Technology | DOI: 10.1145/1592761.1592769
Kirk L. Kroeker
electronic Paper’s
next chapter
The technological challenge for researchers working on the next
generation of electronic paper is to render color as brightly as traditional
paper, without increasing power requirements or end-user costs.
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
