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Digital Ink On Billboards
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Sep 17, 2003 03:23 AM
from the starting-big dept.
from the starting-big dept.
cdneng2 writes "The New York Times has this article on
a revolutionary new billboard. It uses digital ink, versus the typical CRT,
LCD, Neon, or Plasma displays that are so prominent on the newer billboards that
wastes electricity. From the article: 'By creating a paste made of tiny helix-shaped particles that can be minutely manipulated with electric charges to
reflect light in highly specific ways, Magink
can produce surfaces that look like paper but behave like electronic screens,
rendering high-resolution, full-color images without ink - or, as Magink
executives like to refer to the process, with digital ink.' The billboard
can display images at 70 frames per second." You can find more articles on the billboard technology on the Magink website.
Related Stories
[+]
Touch Sensitive Paper With Built-In Speakers 83 comments
The Bongo King writes "There have been several stories about digital paper discussed here on the site recently, but an offering from Swedish research scientists has a new twist. They have made a prototype billboard of interactive paper with built-in flat loudspeakers apparently also made of paper. 'Touch sensors are made using a fine pattern of conductive lines in which the current flow is altered when a hand touches it. Laptop computer touchpads use the same principle. Speakers are made by printing electromagnets out of conductive ink and stretching the paper over a cavity like a speaker cone behind the billboard. The electromagnets vibrate in response to a current, creating a sound.'"
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Why oh why... (Score:5, Funny)
The day advertising and the military merge, we'll be in a world of hurt. They'll end up creating a pop-up that kills, I tell ya.
Re:Why oh why... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wake up dude. That last 3 US wars (Iraq, Afganistan, Iraq) have been full-on media circuses.
Parent
Re:a pop-up that kills (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Why oh why... (Score:3, Insightful)
> Porn...
What, you mean to tell me that porn doesn't depend/use advertising for its own existence?? No...I couldn't believe it!
Porn has stopped using new innovations (and pushing for more) compared to a few years ago. It essentially only advertises like mad (hasn't stopped), and of course sites cross-advertise for each other...
(As a side note: I'm sure the military "use" porn too...
John Anderton! - I have a new cola for you! (Score:3, Interesting)
Now with RFID technology, adds can be specifically directed at individuals. Brrrr.
revolutionary? not yet. (Score:3, Interesting)
combine that with a flash disk or some other form of solid state store and a transmeta or via c3 cpu and you've removed the three biggest power draws on a laptop.
essentially, i'd like a laptop that could do 24 hours w/o ac power.
oh, for older stories on /. about this, see here [google.ie].
Re:revolutionary? not yet. (Score:3, Interesting)
My three-year old does this ... (Score:5, Funny)
e-books (Score:3, Interesting)
Disclaimer: I haven't RTFA'd yet. Better go do that now.
whitepaper stats (Score:5, Informative)
Print quality image
Combining 5mm pixel pitch, an RGB color model with 4096 colors, and a superior contrast ratio of 14:1, magink digital ink technology achieves an extremely natural look that very much resembles the look of printed images on paper.
Compatibility to outdoor lighting environment
magink's digital ink display billboard is reflective of incident light and requires no integrated illumination. Light that falls on the display from either the sun or external light sources is actually beneficial to the visibility of the image. A beautiful image is maintainable under the full range of daylight conditions.
Low energy consumption
magink display does not require any power to maintain an image: the image is held under power-off conditions. Only when replacing one image with another does the display require punctual application of power in order to set the new image.
Since energy is needed only for refreshing the image and since magink's digital ink reflective display does not require back lighting, power consumption is low yielding less energy consumption, less heat dissipation and a longer mean time between failure (MTBF).
Re:whitepaper stats (Score:5, Interesting)
magink's digital ink display billboard is reflective of incident light and requires no integrated illumination. Light that falls on the display from either the sun or external light sources is actually beneficial to the visibility of the image. A beautiful image is maintainable under the full range of daylight conditions.
I have to admit, this idea is attractive to me, though i'm scared at the fact that i'm actually for a form of advertsing technology.
My issue is this... near where I live on I-5 there is a huge graphic display billboard. Not sure if it's plasma or LCD or what, but it's one bright sucker It's so bright infact that driving tward it highlights every nick, scratch, bit of dust on my windshield. The reason I invested in a new windshield infact was due to this ultra bright computer generated sign from hell, esp since they don't automaticly dim the sucker based on accurate "sunset/sunrise" times (based on my observation only).
Now, it's good I replaced my old tattered scrached up windshield, but I shouldn't have to just because of a stupid sign who's technical design by it's very nature requires so much light it's a hazzard to people driving.
Parent
Re:whitepaper stats (Score:3, Funny)
What's sad is the fact that you need something to stare at while you are stuck in traffic in order to maintain your sanity. If they could find a nice balance between a full color dynamic display I'd be perfectly willing to let it exist without complaints.
My use of the word *hazzard* is in reference to "the dukes of hazzard" as it blinks brightly at the wrong time causing people to steer
Wallpaper? (Score:3, Interesting)
Would it work as a large TV monitor? The frame rate is up to 70/sec, so the question, again, is resolution.
Re:Wallpaper? (Score:4, Informative)
This link [eink.com] mentions resolutions in the range 120-150 dpi, but AFAIR one of the first EInk demo screens had about 300 dpi resolution (as a laser printer)
Parent
Tile based rendering (Score:3, Interesting)
Based on that DPI, at the size of a billboard, i don't know of any videocard in the world that could drive something like that.
OK, one video card probably couldn't handle this resolution, but imagine video cards in a Beowulf cluster. Give each blade the job of driving 1024x1024 pixels' worth of the image, and you have implemented a parallel method of image rendering that is commonly called "tile based rendering".
A question (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I am a CRT snob, but I remember an IBM technology demo showing 400DPI. It was loosely based on LCD technology. It was backlit. Of course it did not have the refresh rate that this sign has.
Also notice those page sized tiles in the prototype.
Looks like this technology is heading our way fast.
Re:A question (Score:5, Insightful)
There seems to be no reason why they couldn't scale the technology down to PC size. But I think they have targeted the big-ticket applications for their first market - not a stupid idea. If they can replace "million dollar" displays with "80,000 dollar" ones, there are some *big* shot term profits to make the money to fund the mass production line to manufacture cellphone displays at the millions/month level you need to get the costs down.
Parent
Re:A question (Score:5, Informative)
Horses for courses - if you really want an emissive display, go for the current technologies of LCD or plama. This is something difffernt and, potentially, better. I took my laptop into the garden yesterday - and had great difficulty reading it because of sunlight. This would get easier to read with more light.
Humans are creatures of light; emissive displays are creatures of dark. Putting the two together requires compromises: avoid directt light sources, fear reflections. Turn the light down and your screen becomes more readable but fine print documentation becomes less readable. Turn lhe light up and the screen washes out as the fine print comes into focus. With absorbtive displays, the two become visible together. And reduced power consumption has got to be good. This might make e-books worth having. Battery life greatly increased, because power only consumed when you move the page (system can completely power down between button pushes), readable in a bright light.
Remember LED watches, as mocked in Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy? LCDs (non-lit) wiped those out almost overnight, because using power for a continuous, slowly changing display is ridiculous.
Don't expect new displays to be identical to old - evaluate and exploit their differences. If you analyse them, both CRTs and LCDs are rotten displays - but they are the best we have got, so we use them everywhere. Sometime soon someone is going to come out with a good absorbtive display - maybe this one, maybe another - and that will spread like wildfire.
Parent
I need another distraction (Score:5, Funny)
How am I supposed to get ready for work!?
Re:I need another distraction (Score:3, Insightful)
One is that a billboard ad is seen by people in passing. If you glance up from your car and take in a tenth of a second from an animated ad you may miss the whole point. A static ad at least has the brand logo on it at all times, which means it impinges on some part of a viewers mind.
The second reason is that angling for animated ads would probably put Magink out
defaceing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:defaceing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Magnetic fields? I'd be more worried in what happens when teenagers spray paint these things, as they tend to do.
Or thinking more specifically about my area (Detroit), how does this billboard handle a couple of handgun shells unloaded into it?
Parent
It requires no power! Not good... (Score:3, Funny)
Does it mean that, when my boss comes into my room and I'm watching pr0n, just turning my laptop off in panic will leave a big pr0n screen still visible?
Not good, not good...
Their Web site says that the system... (Score:5, Funny)
Is this really the best choice for something that thousands (or tens of thousands) of people will see each day as they drive down the highway?
At the PATH [pathrail.com] terminals in New Jersey, they have "PATHVision" displays. They run Windows. For a long time, virtually every day, pretty much half of the terminals were displaying an error dialog or worse. I also think I saw one of their ticket vending machines displaying a BSoD.
I really wish that companies who come up with stuff this cool would not depend so heavily on Windows. Imagine driving down the highway and seeing a gigantic, 50-foot-wide Blue Screen of Death. If my experiences with the PATHVision monitors were an example of what is to come... well, it could happen!
Here [bloomu.edu] is what happens when airports depend upon Windows...
Re:Their Web site says that the system... (Score:3, Funny)
You know what, I'm sure I'd follow that billboard's lead and crash too. (Not quite directly of course, laughter vs. software failure and all that)
Specs (Score:3, Insightful)
5mm =
The smallest frame size is 1m x 2m, so that would be 200 x 400 pixels, bigger than a Palm Pilot and bigger in pixel count but less square than a Zaurus.
4096 colors is low compared to a modern PC.
I can just see it all now (Score:3, Funny)
Seriously. Good intention, bad idea. At least it'll give hacker groups the ability to show their views to the world.
Expect this to appear in living rooms soon (Score:5, Insightful)
- 10-bit color (4096 colors) will become 16-bit and then 24-bit.
- 5mm pixels will become 1mm and then 1/10thmm
- the borders between the pages appear 1 pixel wide, and will thus vanish
- cost of $8,000 will drop to $2,500, then $500.
Yes, looks good!
Re:Expect this to appear in living rooms soon (Score:4, Informative)
10 bit equals 1024 colors
12 bit equals 4096 colors
Parent
Speaking of neon. . . (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm just thinking that if it's so much like paper, then that's one of the ways paper billboards are enhanced for better nighttime viewing.
Cartoon images could potentially be quite intense. Think of, for instance, the Simpsons done this way.
But as cool as this is, I still think that in the long-term we're going to see effiecient, mass produced, high powered lasers dominate the outdoor display market and perhaps other display markets as well. But since high powered lasers are still a very long way from cheap at this point, this is a cool near-term solution.
Screw Billboards (Score:5, Interesting)
If this were advanced sufficiently, I could then even play bf1942 on this once I realized said female was imaginary and never came over in the first place.
Re:Screw Billboards (Score:3, Funny)
Even technology has its limits.
Ah, now I understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, perfect for my car (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah, perfect for my car (Score:4, Funny)
I can have messages flash on the back telling that moron driving 30 in a 50 what I think of them
if he is going slow, and is behind you... you might want to display "sorry, I'm driving 30 in a 50 zone... I'm a moron, please pass me".
Parent
Re:Ah, perfect for my car (Score:3, Funny)
Did you ever consider that the only reason this "moron" is driving so slow is that you are in his way?
That's actually useful, guy... (Score:3, Interesting)
In the winter, the car body goes black and the windows stay clear, keeping the inside warm and reducing the snow and ice buildup.
In either case, I come out of the shopping center, push a button on my keychain, and the car's color starts flashing betw
In other words: (Score:3, Insightful)
Dangerous? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you live in NYC, and have driven down the west side high way, there's a billboard, a tv billboard, which you see when you drive south around 23rd street in Manhattan. Am I the only one who gets a little distracted by these things? Anytime I pass by, I have to make a concerted effort NOT to have my eyes flit back and forth.
What about the ones in Times Square you may ask? They are MUCH MUCH higher up, out of line of sight for drivers. This one is about 3 stories high at about a few hundred feet away from the road. Ideal for drivers watching.
The future is not set ... (Score:3, Insightful)
But imagine the possibilities.
A series of sci-fi books by Stephen Baxter [pushby.com] (The Manifold Sequence) describe technology like this.
They use flat, flexible view screens that can be used anywhere.
This is very exciting.
But of course it will be used for advertising...
Ads based on what you are listening to (Score:4, Interesting)
The most interesting variant uses a roadside scanner that detects which radio stations are tuned in on the various cars going by the sign. The system then aggregates the data on who is listening to what and decides what ad message to put up. If most people are listening to the game, maybe an ad for the local sports bar will appear. If a cluster of classical music listeners drives past, then an ad for season tickets to the opera might briefly appear.
There's no word on whether the system can tell which MP3 file you are listening to. Yet.
Articles on the technology (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Ads based on what you are listening to (Score:3, Interesting)
Easily overlooked part of the article (Score:3, Funny)
Lucky they mentioned that. At first I thought the name was a combination of the words "Ma" and "Gink".
TYFYA,
--#>SurturZ
Re:Great! (Score:3, Funny)
Jeez...all these ideas...
Movie Theater
...Replace the Projector/Whiteboard combo for presentations! Ma
Game room (Smash Brothers, DDR, Midnight Club 2, blah blah...)
Computer Display (UT2k3, photo editing, woo!)
Re:Great! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Not just advertising (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Response Time & Dot Pitch? (Score:5, Informative)
Also you may be wondering about TVs and their response time, T.Vs and Monitors (CRT) don't have a response time (or more to the point its the same as the refresh) because on a CRT screen the previous frame is not remembered as the "pixels" on a CRT so to speak, need to be constatly energised to display anything, so the second that the cathode ray stops hitting the phosphor the image dissapears, thus no reponse time.
Parent
Re:Response Time & Dot Pitch? (Score:3, Informative)
What I think you meant to say was that the response time of a CRT is much smaller than the response time of an LCD.
The way a CRT works is that the ele
Re:The material? (Score:3, Informative)
This is essentially the paper.
The particals are coloured Red/Green/Blue on one side and Black on the other.
A static charge can cause a partical to rotate in it's position between the layers and show for instance either red or black.
Now just think of these as pixels and you get the idea.