Although this is completely weird and absurd, it's a great gimmick to get people talking. Look how many people wrote about it today alone. This does bring me to a subject I've been meaning to write about in the emerging technology sector of digital signage.
In technology, we're always going for more compact, more light: bigger, better, stronger. Imagine a digital display that is as thin as paper and as durable as fabric. Back in 2004, an article in the Christian Science Monitor spoke about this technology. The article was too good to splice up, so here it is in its entirety:
Next Digital Screen Could Fold Like Paper.
Scientists tinker with displays
for books, clothing, and military gadgets that are as thin as newsprint and as
durable as fabric.
By Lori Valigra Correspondent of The Christian Science
Monitor
Clothing for travelers or soldiers that alters color to fit the
environment. Books that change content on request. Computer displays so thin
they can be manufactured on a roll and cut to size like kitchen foil. Even paper
that emits sounds or can be erased and reused thousands of times.
These
aren't the smart gadgets of fictional spy movies: They are applications of
emerging electronic-display technologies. And some will hit the market as early
as this year. Technologists hope the new displays will usher in an era in which
users drop clunky screens for flexible, portable ones so thin they can be rolled
up like a newspaper. The benefits of the new gadgets are obvious: One such
display could replace stacks of books that weigh down a vacationer's suitcase or
a student's backpack and provide content that can be updated instantly.
Even
a soldier's uniform could function as a flexible display by automatically
changing color to camouflage him as he walks from the jungle onto a dirt road.
Likewise, a businesswoman's suit could switch from navy blue to white as she
travels from a cold to a warm climate, reducing the outfits she must pack.
While many of these scenarios are at least 10 years away, precursor products
such as "smart" papers and ultra-thin glass displays are poised to show up in
2004. In Japan, Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Corp. plan to start selling
electronic books (e-books) the size of DVD cases early this year.
Since
their debut in the mid-90s, e-books have earned notoriety for being hefty,
expensive, and not interchangeable among publishers. The new versions promise to
be lighter, easier to use, and eventually less expensive.
"In Japan, a large
percentage of the population spends hours each day commuting on trains.
Europeans also purchase large volumes of reading material," says Michael
McCreary of E Ink Corp., a Cambridge, Mass., electronic-ink (e-ink) company that
uses technology developed at MIT's Media Lab. "Japan is a good market to start
in, but this will go worldwide."
Initially, both the Sony and Matsushita
e-books, which use active matrix technology, will be monochrome, but color
versions are expected in a few years. Sony's e-book comes from a joint effort by
E Ink, Toppan Printing Co., and Royal Philips Electronics.
The e-ink, which
closely resembles printed text, comprises tiny capsules filled with positively
charged white pigment chips and negatively charged black ones. They respond to
electric charges to create text and images, says Mark Johnson, a scientist at
Philips. Content is downloaded via wireless networks.
Toppan coats the e-ink
onto a thin plastic film. Philips places that film onto a sheet of glass laden
with electrodes. It also adds electronics around the perimeter to control the
ink.
Matsushita's e-book, called Sigma Book, will be sold under the
Panasonic brand. It uses cholesteric liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology,
with dark blue pigment on a light background. Cholesteric LCDs create images by
switching between a color and black when a small electric field is applied. The
images may not be as crisp as active-matrix ones, but the displays cost less,
says Prof. John West, director of Kent State's Liquid Crystal Institute, where
the technology was developed.
Both the Matsushita and Sony e-books will have
dual screens that open like a paper book and both will be readable under
sunlight, says Dr. West.
They eventually could be made of a pliable, polymer
backing that resembles paper. Bill Doane, head of Kent Displays, says his
company may have flexible plastic cholesteric displays ready by 2006. "You can
make large volumes of them at very low cost," he says.
E Ink is moving in
the same direction with its "Radio Paper." Dr. McCreary says the goal is to have
a display that looks and feels like newspaper, but can be updated wirelessly. He
says it could be ready by 2007 or 2008.
Researchers at Xerox Corp.'s Palo
Alto Research Center recently devised a technique to "print" plastic transistors
similar to the type used to control today's flat-panel displays. The new process
uses semiconductor ink and a modified ink-jet printer. The transistors can be
used to produce electronic displays that roll up.
Digital screens on tents
The potential value of flexible displays isn't lost on the military. The US
Army Research Lab plans to spend $43.6 million over five years on a
flexible-display center at a US university to be identified early this year,
says Bob Pinnel, chief technology officer at the US Display Consortium in San
Jose, Calif. Other branches of the military also are interested.
"DARPA [the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] is looking at 'immersive imaging,'
where the entire interior of a tent will have displays that can simulate
conditions for battle preparation, or remote cockpit and field training," Dr.
Pinnel says.
Future soldiers will access more information than now, says
David Morton, a physicist and manager for the Army Research Lab in Adelphi, Md.
Their uniform sleeve, for example, could be a display showing a map or a manual
to repair equipment in the field. "Flexible displays will be pervasive in the
Army," Dr. Morton says.
One hurdle being worked on is the heat generated
during display manufacturing, he says. It can damage the plastic display
components. Color displays are in the early stages of development, and could be
used as cloth for a digital camouflage suit, but they must be able to withstand
wear and tear and washing. An even bigger challenge is to devise a reliable
manufacturing system.
"Our goal in 10 to 15 years is to go to a flexible
substrate [display backing material] that can be printed roll-to-roll like
newspapers, then cut to size," Morton says.
Electronic fashions
In the
private sector, "there already is a great interest in having flexible displays
in fashions, including jewelry that can change colors as it is worn," says Kent
State's West. Also, wallpaper in homes could become a giant flexible display
that changes color or images.
Nearer term, e-book companies will face more
traditional challenges, such as working out intellectual property, royalties,
and other content issues with publishers.
An even more basic question
remains: Can consumers wean themselves away from paper and embrace the gee-whiz
display technologies?
As display technologies march forward, so, too, do
those for "smart" paper. One type can be electronically erased and rewritten
thousands of times by feeding it through a special companion paper. Japan's
Ricoh Co., Ltd. has developed several types of "smart" paper that will be sold
this year. Two other Japanese companies, Shinsho Corp. and Majima Laboratory
Inc., have developed experimental rewritable paper they say is the first to use
color. It also needs its own printer.
T-Ink Inc. of New York is taking a
different approach with an electrically conductive ink that can make sounds or
light up. It already is being used by McDonald's Australia in Happy Meals. The
Happy Meal toy lights up as it interacts with ink printed on the meal box or
tray liner. Likewise, children using Super Color educational products hear
feedback if they write a correct answer to math or spelling questions. The
marker they write with activates the conductive ink on the paper.
"The ink
is printed on regular, disposable paper," says Andrew Ferber of T-Ink. He says
the ink can be printed onto almost anything, including garments, wallpaper,
automobiles, and devices like cellphones - and it will be washable. "There's no
industry we can't go into."
