Philips unfurls rollable e-reader

You could say this display's on a roll (all the while, of course, knowing that doing so might be setting yourself up for bad-pun ridicule from colleagues). Oh, well...

The Concept Readius from Philips Polymer Vision is a prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can be folded and squeezed into a pocket. Philips calls the Readius the world's first prototype of a functional e-reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. All rolled up, the Readius measures in at about 4 inches by 2.5 inches by an eighth of an inch--the display stretches out to provide a 5-inch monochrome screen with a resolution of 320 pixels by 240 pixels.

The company is showing off the Concept Readius at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) 2005, a consumer electronics show running through Wednesday in Berlin. The device uses technology from E Ink intended to provide paperlike viewing in mobile applications. (E-paper is gaining increasing attention for its flexibility, light weight and low power consumption.)

But don't put the Readius on your gadget wish list quite yet. Philips Polymer Vision, which is based on Philips' PV-QML5 rollable display reference design, doesn't intend to commercialize the product. It's demonstrating the fitness of its rollable displays for use in tomorrow's mobile devices.