Serpico
10-10-2006, 04:56 PM
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press release (http://www.minoura.co.jp/flex-e.html)
QUOTE
What's FLEX?
FLEX is the very unique and super-lightweight bicycle computer with flexible ePaper (Electric Paper) display panel. It is the world first consumer product in the bike industry.
It measures Speed and Cadence by double digital wireless transmission as well as Time, Distance and Output-Wattage.
FLEX can be used on both indoor training and outdoor riding.
What's ePaper?
The "ePaper" is the latest technology of computer display device. Our display panel is supplied by SiPix who is one of the limited (only two in the world!) companies enables to make ePaper. Minoura is the exclusive customer of SiPix's ePaper panel for bike industry.
Every bike computer has LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel which is constructed with thin grass plates so it is fragile and cannot be bent at all. Therefore, it requires a bulky hard casing to protect the LCD panel from the shock.
Also LCD requires the electlicity at all times while it indicates text and graphic. Once the power supply is cut, the LCD panel will loose everything. It means the battery life must be shorter.
The ePaper is made of soft plastic film, so it is quite flexible and can fit any shape without worrying about the breakage. It is completely shock-resistant and water proof. It means ePaper can be alone without any hard casing so it can reduce the weight significantly.
Inside the ePaper, there are millions of white small balls in dielectric fluid between the films. The balls are positively electrically charged. They will swim in the fluid toward the bottom when negative electric power is applied onto the bottom base. The balls in the area where positive electric power is applied will swim toward the surface. This pattern combination will create visual image on the display.
The ePaper system will not require any more electric power once they finish moving, so we can cut the power while we need same image on the display and it means we can save the battery life dramaticaly.
/QUOTE
http://www.minoura.co.jp/epaper-mechanism.gif
.
.
.
btw, I saw this elsewhere--props to Jake (who posted it originally)
.
press release (http://www.minoura.co.jp/flex-e.html)
QUOTE
What's FLEX?
FLEX is the very unique and super-lightweight bicycle computer with flexible ePaper (Electric Paper) display panel. It is the world first consumer product in the bike industry.
It measures Speed and Cadence by double digital wireless transmission as well as Time, Distance and Output-Wattage.
FLEX can be used on both indoor training and outdoor riding.
What's ePaper?
The "ePaper" is the latest technology of computer display device. Our display panel is supplied by SiPix who is one of the limited (only two in the world!) companies enables to make ePaper. Minoura is the exclusive customer of SiPix's ePaper panel for bike industry.
Every bike computer has LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel which is constructed with thin grass plates so it is fragile and cannot be bent at all. Therefore, it requires a bulky hard casing to protect the LCD panel from the shock.
Also LCD requires the electlicity at all times while it indicates text and graphic. Once the power supply is cut, the LCD panel will loose everything. It means the battery life must be shorter.
The ePaper is made of soft plastic film, so it is quite flexible and can fit any shape without worrying about the breakage. It is completely shock-resistant and water proof. It means ePaper can be alone without any hard casing so it can reduce the weight significantly.
Inside the ePaper, there are millions of white small balls in dielectric fluid between the films. The balls are positively electrically charged. They will swim in the fluid toward the bottom when negative electric power is applied onto the bottom base. The balls in the area where positive electric power is applied will swim toward the surface. This pattern combination will create visual image on the display.
The ePaper system will not require any more electric power once they finish moving, so we can cut the power while we need same image on the display and it means we can save the battery life dramaticaly.
/QUOTE
http://www.minoura.co.jp/epaper-mechanism.gif
.
.
.
btw, I saw this elsewhere--props to Jake (who posted it originally)
.