eReaders have had a problem for some time now: although they’re great to use in bright rooms or outdoors, reading in a dark room is practically impossible, since they don’t have a backlight. Well, this problem has been solved by Flex Lighting, that’s similar in technology to the light of the Qualcomm mirasol display eReader.
Flex Lighting is based on a new LED light, used inside an eReader, that handles itself perfectly in the dark. This layer of Flex Lighting can be turned on or off and even has low power consumption, according to its creators. They also promise that the technology won’t interfere with normal operation of the device when the light isn’t on. This light layer operates as a traditional backlight, as you can see demoed in the video below:
I wonder how much this would add to the cost of normal eReaders and if the likes of B&N and Amazon will adopt it on their future Nook and Kindle units. Also, as far as I know reading in the dark with the screen being your own light source damages the eyes, doesn’t it?
