NAISBITT SMILED:

E-Paper Breakthrough Could Lead to Rollable, Flexible, Even Disposable e-Readers (Clay Dillow, 11.23.2010, Popular Science)

The problem with most e-paper, as we’ve come to know it, is that it’s not actually anything like paper. Most e-readers like the Amazon Kindle use a glass substrate embedded with complex circuitry to achieve the visual appearance of paper rather than the glow of a computer screen. But a new kind of e-paper under development at the University of Cincinnati could change all that by putting e-ink where it belongs: on e-paper that’s actually made out of paper. The breakthrough could finally lead to rollable, flexible, low-cost, and even disposable e-readers.

The e-paper works by using paper, rather than glass or some other rigid substrate, as the host material for an electrowetting device. Electrowetting is a process that employs an electric field to manipulate colored droplets within a display in order to arrange them in a way that reveals content. That content can range from black and white type to, theoretically, high-res color video. The researchers found that the performance of their paper-based elecrowetting device is equivalent to that of glass, which currently sets the bar for performance in the portable e-reader field.

Professor Andrew Steckl and his team envision a device that feels like paper, is rollable like paper, and – like paper – is cheap enough to be disposable.