Amid the recent excitement about e-books there’s a new entry, Alex (named for the great library in Alexandria, Egypt) from Spring Design that appears to do it all. Here, direct from Spring Design Labs is a demo of the Alex. The dual-screen, Google Android-based e-book features a 6″ electronic paper display capable of 16 shades of gray PLUS just below it is what amounts to a mobile device with finger-based touch screen navigation and full 16-bit color (capable of 24 bit).
The beauty of this system is the interaction between the two screens with the lower color LCD screen presenting rich media gleaned from the Internet or the device’s SD card to supplement the reading matter displayed on the primary EPD screen. Imagine reading a Dickens novel with historical facts, illustrations and critical commentary displayed n the LCD screen. Imagine the possibility of a secondary market for original material, much like the sites that arose around the Harry Potter novels.
In addition to using the LCD to bring up movies, pictures and graphics from the Web, and push content to the EPD page information that enhances what you’re reading, you can highlight text, write your own notes, search for words and phrases, bookmark, go to any chapter. Looks like you can really personalize the look and feel of the reading pages. There are lots of great features like MP3 player, video playback, Bluetooth, WiFi, even audio speakers, mic and earphone jack.
Look for Alex at Lunch at Piero’s January 7 and 8, 2010.
You wouldn’t think there was a recession going on, judging by the strong attendance at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose this week. Engineers and designers are telling us that they are using this time to find the next important technology to build devices that will be up and ready for sale by the time the economy gets back on its feet, which some of the show-goers are pegging at mid 2010.
Clearly everyone wants more smarts in their devices. Cars will be ever richer with multimedia and GPS OEM and aftermarket technology. Printers will have more smarts built into them. Medical devices will become more consumer-friendly. Factory automation will become increasingly sophisticated, run by small, rugged x86-based technology. Alp Sezen of VIA Embedded talks about the x86-based small form factor boards, digital signage and ruggedized systems that the company showed at its booth.
And what do engineers do when they want to have fun? Check out this air hockey-playing robot on the show floor of Embedded Systems Conference. Built by Nuvation for exhibitor Freescale, the clicking of the hockey puck could be heard from the moment the show floor opened until it closed.
Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of Openmoko, presented the FreeRunner mobile phone to designers and engineers at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, California this week. Moss-Pultz calls the phone a “seed” that provides a rapid start for developers to create devices based on the phone’s open OS, open CAD and open electronics.
Openmoko sees applications for the phone in markets where where specific features of the phone are leveraged for unique needs, capitalizing on the phone’s computing power as well as its mobile capabilities. He cited the use of a rugged version of the phone and its built-in GPS for archaeological digs or as an open mobile broadcast device.
Openmoko speaks at Embedded Systems Conference
The standing room only audience in the ESC Theatre on the show floor listened to Sean Moss-Pultz and Bill Gatliff, provider of development and training services related to Linux, discuss the advantage of an open mobile platform for embedded developers who want to create a small computing device with mobile capabilities. See more coverage from the presentation from TechPulse360.
Capping the presentation, Openmoko and Embedded Systems Conference gave away five FreeRunner mobile phones in a drawing to lucky audience members.
