WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at e-paper 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.280 stuff works dot Com pays everyone and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.760 I'm Jonathan strictly and I'm Lauren foc Obama and Lauren Today, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.079 I wanted to read a message that was sent to 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.079 us via Twitter. Danny sent us to us and said, 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.720 I have done an episode on the paper. Well, Danny, 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.639 we we did an episode we being tech stuff in 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.960 general way back, yeah, back in two thousand and eight. 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.400 If Jonathan and Chris did an episode called how the 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.760 Books Work. If you want to listen to that, probably 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.400 very short episode. It was pushed on November of that year. 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.800 But we figured that, you know, although the answer is 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.159 technically yes, we have, we we thought that it was 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.800 time for update, especially since the one that Chris and 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.279 I did we really only covered one implementation and we 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.360 were specifically looking at e inc, which we'll talk about 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.720 again in this episode. But there it turns out people 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:06.200 didn't weren't satisfied with just one implementation for this E 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.200 paper idea. They decided to have a whole bunch of 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:15.240 mind bending, lee complicated science E implementations that caused me 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:19.080 to weep at my desk. Um the poor, the poor 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.600 fellow with the English literature degree. But but I wanted 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.600 to mention, first of all, you know what exactly is 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:27.880 the paper before we go into any of the implementations. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.280 Why would you want an e paper display? What is 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.120 so special about this particular type of display? Well, everything 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:40.039 electronic is better. Well they're okay, one, it's electronics, so 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.040 clearly better than any kind of regular paper. So wins 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.080 over that. It's sometimes in scientific circles referred to as 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.880 reflective electronic paper. And reflective is kind of the key 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:58.200 term there because many screens are backlit, which causes which 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.240 is awesome for various tchnologies of making you see stuff, 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.160 but is pretty energy and efficient and also hard to 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.119 see in really brightly lit areas. Right, So, for example, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.760 if we were to be watching some sort of amazing 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:18.560 movie in a dark theater cave, we want something that's 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.680 back lit, right, we want something that's projecting its own 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.440 light or else you can't see anything. But if you're outside, 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.200 say at the beach, or if you have a lamp on, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.800 yeah you've got Maybe you are just trying to read 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.800 something simple and and also you just maybe you find 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.839 that backlit display gets your makes your eyes tired after 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.000 a while. It does lead to tired eyes. So you 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.800 might want something where you're just putting light onto the 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.880 device and then just reading based upon the light that's 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.760 reflecting back to you. And that's what the paper is 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.440 all about. It's really trying to mimic what actual paper 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.160 does all by itself. So if you have a piece 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.280 of paper and you've written stuff on it, and you're 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.640 reading the stuff on that paper, newsplash, paper is not 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.839 sending light into your eyeballs. It's a reflecting light from 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.799 some other source back to you most of the time. Yeah, right, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.000 if it's E paper and it is back lit, then 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.040 I guess it could. Though again, most e paper, as 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.680 we'll discuss, is not. Now there there's another advantage, like 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.320 you said, the energy factor. Right, If I'm using a 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.200 backlit display, that means there has to be some sort 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.000 of light source that's shining out at me, and that 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.680 requires energy for that to continue. We don't have some 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.920 magical way to just make light come out without using energy. 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.760 But a lot of these E paper displays have very 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.840 energy efficient means of establishing some sort of image on 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.880 the display and holding it there without havingout needing to 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.600 continue pouring energy into the system exactly, so you have 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:48.800 the two benefits there, the ability to look at this 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.160 display in really well lit areas and the fact that 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.440 it's not sipping tons of energy. Uh. They also, depending 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.920 upon the implementation, can be flexible, So flex will displays 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.160 are a pretty cool idea for a lot of different 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.320 uh potential applications. A lot of them are kind of 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.600 advertising related well sure, but you know also the just 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.520 the pure concept of being able to take your your 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.720 e book and roll it up and stick it in 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.679 your backpack. Sure, or or have like an e paper 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.400 display watch. I have an e paper display watch. The 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.039 pebble which I'm wearing right now has an papers to it. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.200 In case you guys couldn't see that via the radio, right, 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.120 it sometimes doesn't come across with the point point, but 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.159 it has an e paper display. But you could also 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.920 create an e paper display watch that is very very 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.239 thin and flexible so that you could have it wrap 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.839 around your whole wrist. And in fact, there are a 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.520 few examples of that. A Japanese company made some really 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.599 really super cool ones that I think was a limited 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.040 run of five hundreds. They ended up being around twenty 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.080 bucks apiece, but they look great and and yes, and 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.080 this is all leading towards your incredible dream of having 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.839 the electronic gauntlets. Yes, I won't be happy until I 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:03.280 have of the e bracer, where again I can have 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.520 all the little things like my my life force telling 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:09.240 me how how much life force I have left, you know, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.679 in case I'm not aware of it at the time. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.760 You know, because I encounter some tough customers in my 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.400 line of work, and sometimes exactly how tough they are. Yeah, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.640 and sometimes you you have to look at and see, like, well, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.640 let me let me guess how much of a beating 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.520 can I take before I'm done? But all that being said, 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.560 what where did this idea come from? Where where did 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.480 we start really talking about eat ink and e paper. 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.279 Even though the whole idea of this electronic display, of 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.599 a reflective electronic display hit the public consciousness just in 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.120 the past decade or so due to the popularity of 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.520 the books and e readers and to kindle all of 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.480 that kind of thing, um, the technology has actually been 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.400 in development since the nineteen seventies. Some researchers at Xerox 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:02.440 began experimenting with what they called gyra con it sounds 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.919 like a transformer I love so much. Right, um. And 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.640 these were little spheres of electrically charged plastic that were 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.479 white on one side and black on the other and 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.800 could rotate, hence the gyra kind of word there um. 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.719 And they were suspended in oil between transparent electrodes. It 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.800 could be used for signs, but they never really worked 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.159 it out to be many miniaturized to the point of 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.120 being really useful for something like a personal device, and 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.239 it kind of was overlooked for a few decades until 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:35.200 the nineteen nineties when H M. I T and then 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.040 a related Cambridge based company called e ink Corp. Began 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:43.479 developing their own version of these gyrating electronic inc capsules 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:49.480 in right, And of course the majorization important for multiple purposes. Right, 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:51.880 not just so that you can have it fit into 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.760 a form factor like an e book or a watch, 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.840 but also just the idea of getting the right kind 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.440 of resolution or up close viewing. Like you don't need 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.920 it to be as as a higher resolution for like 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.320 a sign outside, right, you need you need to be 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.080 legible outside, but it doesn't have to have really sharp edges. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:12.640 You don't have to be able to get two inches 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.480 away from it and right right. Whereas with books, you know, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.480 you're getting pretty up close and personal, and with a 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.320 watch even more so. So obviously that was one of 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.480 those things that need to be worked out. So how 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.440 do they work today? Well, like I said at the 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.800 very beginning, there are a lot of different implementations now 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.600 that should not come as a huge surprise because with 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.960 with displays in general, there are lots of ways of 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.240 having a display show you stuff. Yeah. I think about televisions, yeah, tons, 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.120 Like if we're talking just the flat screen type, you 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.400 have plasma, you have l E ED, you have l 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.280 C D. Then of course you have the good old 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:52.280 cathode ray tube televisions of our childhood. Yeah, so they'll 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:54.800 own one of those, do you. It's fancy. I think 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.760 I have one in a garage somewhere and it's heavy. Um, 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.760 but the nice fancy I think I'm meant heavy. The 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.080 nice thing is that some of our old gaming consoles 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.520 will still work with those because the ports match, right, yep. Yeah, 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:09.680 it's one of those things that you give up, you know, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.600 you start to see these these technologies no longer become compatible. 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.160 That's I do still have a S N E S. Yeah, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.080 and you can't run that on a modern television without 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:24.120 some some version, yeah, converter. So let's talk about the 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:28.360 different types of E paper display technology. I think the 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.480 most popular one on the market certainly right now is 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.440 electrophoretic technology. That's correct, that is what e INK uses, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.920 the one that you mentioned, and e Ink, I think 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:43.080 is the is the most well known company that does this. 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:44.760 This is the story of technology you find in a 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:49.319 lot of e readers, and so this uses that electrical 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:54.720 charge to push stuff around. So the ink in an 0:08:54.800 --> 0:09:00.200 electrophoretic technology display can be lots of different stuff off. 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.760 But the typically you'll you'll find these little plastic beads 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.160 that may be dual colored where you have white on 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.319 one side and black on the other, like I mentioned before, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.720 or some that are black and some that are white. Right, 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.400 you would just have two different separate kinds of beads, 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.360 and you would have them uh oppositely charged. So let's 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.960 say that the the white beads are positively charged and 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.720 the black beads are negatively charged. Now, the top layer, 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.280 the screen layer, the part that we are looking at 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.880 our eyeballs are hitting. That is clear, it's transparent. Otherwise 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.600 it wouldn't be very useful. We had a solid plastic 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.120 E reader that that was opaque, it wouldn't do you 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.040 any good, not very much. Now, on the opposite side, 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.880 the foundation of the device, that's the back pain. That's 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.520 where everything is built on top of. So let's say 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.680 you have an electrode down over on the back pain. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.880 You've got one on the peer level as well. And 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.040 you you remember, you've got the the white beads that 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:55.839 have a positive charge and the black beads that have 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.480 a negative charge. If you create a negative charge at 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:01.880 the bay at the back pain, then that's going to 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.520 repel all those black beads, because like charges repel one another. 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.120 So all those black beads are gonna rise to the 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.480 top to the clear electrode the screen part which means 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.480 if you're looking down at the e reader, the screen 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:19.920 just turns black. Right, the white uh particles, the white 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.600 beads will all sink to the bottom because uh they're 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.840 positively charged and positive negative charges attract one another, so 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.439 they're all at the bottom. Now. The nice thing is, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.640 once you've done that, it's set. It's going to be 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.679 like that until you change introduce another charge exactly so uh, 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.800 it's it's fantastic because that means you no longer have 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.320 to pour power into this device in order to have 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.000 whatever it is you've established. If you were to swap 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.319 the charges and suddenly make the electrode at the base 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.480 be a positively charged electrode, then it would repel all 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.320 the white beads. They would rise to the top, all 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.280 the black beads would come to the bottom, and you 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.559 would have a blank screen. That's what would look like 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:00.720 to you write. And by varying that across the entire 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.440 surface of the back pain, then you can have these 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.640 black people patterns and words and pictures and whatever you 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:11.040 want exactly. And depending upon how small those beads are, 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.880 you can have some pretty interesting some pretty good resolution. 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.720 So it's not like, you know, it's not like there's 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.760 only like ten beads in here. Now, there's millions of 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:25.679 the little things. So that's your basic premise with electrophoretic technology, 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:30.480 but they're not all uh, specifically in that implementation in 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:34.160 inc is that's the style of eating those those beads 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.560 are just a hundred microns, Why so a hundred thousand 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.480 can fit into one square inch of quote unquote paper. Uh, 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.040 so you're talking, like I said, millions of these things, 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.120 depending upon the size of your display. Obviously, larger displays 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.400 are going to need more beads nor to have that resolution. 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:56.840 But another variation of this uses something called micro cups. Microcups, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.000 they're kind of what they sound like. They're little into 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.800 visually sealed cups of of of stuff. You've got a 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.880 bead in these and you also have um some some 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.439 dye in them. So the idea is that if you 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.840 pull the bead to the top towards the screen side, 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.760 you get a blank screen. When they're pulled down to 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.679 the base of the little individual micro cups of the 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.440 shows through and creates your color pattern. Yeah. So you 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.800 can think of each micro cup as an individual pixel 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.679 in this entire screen, and by pulling various beads down, 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.079 you create what are the words and the patterns and 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.360 the pictures and all that kind of stuff. Uh, same 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.439 basic principle, though you're just using electric charge to move 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.760 something around. In this case, it's just one bead instead 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.680 of different pairs of beads. So very interesting. These again 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.840 are the most popular I would say approaches. The micro 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:59.439 cups approaches supposedly better for flexible displays, just more effective. 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.439 It's easy to implement than the the you know, massive 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:07.640 number of beads approach. But that, if you know, that 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.760 was essentially the version we covered in the first tech 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.480 Stuff episode back in two thousand eight. So everything from 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:19.680 here on out is new and scary and possibly going 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.440 to make me uh fall over in attempts to pronounce 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.520 some of these words. So uh, I'm just just prepare yourself, folks. 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.000 You can you can do it. Jonathan coolisteric liquid crystal 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.760 display technology. Let's hit it all right. So liquid crystals, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.000 those are pretty awesome. They can behave kind of like 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.679 a liquid and kind of like a solid. So solids, 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.560 their molecular structure is really stable right there in a 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.840 set pattern. They don't move around. They maintain their orientation 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.080 in respect to each other. Liquid is different. Those molecules 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.320 and a liquid can be all willing and they and 0:13:55.400 --> 0:14:00.120 move around and they don't have to maintain their respective orientations. 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.240 So this is easy to imagine if you're thinking about 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.240 just the way water moves. All those little molecules are 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.720 moving all over the place inside that amount of water, 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.880 whereas if you're looking at a solid table at tables 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.840 not moving. It's not, at least not in respect to 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:17.560 you know, one part of the table is not moving 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.680 in respect to another part of the table, unless you've 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:23.720 got a really weird table. So liquid crystals can behave 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:28.280 like either solids or liquids, depending upon the situation. Now, 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:33.080 colosteric liquid crystals have stable phases, very important. You want 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.560 it to be able to set into a particular orientation 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.760 and maintain it. But um, because if it didn't, then 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.120 you couldn't use it for something like creating pictures and words. 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.280 It wouldn't be stable. It would just keep changing and 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.560 you might have a really cool piece of wal art, 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.760 but it wouldn't be useful or maybe only once very 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.280 very differently, right, kind of a million monkeys in a 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.160 room with typewriters kind of way. Yeah, So liquid crystals 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.240 in these displays, they form a helical structure also known 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.360 as a chiral structure, and depending upon their orientation, they 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:12.040 either reflect light or the absorb light. So by running 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.320 a current through a display with these crystals, you can 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.560 orient them in such a way that they form shapes 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:21.640 like words and pictures, and like electrophoretic displays, these are 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:23.800 the term is by stable. I think that we forgot 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.680 to mention that up there. By stable is what it 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:30.200 means when something can stick a certain way without having 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.720 to put an electric and until you put an electric 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.760 charge back through it. Right, So in other words, once 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.280 you have it set, it's good to go. This is 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.200 the same thing. Like I'm sure you've heard the argument 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.760 about people who before we were allowed to have electronic 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.680 devices on at takeoff and landing and people would say 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.280 you need to turn off your e reader devices. There 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.800 are folks who are saying, you know, this isn't it's 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.440 not assuming power unless they turn the page because it's 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.200 not producing any kind of radiation at all unless I 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.800 butt right, Yeah, it's yeah, exactly, as long as the 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.400 WiFi is not on, then it's not doing anything. Also, 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.320 mine doesn't even have an off switch. Yeah that's true. 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.520 Someone's like, all all you're doing by making me put 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.680 it away is denying need a pleasure of reading. Right, Yeah, 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:15.880 you're you're making me focus on one of the more 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.960 stressful moments of flight and uh and that's not doing 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.880 anyone any good. Um. Yeah, So like you were saying, 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.680 both of those implementations are the kind where you don't 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.480 constantly sit power. You only do it whenever you need 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:33.520 to change whatever the uh. The various orientations are whether 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.960 it's the beads in the electro boretic or it's the 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:42.320 liquid crystals in the callisteric. Okay, let's move on to 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.040 electra wedding. All right, this is the problem that elderly 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:50.720 robots have. It's a serious issue. I'm glad I'm not 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.120 the only person who thought immediately, yeah, that's something else. 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:59.080 I think it all depends. Oh, Jonathan, I'm a terrible person. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.000 Electra wedding technology has nothing to do with that. And 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.000 for all those people who out there who hate my 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.440 sense of humor, I'm sorry, but I am twelve so 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.320 actually sorry, not sorry. I think it's what he means. Yeah, 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.480 I mean, yes, that's who I am. But electro wedding 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:18.560 technology actually, it's a really interesting approach. Again. Now we're 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:23.159 using electric electricity to change the shape of a confined 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.920 water slash oil interface. So you know, water and oil 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.040 they don't mix. We've got sayings about it, uh, And 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.280 you can try it at home. You can put some 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.360 water and some oil in a glass together and you'll 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.120 see they do not mix together. And if you were 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.480 to try and mix them together, they would separate. So 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.199 that's important. But when you have no voltage applied to 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.080 this particular type of display, the oil forms a film 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:55.040 between the water and an electrode the stream, which is hydrophobic. Now, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.719 hydrophobic just means that water won't stick to it, right. 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.280 It's like if you've ever had any kind of rain 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.000 X or other film that you put on your windshield, 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.159 your car's windshield so that when you go out in 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.440 the rain, it just beats up and rolls off. Kind 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.159 of terminator one thousand style that is that is hydrophobics, hydrophobic. 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.480 Fancy word for a simple concept. Ye. So this uh, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.840 this way of creating the oil, and on top of 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.360 this this water level that's what creates a colored pixel. 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.520 And applying a voltage makes the water push that oil aside, 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.520 which creates a transparent pixel. So if the oils on top, 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:33.040 you get something. You can get a color color, right, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.399 whatever the color of the back pain is. Actually, so 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.360 if you had a blue back pain, you just see blue. Uh. 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.920 And then if you were to switch the water in place, 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.280 it would be a lighter color of blue because it 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.640 would be transparent more than opaque. The way you would 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.040 get a blank screen is if you had a white backplate. 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:54.919 You know, I think I've been saying back pain and 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.639 I think it might be because my chair is really weird, 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.440 but no, it's back plate. Um. But yeah, if the 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.600 backplate has a white surface, you get that transparency that's 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.199 seen as a blank screen. And uh, the neat thing 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.840 about this is that it's it responds faster than the 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.200 other versions we've talked about. So the ones we talked 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.680 about it previously, they're great for things like books, they're 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.360 not so great for video. I mean, you you can 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.720 find some of these e paper displays that use electrophorredic 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.480 technology that yeah, your your refresh rate has to be 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:32.000 pretty high to interpret it as as video. You might 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:33.960 be able to get something that plays like a simple 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.800 game of snake or something along those lines, but it 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.600 tends to be you know, pretty slow in response, slow 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.480 enough for us to detect, whereas, uh, the electro wedding 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.840 technology can move fast enough where we're not able to 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.240 notice the change. Um that way, you know, it's not 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.320 like there's a lag or delay that's noticeable to us. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.360 So it moves fast enough where we could use it 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.880 to show video, and it also requires less energy than 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:06.080 your typical lc D display, So it's still one of 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.760 those that is suitable for that kind of thing without 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.960 you know, breaking the bank on your electric bill. It's 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.920 not by stable, however, because you do have to continuously 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.280 apply electricity to retain an image. So if you were 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.520 to remove the electric charge, the water would move out 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.320 the way again, the oil would come to the surface, 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.439 and you would just have uh, you know, a black 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.199 screen or whatever color the oil happened to be in 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.160 the and the back plate had happened to be. So yeah, 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.040 it's kind of interesting. Um. The only company I could 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.479 find that's actually working on this technology is called liquid Vista, 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.840 and it was a company that was spun off by Phillips. 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.080 Phillips had been doing the research into this and they 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:48.520 kind of said, well, it's not only gonna work for us, 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:50.520 but we will spin off, you know, kind of sell 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:55.320 off this this research division because there's there's potential for 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.919 that particular technology. And that was not a not a 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.800 pun potential with electricity, and are you sure it wasn't, 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:06.280 so it was a pun, I guess, So it was 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.240 an unintentional pun. Those are the best kind. Those are 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:10.720 basically the only kind that I make, and I'm a 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.200 little bit embarrassed every time. So how does this electroc 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:19.000 wedding differentiate itself from electro fluid I. That's a good 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.760 question that I did not understand at first. I had 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.639 to read a few different pieces to really understand electro 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:29.040 fluidic technology. Well, it uses liquid, as you would imagine 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.400 with fluid I. That does say that there's some sort 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.160 of fluid involved, but instead it's using a liquid pigment 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.480 and a polymer layer that has micro cavities in it. 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.159 So let's say that you are looking down at the screen. 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.479 That screen actually has lots and lots of teeny tiny 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.960 pin prick holes like microscopic level. So just when you 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:52.840 look at it just looks like a blank screen, doesn't 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:55.600 You don't actually notice the pin bricks. You can't pick 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.080 them out with your eye. No, no, you can't. And 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:02.119 so when you apply an elector charge it because of 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.240 the way micro fluid motion happens in the presence of 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.320 an electric field, the pigment will start to go through 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.200 those micro cavities and fill out some of the space 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.560 and become pixels within the display. Okay, So it sounds 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:19.200 at first, when you think about it, sounds like you're 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:21.760 looking down and you just see liquid bubbling up out 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.360 of a hole and slowly filling up the screen. That's 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:26.760