Slashdot Mirror
Electronic Paper Plant to be Built in Germany
Aqua_boy17 writes "BBC News is reporting today that Cambridge based firm PlasticLogic is set to build the world's first manufacturing facility dedicated to producing plastic circuits. In particular the company is focused on developing flexible plastic circuits that cost much less than silicon and would soon enable electronic paper devices that could be used to store large amounts of text and other data. The company has secured $100 million in venture capital and is set to build its first facility in Dresden, Germany. Construction of the facility should be completed by 2008 according to the article. Industry experts expect market demand for this technology to approach $30 billion by the year 2015."
Recently, I was viewing a TV program reviewing a number of cell phones (which are the current craze in India). And their findings was in terms of cost effectiveness and design, the Motorola MotoFone F3 was their choice. This cellphone is sold for just around $25. And how did they cut the cost so much ?
Enter their unique display which uses Electronic paper which is developed by the US based E-Link. This cell phone doesn't need power to constantly display an image on the screen. It only needs a little charge when the text (or whatever) needs to be changed. The display stays on even when the battery is pulled out! And more over it is a beautiful phone sleek and thin.
I believe more and more gadgets are going to be manufactured using this new technology. Sony has already released its e-book reader which has the same effects of reading a real book. So PlasticLogic the company is on to a good thing.
Linux Help
for all things on Linux
Do you have any idea how many millions of electronic trees are going to die to feed this plant???!
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
I know a few people, myself included who dislike reading e-books due to the nature of the screen. Also it's not easy to curl up with a good e-book on a computer (laptops are too bulky and pocket pc screens are too small)
If this works and can link with eInk screens to create an easily held, clearly visible book format then I'd be happy to switch away from the dead-tree format.
And we'd save a few trees along the way
ACK NAK RST
This may be a tad off topic, but I still think it's interesting to imagine the effect on style and design ultra-cheap electronic paper could have. Remember the breakfast Tom Cruise had in Minority Report, where a cartoon played on his box of cereals?
If price drops enough, this may lead to inventions such as memory-cards with previews of the content showing right on the card, elecronic labels right in store shelves, changing walls in buildings, floors with directional arrows flying around, guiding you in unfamiliar places, electronic wallpaper for your appartment... add a few giftet artists to all this potential, and I'm sure the world would never look the same again (:
More and more, I think Clarke's third law holds true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws
As the owner of one I really couldn't be happier with the device itself(the software that came with it is another story). I recently did a trans-atlantic flight and the device was a hell of a lot easier to take with me than even one book, let alone 2 or 3. Sharp display, and very readable text.
Sony's software sucks, but there are plenty of ways to get around having to use it, and they REALLY need more books in their bookstore. BTW, it costs $350USD.
Monstar L
Electronic paper is a display device, not storage.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Cambridge, Mass. and Cambridge, East Anglia. There must be something about those freezing cold winters that encourages people to stay indoors and invent things.
Pining for the fjords
The point of this will be downloading magazines and your daily paper via wifi while you're on the bus (with near zero distribution costs, most papers could go free since the ads will make them more money), and having your favorite reference materials at hand, plus a book or two would be a real boon. I'd probably even start to read again away from the computer.
The thing is, the cost of content will have to drop. If I no longer get a physical copy, I shouldn't have to pay for the printing process, and all the overhead that implies. Lower prices might well mean a higher readership because more people would buy more books if they were cheaper and they had the time to read more than they currently do. Well known authors wouldn't have to go to a publisher anymore. They'd write their book, pay an editor out of pocket, and Amazon will let you sell a book download for 3-5 bucks, and take 2 or 3 dollars for themselves. Amazon could host a million books in the size of a small data center, and each book would pay for itself in Amazon's eyes in the first 10 copies. A hundred thousand in sales would be a quarter of a million in profit for the author. Dozens of niche authors would come out of the woodwork because the cost of self publishing would drop through the floor, and we would see an American Idol type of situation in literature, because there are all kinds of talent out waiting to be found. Further, in episodic type literature, an author might even let you download the first 2 books of a series to entice you to read books 3-4 after the first couple have been out a few years, since your downloading the first two books would cost him nothing. Hopefully, this sort of situation would yield higher quality material as well, since the author's current and ongoing sales outlook would depend directly on the number of units sold instead of getting a large contract up front before the book is even written.
Obviously, I've been looking forward to electronic paper for a while now. Just a while longer until it's really affordable.