Pixel Qi Screen

[zoranc]

Not sure if tis is feasible as the smallest size of screen is 7" but I'd really love a pandora that has a screen usable outdoors. The combination of a regular backlight screen with and e-paper one sounds too good to be true for all people that enjoy spending their time outside. You can see colors even on a direct sunlight. As an added benefit the non-backlight mode will make the device use even less power when you need it most - outdoor.

 

[fusion_power]

Yupp, was already mentioned a few times. Best of both worlds. A Pixel Qi Screen would be perfect but sadly, it does not exist in the right size for us.

 

[Saber]

I never understood why we would even need a second smaller screen on the lid. To tell the time, email alerts, or something to the effect? What music track our ears are now listening to? Outside reading I guess I understand if you can't find shade, or the LCD brightness bothers one's eyes after a long time(which in itself is a health reminder that you need to move your body around a bit because you've been staring at the 5" display too long).

A blinking light could notify us just as well that we need a charging or have a mail drop and since once we know we have one, we'd still need to open the clamshell to view the contents anyways, or plug in the USB charger.

 

[Natsu]

A blinking light could notify us just as well that we need a charging or have a mail drop and since once we know we have one, we'd still need to open the clamshell to view the contents anyways, or plug in the USB charger.

If it's a screen on the lid, you wouldn't need to open it. Save time and power to be able to just quickly glance at notifications. With touch, it would be better for touch only games and screen texting. If the logo is on the screen, you can change it if you don't want it, display your own thing or just turn it off completely.

 

[HamishTPB]

Sounds like something else to accidentally break/ go wrong to me :wacko:

 

[fusion_power]

I never understood why we would even need a second smaller screen on the lid. To tell the time, email alerts, or something to the effect? What music track our ears are now listening to? Outside reading I guess I understand if you can't find shade, or the LCD brightness bothers one's eyes after a long time(which in itself is a health reminder that you need to move your body around a bit because you've been staring at the 5" display too long).

A blinking light could notify us just as well that we need a charging or have a mail drop and since once we know we have one, we'd still need to open the clamshell to view the contents anyways, or plug in the USB charger.

Pixel Qi is one single screen that has 2 different modes. You may have mixed up this with another discussion about an separate second screen onto the Pyra. Thread starter here meant the Pixel Qi screen as single main screen for the Pyra.

 

[Saber]

I never understood why we would even need a second smaller screen on the lid. To tell the time, email alerts, or something to the effect? What music track our ears are now listening to? Outside reading I guess I understand if you can't find shade, or the LCD brightness bothers one's eyes after a long time(which in itself is a health reminder that you need to move your body around a bit because you've been staring at the 5" display too long).


A blinking light could notify us just as well that we need a charging or have a mail drop and since once we know we have one, we'd still need to open the clamshell to view the contents anyways, or plug in the USB charger.

Pixel Qi is one single screen that has 2 different modes. You may have mixed up this with another discussion about an separate second screen onto the Pyra. Thread starter here meant the Pixel Qi screen as single main screen for the Pyra.

I know what you're saying but I was adding some further thoughts on the outside lid and on the inside lid since Pixel Qi was never an option for either side. As an ebook reader, the tech would've been cool to have though.

 

[Grench]

I never understood why we would even need a second smaller screen on the lid. To tell the time, email alerts, or something to the effect? What music track our ears are now listening to? Outside reading I guess I understand if you can't find shade, or the LCD brightness bothers one's eyes after a long time(which in itself is a health reminder that you need to move your body around a bit because you've been staring at the 5" display too long).


A blinking light could notify us just as well that we need a charging or have a mail drop and since once we know we have one, we'd still need to open the clamshell to view the contents anyways, or plug in the USB charger.

Pixel Qi is one single screen that has 2 different modes. You may have mixed up this with another discussion about an separate second screen onto the Pyra. Thread starter here meant the Pixel Qi screen as single main screen for the Pyra.

I know what you're saying but I was adding some further thoughts on the outside lid and on the inside lid since Pixel Qi was never an option for either side. As an ebook reader, the tech would've been cool to have though.

Actually the tech would have been cool to have as the sole/primary screen inside the lid if they had a 5" landscape screen.  They don't - and Pixel Qi has pretty much been stagnant since Mary Lou moved on to other ventures.  Frankly, they haven't even had a new device ship with the tech since 2012.

 

[Saber]

It's a shame they couldn't perfect it and at a reasonable R&D cost. I wanted an ebook display with better refresh and color saturation. Who knows what the future holds though. Full RGB screens at 120fps that adhere to our clothing or objects like stickers.

 

[neutralrobot]

Yeah, it's a shame there's not some other way to make something like this work. I too pine for a screen that can be as easy on the eyes as an e-reader in daytime...

 

[fusion_power]

Frankly, they haven't even had a new device ship with the tech since 2012.

Oh, this doesn't sound good. It's such an interesting technology, it would be a shame if they give up.

 

[levi]

Yeah, it's a shame there's not some other way to make something like this work. I too pine for a screen that can be as easy on the eyes as an e-reader in daytime...

I have an early smartphone which has a screen that effectively switches to black and white outdoors. I think it works by having a mirror behind the pixels which, when the outdoor light is overwhelming the internal light, bounces the daylight off the mirror, so that it passes twice through the filter pixels. I don't quite understand why that means you tend to lose colour, and it's fair to say it's not a screen that would win any awards under such circumstances, but you can still see edges and read text clearly even in direct sunlight.

I can see two ways to implement such a solution, and I don't know which one my phone uses to be fair. One is to use a front light, so that all illumination bounces off the mirrored back (but only daylight passes through the pixels twice), and the other it to use a standard backlight but use a one-way-mirrored surface in between it and the pixels - simpler, but the mirror might be less effective.