Reading long tracts of text from a computer screen hurts your eyes and just isn't as nice a feeling as reclining with a book in your hand.
But now you can get E-paper. Where normal screens constantly emit light to produce an image, E-paper is totally different: it manipulates pigments to produce an image. The overall effect is that it looks a lot like print on paper, using incidental light just like a book, rather than generating its own.
Basically, it has a whole layer of pixels like a normal screen, but each pixel is a tiny ball of pigment. Loads of little electrical charges flip each pigment pixel around (turning it 'on' or 'off') to create images. Currently they only have good black and white displays, but surely they will figure out colour sooner or later.
This video shows the basic principle for those interested:
And this video shows how thin it is. Rollability could be a major plus when used in mobile devices:
You will notice that when the image changes, it happens quite slowly. This shows the pigments being flipped on or off. The refresh speed should continue to improve as new devices are released.
So it seems that E-paper is really suited to reading, but not to rich motion graphic applications like video, which may look strange on paper.
E-paper is also very energy efficient because it only needs power to
change the display, not to maintain it.
So what are some applications for E-Paper? The first commercial product to use
E-Paper technology was Sony's Librie Reader, and now you can use Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader for reading E-Books, Newspapers, and Magazines. Kindle lets you download E-Books and periodicals directly from Amazon via inbuilt mobile internet.
For all its convenience, whoever designed the Kindle visually needs to be shot, it looks incredibly clunky and dated for a device released in 2008. I'd like to see if Apple enters this field with a sleek 'iReader.' Apple continues to show that sexy industrial design is a major asset, and shouldn't be skimped on.
Amazon Kindle Video:
E-paper is also finding its way into cellphones and mobile devices in general. You can currently browse the web on what looks like paper. The iRex iLiad Reader is Linux-based, so all sorts of applications are being developed for it.
I think that people will always feel nostalgia for books. But book lovers need not fear. If anything, books as objects will become even more valuable if E-Paper takes over. Personally, I think the information contained in a book is more important than the shell. The worldwide annual paper consumption is roughly 300 million tons. Surely E-paper has the potential to at least offset this! It should be particularly attractive at the moment because of the carbon-offsetting trend.
In summary:
- I think that E-Paper is a stayer because it deals with a real problem - reading long tracts of text comfortably from an electronic device.
- I doubt whether it will become a mainstream entertainment display technology because people are hungry for rich motion imagery such as video, which other technologies render more faithfully.
- It is exciting that books will now benefit from the speed, scope, and reach afforded by electronic distribution. The dissemination of information is more important than nostalgia.
- E-paper's efficiency in terms of power and space are impressive.
- E-paper, along with OLED (a post on this to come) represent an exciting shift towards Organic Electronics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_electronics