The Electronic Book...

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The Electronic Book...
E-Books A presentation by Max Pearce Director
Technology Assessment
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What is an E-Book?

• A portable device that can display text and
  images stored in internal memory, thereby
  mimicking the conventional book.
• E-Books potentially offer the user additional
  features not possible with the conventional
  printed page, including note-taking and
  dictionary capabilities.
• Can you think of others?

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Similar Technologies...

• Notebook and palm-top computers incorporate the
  types of technology necessary to build E-Books.
• Devices like the Casio Cassiopeia and 3-Com
  Palm Pilot PDAs have essentially identical
  architectures to the E-Book products currently on
  offer.

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The PDA...

• One E-Book manufacturer claims that it is
  possible to use a Palm Pilot or Windows CE PDA to
  read electronic titles.
• Presumable this would require special
  applications software within the PDA.
• Most PDAs have small screens and are probably
  not an ideal E-Book platform.

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The Cassiopeia...
The Casio Cassiopeia is a Windows CE
based personal digital assistant device with 8
Mbytes of memory. It retails in Australia for
around 750.
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E-Book Technology Enablers...

• Display technology
• Packaging technology
• Battery Technology
• Integrated Circuit Technology
• The Internet
• Technological Convergence

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E-Book Architecture...

• Display Unit
• Navigation Controls
• Communications Interface
• Microprocessor controller and OS
• Memory
• Power supply

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Currently available hardware...
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1. RocketeBook 2. EB Dedicated Reader 3.
SoftBook 4. Millennium E-Reader
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RocketeBook...

• Manufacturer NuvoMedia
• Price About US500
• Capacity 4000 pages
• Weight 570 gm
• Dimensions 19 (h) x 12.5 (w) x 3.5 (d) cm
• Screen 14 cm diagonal
• Battery life 17 hr back-light, 33 hr without

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RocketeBook... SoftBook...
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SoftBook...

• Manufacturer SoftBook Press
• Price US299 19.95/mth minimum purchase
• Capacity up to 100,000 pages text gray-scale
• Weight 1.3 kg
• Dimensions 28 (h) x 21.6 (w) x 2.5 (d) cm
• Screen 24 cm diagonal
• Battery Life Six hours.

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RocketeBook... SoftBook...
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The SoftBook

• The SoftBook does not require a computer to
  download titles.
• The SoftBook incorporates a dial-up modem and
  internal software to allow the download of the
  selected title(s).
• If a title is deleted from the SoftBook it can be
  retrieved at no charge.

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EB Dedicated Reader...

• Manufacturer Everybook
• Price US1400 to US1600
• Capacity 500,000 colour pages
• Weight 1.68 kg
• Dimensions 30 (h) x 24 (w) x 4.6 (d) cm
• Screen Two screens, 33.8 cm diagonal
• Battery life Four to six hours

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EB Dedicated reader...
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Millennium E-Reader...

• Manufacturer Librius
• Price US199
• Capacity 8000 pages
• Weight 0.34 kg
• Dimensions unknown
• Screen 480 x 320 pixels
• Battery Life 22 hours

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Millennium E-Reader...
The Millennium E-Reader is expected in US Summer
1999. Librius indicate that the electronic titles
can be read on Palm Pilot or Windows CE devices.
An E-Reader is therefore not necessary if you
own an existing palm computer device.
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The printed page...

• A typical page of text from a printed book is
  both high resolution and very high contrast.
• White paper and black ink are difficult to
  duplicate with conventional display technologies.
• Printing costs are very low, typically less than
  a couple of dollars for a paperback.

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The electronic future...

• The world-wide book market has been reported at
  some US72 billion/year.
• Publishers are naturally cautious, however it is
  assumed that they appreciate the potential
  implications of technological convergence and the
  printed page.
• A high-performance, low-cost E-book would be an
  interesting development.

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E-Book Building Blocks...

• The technology necessary to build E-Books is
  available now. Microprocessors, memory and
  related components are here today.
• Unfortunately, there is no currently available
  display technology that can offer high contrast,
  high resolution, low cost, low power consumption
  and able to operate in a hostile environment.

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Display Technology

• E-books currently offer Liquid Crystal Display
  panels some are touch sensitive.
• LCDs require back-lights for use in dull lighting
  conditions, have limited viewing angles, suffer
  from low contrast, can exhibit slow response in
  cold conditions are mechanically fragile and
  consume considerable power.

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LCDs...

• High performance LCD display panels have been
  developed and are now used in laptop and personal
  computers.
• These new displays still however suffer from
  viewing angle restrictions, excessive power
  consumption, limited contrast range in daylight
  and mechanical fragility.

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New display technologies...

• While thin film transistor (TFT) LCD devices are
  currently the display of choice for laptop PC
  applications, alternative technologies are under
  development.
• Two new developments are
• Field Emission Displays (FEDs)
• Light Emitting Polymer displays (LEPs)

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FEDs...

• FEDs should compete with existing LCD panels and
  may allow the development of flat-panel home
  cinema - perhaps one day.
• Their power consumption is claimed to be about
  50 of a comparable LCD panel.
• FEDs are still fabricated using glass and are
  have similar fragility properties to LCDs.

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Typical FED construction...

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FED Display View Angle...

LCD
FED
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Light Emitting Polymers...

• Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) have developed
  the concept of the Light Emitting Polymer.
• LEP is a substance that can be deposited onto a
  substrate and made to emit light when connected
  to a source of electric current.

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LEPs...

• The chemical is known as Poly(p-xylene-alpha-tetr
  ahydrothiophenium bromide)
• LEPs can be fabricated
• on flexible substrates,
• thereby increasing
• display ruggedness.

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LEPs potentially offer...

• A low-cost high-performance display solution for
  a variety of applications including electronic
  books.
• CDT and Seiko-Epson are currently collaborating
  to develop the Plastic Television - a full
  colour LEP video display.
• Prototype was due in late 1998!

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The CIE triangle

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A LEP Display - a first attempt...

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A LEP E-Book...

• LEP display technology is probably fundamental to
  the development of low cost E-Books.
• Once the manufacturing is mastered it is expected
  that rugged low cost, low power, high contrast,
  wide viewing angle displays will be readily
  available.
• But dont hold your breath!

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In summary...

• Practical E-Books depend on the availability of
  better display technology like Light Emitting
  Polymers.
• Despite the current technological limitations,
  E-Books are seeing the light of day.
• The RocketeBook is a good example.

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RocketeBook...

• The RocketeBook is produced by NuvoMedia and is
  assembled in Taiwan
• Barnes Noble provides the book titles via their
  Internet Web site
• You need a PC with Win95/98 and an Internet
  connection with a spare serial port for
  connection to the RocketeBook

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RocketeBook security...

• Each RocketeBook must be registered with
  NuvoMedia via the web.
• The Registration process loads a secure Rocket
  Certificate (A Rocket Key and Rocket ID) into the
  RocketeBook.
• When you order an electronic title, the book file
  is encrypted for use with your RocketeBook only.

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RocketeBook...

• E-Book titles are available at the Barnes and
  Noble Web site www.barnesandnoble.com
• An account is established using a suitable Credit
  Card (MC, Visa or Amex).
• An e-commerce system allows the user to select
  and buy RocketEditions.
• An e-mail is sent to the buyer with Web details
  to allow downloading of selected titles.

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RocketeBook Memory...

• Total memory 4096 kbytes
• Operating System 664 kbytes
• User memory 3432 kbytes
• Necromancer text is about 200 k characters.
• Necromancer E-Book files is 166 kbytes
• Memory would hold about 20 similar titles

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RocketeBook title costs...

• Necromancer Gordon R. Dickson ISBN
  0-812-54530-3 US5.99 paperback
• Necromancer E-Book US4.95.
• Other titles checked indicate a similar discount
  of about 10 - 15 for the E-Book title over the
  paper product.

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Some RocketeBook features...

• Touch screen control
• Four-way display
• Last page memory
• Hyperlinks (selected titles)
• Page navigation bar
• Bookmarking
• Shortcuts
• IR communications port
• Large/Small fonts
• Note annotation
• Text search/Dictionary

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E-Book WWW addresses...

• www.softbook.com SoftBook
• www.nuvomedia.com RocketeBook
• www.everybk.com EB Dedicated Reader
• www.librius.com Millennium E-Reader

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The Rocket Demonstration...

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Any Questions...

• ???????????????????????????

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E-Books...

• The End