ELeCTroNiC PaPer, Firs T cre- ated in 1975 by Nick Sheri- don at Xerox PARC, has begun to proliferate in con- sumer electronic devices in recent years. Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader, two notable applications of the technology, have transformed e-paper into a mass-market phenomenon. New uses for e-paper technology, such as in advertising, wristwatches, smart cards, and even enhancements for computer peripherals, are cropping up regularly. The presence of e-paper in consumer electronic devices is increasing not only because of its minimal energy requirements, making it ideal for low-power devices, but also because its display quality approaches that of the printed page.
Photogra Ph CoUrteSy of PLaSti C LogiC
Still, by most accounts, the biggest technological hurdle facing e-paper is the fact that current e-paper color displays are either of poor quality or too expensive to be commercially viable. “Color is the next big challenge for e-paper,” says Sheridon, a physicist who cofounded Gyricon LLC, as a spinoff from Xerox PARC, to manufacture e-paper displays. “This is not easy to do, and most of the monochrome technologies cannot be modified to do good quality color. New invention is needed.” In addition, current e-paper technology cannot render moving images as well as other display technologies. However, that may soon change as improving the color and rendering capabilities of e-paper is the focus of several research labs.
Even with mass-market e-readers being limited to monochromatic displays, much is happening in this area. Prime View International, a Taiwanese company that manufactures the Amazon Kindle and other electronic read-
an early prototype of a monochromatic Plastic Logic reading device featuring flexible display technology.
ers, has put up $215 million to buy E Ink Corp., the company that develops the digital-ink technology for those readers. Also, brand-name companies are entering the e-reader market in droves, with Samsung being the most recent entrant with an e-reader that, at least for now, is only available in South Korea. According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung plans to show prototypes of its e-reader for international markets in January 2010 and is negotiating with publishers for content.
Plastic Logic, another company making headlines, is positioning its forthcoming e-reader not as a competitor to the Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader, but as a device designed for business users. The company says its e-reader, which sports an 8 x 11. 5 inch screen, will have 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and a gesture-based touch interface specifically designed for reading
and working with business documents. Also making headlines is Fujitsu, which earlier this year released the FLEPia, a color-capable tablet featuring Windows CE 5.0 software and also designed for business documents. While Fujitsu claims the FLEPia is the first color e-reader on the market, it can display only 260,000 colors (in contrast to the majority of desktop monitors, which can display 16. 7 million colors) and is priced in the range of tablet PCs. Currently available only in Japan, the FLEPia costs $1,000. By comparison, Amazon’s monochrome Kindle 2 costs $299.
Sheridon, who calls the Kindle a “brilliantly executed document reader,” says it and other e-readers are appearing at a fortuitous time, particularly as vast libraries are increasingly being digitized. “The Kindle can access a significant part of this, meaning that
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