Reflecting on Flexible Electronic Displays

摘要

Nothing beats paper when it comes to displaying readable text in a comfortable, familiar form factor. That's one of the reasons that the ebook market has yet to take off. Who wants to read a whale of a book like Moby Dick on a minnow of a display like a PDA? So instead of fighting this fact of life, a new, yet not so new, technology has risen to the challenge: epaper. The not-so-new label comes from the fact that the idea for digital paper actually originated 25 years ago. That said, it remains cutting edge stuff. The foundation of epaper (known as digital paper, SmartPaper, and a slew of other names) is based upon the idea that it's easier for your eyes to read text from a reflective surface―like old-fashioned wood pulp paper―than backlit displays, like those you'd find in your cell phone, laptop, etc. The broader, long-term goal is to develop a display technology that parallels paper in its readability, familiarity, and portability while incorporating the ability to update the display wirelessly. But that's not enough for certain potential users; some want it to be able to take a bullet.