According to the Human Media Lab website, the PaperTab "emulates the natural handling of multiple sheets of paper by combining thin-film display, thin-film input and computing technologies through intuitive interaction design." PaperTabs "keep track of their location relative to each other" and their user. That seems like some kind of proximity sensor, as does the description of distance determining a PaperTab's active (full window) or inactive (icon) status.
"The location of each PaperTab is tracked on a desk using an electromagnetic tracker," according to the narration on the video. That's an interesting idea. Locational electromagnetic tracking systems are used in military applications and computer-assisted surgery, as well as kinematic research, such as motion tracking. I still don't get how the data moves from one PaperTab to another, and the consortium is not saying. What's hidden in the video is where users plug in all the PaperTabs under the desk. Perthaps that's some kind of communication and/or processing hub.
The PaperTabs can file and display thousands of paper documents, and the displays use E-ink, so they use very low power. The version used in the demos has a 150ppi screen pixel density displaying 16 levels of grays.
I am impressed by the work Plastic Logic is doing. I just wish it would find a manufacturing partner, so we can start using this totally cool, nifty technology sooner rather than later.
DBrunermer, as we mentioned in the story, it's not clear how data is being transferred between one window and another. Since we can't see under the table, it's possible that there's some kind of hub where all the cables go where they communicate with each other, or it's possible there's some kind of wireless communication, possibly facilitated by electromagnetic tracking.
There may already be a wireless interface--it's not at all clear how the data is transferred between one window and another. That's one possible answer.
SparkyWatt, I've often said I wish I had a screen 3 feet high and 6 ft long. I'd prefer that, too. But I bet that's going to take a lot longer than something like this.
I agree it looks interesting, but I disagree on the company's definition of 'Intuitive'. Bending a page backward to flip pages is not really obvious, nor is folding / dog-earing for fast forward and reverse on video. But I digress.
The movie makes it seem like the desk is an important part of this invention. As in, it's the desk that knows where the pages are in relation to each other, not the paper itself. To me, that's a huge limitation. That's not portable, even a little bit. I think instead they should make an electronic binding, like a regular book, with all interconnects in the 'spline', and the CPUs/WiFi in the front or back 'cover'. It could probably be as think as two kindles, and then be useful and portable. But this is an interesting device, all in all.
In other words. The advantage of this system is about the same as having a tablet screen that is 3 feet by 4 feet (roughly the size of a desktop). Honestly, I think I would prefer the latter. Especially if I could roll it up and take it with me.
The advantages are being able to lay out documents on a table, as we can do when they're made of paper, instead of having to look at everything sequentially on one screen. I have often wished to be able to do this, especially with long technical documents. Anyone who writes or does hands-on editing of such documents--words or drawings--could appreciate this, as could an R&D team that collaborates on same.
It's not really all that complicated: what may be confusing is that it mixes the physical handling of sheets of "paper" with the same old functions of electronics.
Very interesting breakthrough there...however tho nothing new with the underlying technologies its an extension of what has been there in the last four years ..
The market for this is limited to environments for learning and work or the traditional shopping nfc applications....beyond that??...its called innovation.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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