What Can We Expect?

As is common with new technology, it’s easy to imagine endless possibilities and uses for Electronic Paper. Books, newspapers, billboards, all replaced with a single sheet of e-paper. Instead of carrying heavy textbooks to school, students in ten years might only need to bring a pocket size sheet that serves not only as all their textbooks in school but a shopping list as they head home from class, a magazine for the bus ride, even bringing up to the minute news beamed down from the internet.

Other technology will surely be touched by this thin and flexible electronic tablet. Imagine a computer with no keboard or mousepad and thinner than a credit card! Maybe a computer that you can roll up and put in your pocket. These are the dreams and long term aspirations that companies developing Electronic Paper have set on their horizons for the future. (1)

Other projected uses range from digital photo frames to paper thin watches and even Clothing with digital displays to show maps, weather reports, and text messages.

When?

These dreams may seem grandoise and far away today, so to get some context for the near future we will look at what to expect within the next five years. In January of 2008 LG.Phillips showed off a prototype 14.3-inch E-Paper model with a 1280×800 resolution and a 16.7 million colour display.(2)

Even more Plastic Logic is aiming to introduce its E-reader to the market as early as the first quarter of 2009. Here you can get a glimpse into how the E-reader will function and what to expect. (3)

Plastic Logics E-reader featured on CNN

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epaper#Commercial_applications
2) http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/lg-philips-announces-14-3-inch-flexible-e-paper-display-for-ces/
3) http://www.plasticlogic.com/