Scientists Fabricate Pliable Electonic Display
I heard that this was coming down the pipe about two years ago. Now we finally get to see a picture of it.
ScientificAmerican.com—"For some people, nothing can replace the joy of cracking the spine of a new book or spreading the Sunday paper across the breakfast table. But researchers hope to one day replace traditional ink and paper with electronic displays that bend and fold like paper, yet can also be erased and reused again and again. A report published today in the journal Nature moves scientists one step closer to electronic newspapers and wearable computer screens. It describes a flexible electronic ink display just three times the width of a human hair that can be viewed from almost any angle.
The new display is comprised of a thin-film transistor (TFT) array, which can impart both positive and negative charges to different areas of its surface, and an electricity-conducting layer of clear fluid. Within this layer are millions of tiny capsules of black and white pigments that respond to charge. Thus, a negative voltage on the TFT causes white particles to move to the surface while a positive one moves black particles to the top to create the appearance of print. Yu Chen and his colleagues at E Ink Corporation report that the display can be bent 20 times and rolled into a cylinder with a diameter of 4 millimeters without compromising its performance."