Mary Lou Jepsen, Inventor of Pixel Qi Technology, Discusses Screen Technologies & Multi-touch Tablets

I've been meaning to devote a few more posts about the new screen technologies as multi-purpose netbooks become available.  In my opinion, this technology will change the way we access all sorts of interactive media, including news and entertainment.

In this post, I feature Mary Lou Jepsen, an engineer who is the inventor of Pixel Qi technology. During the first quarter of 2010, there is a possibility that a few Pixel Qi screens will become available to the DIY community.  The first units will be multi-touch. Pixel Qi will be at the January CES in Las Vegas.

Mary Lou has worked on the screen technology found in One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, and her work has resulted in affordable net-books and laptops.  According to information from the Pixel Qi website, "Mary Lou founded Pixel Qi Corporation in 2008 and is its CEO.  Previously, Mary Lou has founded 4 companies, served as a professor at RMIT (Australia) & MIT,  and in executive management at Intel Corporation.  Mary Lou holds a Ph.D. in Optical Sciences, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Art (req.) all from Brown University as well as a Master of Science (in Holography) from the MIT Media Lab.".

Mary Lou Jepsen, an engineer,  tests out "e-paper" content in the sunlight and in the shade on three screens. In the following video, the E-ink Amazon Kindle, an Acer Pixel Qi 3Qi LCD netbook, and a Toshiba transflexive R600 laptop are compared.  At 4:20, Jepsen discusses touch and remarks that there are new touch technologies that might work. (The content on the resistive touch screen that was on hand during the video was difficult to see.)


Mary Lou Jepson demonstrates the Pixel Qi screen in her home lab/laundry room on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). Jepson is focused on making screens that everyone can use.


Mary Lou Jepsen Answers User Questions



Comparison Chart (from the Pixel Qi website)



Pixel Qi is working on a design of a sub-10 watt HDTV that can run on a minimal power supply, including a battery that can be charged with a crank or solar pane.

Two Interesting Posts: Colin Mulvany - Will the touch tablet save professional journalism? & Michael Arrington -The End of Hand Crafted Content

Technology is changing our world, and in some fields, more so than others.  For professional newspaper journalists, things are pretty bleak, as web-based news content is stamping out much of what has been held dear to the heart in traditional press rooms. Newspaper companies are folding and great journalists have lost their jobs.

Is there hope for the future?

Journalists who have digital media skills are voicing their views about this phenomenon as the profession moves to reinvent itself.  There is much to discuss, since the number of folks with Smartphones and access to web-based news content on-the-go increases each day.

The first post I'm sharing was written by Colin Mulvany, who works as a multimedia producer at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington.  He began his career is a still photographer, but changed gears and transitioned to his present role creating content for his paper's on-line website.  

Colin Mulvany is the author of the Mastering Multimedia blog.  His blog post, Will the touch tablet save professional journalism?, provides an overview of changes in journalism and links to related on-line articles about the topic. What I liked about Mulvany's post is his vision of how the transition from newspaper to the digital world might play out in the near future. 

It all centers around the touch-tablet that is paired with the newspaper.  So how will this make money?   Mulvany has a few ideas.  One of his suggestions involves improving the navigation of newspaper websites, and providing content and layout that the reader can customize for interaction with the tablet.


The second article, The End of Hand Crafted Content,  written by Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch, points out how on-line news content is like "fast food", generated by blogs and aggregators.   Arrington discusses how the same content is written and refashioned and written, and the true creators of the content (real journalists!) are not often noted...or noticed.

Arrington provides good links on his post.  If you have time on your hands, take time to read it, and also browse through the numerous comments posted by readers. Although I rarely am inspired to comment on an on-line post, in this instance, I did so.  My comment is buried in there somewhere!


RELATED
Minority Report Scenes: 
3D ads at the mall, subway scene with USA-Today e-paper (updated with video in "real time")

http://www.youtube.com/user/mrcavalcanti

The holographic ads in the Minority Report mall scene begin at 0:28.  The subway scene with the USA Today 3-paper begins at 1:27.  (Mulvany has a similar video on his post.)


Holographic Ad at a Canadian Mall: "Living Poster"

http://www.youtube.com/user/smtire

Maybe the holograph guy in the mall could deliver the news or a weather report, along with a few Minority Report-like mall ads!