Pixel Qi late yesterday demonstrated its unique 3-in-1 hybrid display, known as the 3qi. The technology works as a traditional, backlit LCD but can switch its backlight off and convert to an e-paper mode. Besides saving battery life, the switch renders the display more readable in bright light. A third mode keeps the display in LCD mode but puts in monochrome to save energy.
Indirect OLPC offshoot Pixel Qi is developing a new display that would fulfill three different roles at once, the company's chief Mary Lou Jepsen said today. The panel is characterized for CNET as more advanced than that on the XO-1, which can only switch between an efficient black-and-white mode and a color screen. The new model would have these two features but could also assume an e-paper mode suitable for reading. It's not clear whether this would let images remain on the display when power is shut off, as with most e-book readers.
Pixel Qi on Friday said it's closer to shipping LCD displays that should significantly extend the battery life of notebooks. The technology reduces the dependence on a backlight and instead draws on nearby light from both human-made and natural sources to create the illumination itself, potentially extending a portable's run time by letting the backlight stay off in a brightly-lit environment. Pixel Qi estimates that a notebook with three hours of battery life today would get about 4.5 hours on one of its displays, or about a 50 percent boost, without compromising on display quality.
A side project of the One Laptop Per Child team plans an even less expensive portable than the XO, according to news from the CES floor. Calling the firm Pixel Qi, Mary Lou Jepsen says her business intends to produce a $75 portable that will borrow key aspects of the XO's design while reducing costs. The system is still in the very early stages but will rely heavily on the unique technology of the XO's LCD (created by Jepsen) that allows it to be read even in broad daylight. Other parts of the system that can be drawn from the OLPC group will be purchased at cost and while others will be sold in the opposite direction, Pixel Qi says.
