If we were stuck on a desert island with only one book, this recently unveiled solar e-book would be at the top of our list! Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar energy. Whereas most e-books run the risk of losing juice mid-sentence through your next novel, this solar reader’s omnipresent energy source makes it a winning design in our book.
At first glance e-readers offer a great set of benefits over paper-bound books – they’re light, versatile, and a great alternative to lugging around a tote full of dead tree tomes on your next trip. The rise of e-readers also stands to stem the environmental repercussions of the publishing industry, as books can be released online rather than incurring the energy, materials, and cost that it takes to manufacture, print, and ship them across great distances. However these new reading mediums have one glaring fault – can you imaging the frustration of running out of juice mid-sentence and halfway through Infinite Jest?
LG’s new solar e-book aims to address this issue by harnessing the sun’s rays to power its display. The device features a 10 centimeter wide thin-film panel that is .7mm thin – the width of a credit card. Energy efficiency is a strong concern with portable readers, and it looks like LG may have hit on a winning feature set with their e-book – 4-5 hours spent sitting in the sun will provide a full day’s worth of reading time.
Mr. Ki Yong Kim, head of the Solar Cell Office at LG Display has stated that “eBbooks are attracting a lot of attention because they offer the advantage of storing thousands of books’ worth of contents in an easy-to-carry device. The idea of e-book combined with solar cell will offer users the added benefit of longer usage. We will continue to provide users with enhanced convenience and value to solidify our lead in next-generation, environmentally friendly products.”
Everyone knows that trying to read a computer screen outdoors can be a total pain, so we hope that LG has included a passively-lit e-paper display option in the device. A working prototype of the solar e-book will be on display at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) this week in Seoul.
Via OLED-Display.net
Great news. I was really looking for it. But i think i can not get it now because at this moment its price would be high. Furthermore there is a ? will it be available in my home country. Even though i admit it is a great product. This post does not answer all the questions in my mind. Can i connect it to my laptop and transfer the date to it? How can i insert data in it.?
Actually, I think it would be better to have a separate solar cell with batteries. Then one set of batteries can be in the reader while another can be charging in the sun.
And the number of batteries in the charger must match the number in the device. Please, no more devices using 3 batteries.
Fourth paragraph….. “Ebbooks”…. the president of LG must stutter. Haha.
Aside from that, this device looks exciting and promising, even if the design is a bit ugly at this point. Hopefully the final product is a little more sleek. I’d ask for shiny, but that might not be a good idea if it’s designed to be used out in the sun.
The idea is sound for sunny locals. It wouldn’t be a hit in London during the winter. It needs rechargeable batteries as well as solar.
I hope more and more of such products come from LG. Make this planet more energy efficient tap more and more from sun. One question. how many pages can be stored on this product?
How are you? I have not frequented your blog recently and I just remembered remembered how much I love your blog posts. I am going to bookmark your site on this visit to make sure I don’t forget it.
Nice! but what if there’s no sunlol