seems to roll up into scrolls well enough.) Scrolling and zooming are not appropriate substitutes for folding in electronic displays. That's entirely contextual, as you also point out. You won't know how well things can take folding and how well the form factor performs in real life until you have such materials. Until then, we know zooming works. If I had something as light as and the same size as a clipboard that was daylight readable and yet as dynamic as an iPad, this would enable a whole other world of mobile applications that aren't quite there yet. I'm hard pressed to imagine an application I'd need that could fold out, which couldn't also be met by presentation/projection systems, or perhaps an interactive worktable form factor.