One World: Plastics

摘要

The next big thing in electronics may be talking magazine ads, smart spray paint and foldable displays. SOMEONE WHO MAY out to be the father of ubiquitous computing, Sir Richard Friend is a hard guy to track down. Phone calls made to his two laboratories at Britain's Cambridge University, where he is a professor of physics, go unanswered, as do e-mails sent to the offices of both of his high-tech companies, Plastic Logic and Cambridge Display Technology (CDT). "Have the college porter leave a messagein his pigeonhole," advises a Cambridge neighbor. How long the note will languish in its wooden box before Friend retrieves it is anyone's guess. One can only hope for the day when his technology might allow smart pigeonholes spray-painted with plasticmicrochips to alert their owners to new handwritten messages.