Last updated: May 18, 2008
The Elevator Pitch for the Future of ePaper
1. ePaper has been on the market for over a decade. Once seen as a fanciful scientific marvel, it is now proving its commercial viability.
2. Whatever we may think of dedicated eBook readers, the market for ePaper clearly extends far beyond this dubious invention. Its full utility remains to be explored, but the various applications are promising.
3. E Ink Corporation has become the dominant player in this market - most new announcements that relate to the use of ePaper technology relate to agreements with this corporation, an MIT Media Lab spin-off.
4. At the same time there is a lot of promising research heading out of the R+D labs that will extend the application of ePaper in unexpected and exciting ways.
2. Whatever we may think of dedicated eBook readers, the market for ePaper clearly extends far beyond this dubious invention. Its full utility remains to be explored, but the various applications are promising.
3. E Ink Corporation has become the dominant player in this market - most new announcements that relate to the use of ePaper technology relate to agreements with this corporation, an MIT Media Lab spin-off.
4. At the same time there is a lot of promising research heading out of the R+D labs that will extend the application of ePaper in unexpected and exciting ways.
Page Index
ePaper Overview
Probably no technology so captivates the imagination of publishing future-watchers as ePaper. I too can feel the allure. ePaper is not just some fancy computer screen, modified to convey a more "paperish" feel. ePaper is a flexible computer screen. It's lightweight. In some cases you can bend it, you can roll it - hey, it's kind of like paper! (Note that the term ePaper is also being used by vendors of digital newspapers and magazines - described in my section on magazine publishing - who provide software that can display an accurate representation of the printed version of a publication. This section is concerned with the physical product called ePaper.)The technology behind ePaper has been in the works for many years. The ever somewhat-reliable Wikipedia informs that "electronic paper was first developed in the 1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center." That's 30 years ago. (Xerox subsequently created a subsidiary, Gyricon, to commercialize the technology, but shut down the company in 2005.) Today's hot player is the E Ink Corporation, "founded in 1997 based on research started at the MIT Media Lab."
So the notion of ePaper has been kicking around for awhile. Getting it from the labs into usable products took some time. Most of those products today are either eBook readers or signage.
As explained in The Economist article referenced below, "Electronic paper...relies on ambient light from the surroundings, just like ink on paper-so electronic-paper displays are sharp and easy to read in bright sunlight. Better still, once the screen has been set to display a page of text, no electrical power is needed to keep it there; power is consumed only when the screen is updated, which can extend the battery life of mobile devices..."
The E Ink website is well worth a visit to understand how this technology is beginning to move beyond eBooks.
I'll admit to some early skepticism, but now it's real. You've probably seen ePaper used for eBook devices. My reservations are not with the ePaper as much as with the eBooks. I've seen ePaper used in signage in departments stores, able to instantly update merchandise and price information. Hmm. Looks good. More recently I've seen small chunks of ePaper on mobile devices - phones and the like. Whether eBooks become the hoped-for success that too many vendors are banking on, ePaper clearly has an important role to play in the broad future of graphic communications.
Other vendors currently involved in researching and commercializing ePaper include Epson, Philips, Sony and Fujitsu. Kent Displays is a leader in using LCD technology for electronic displays in commercial settings.
References