Providence College DigitalCommons@Providence

Library Faculty and Staff papers Phillips Memorial Library

January 2003

E Ink and Digital Paper

Norman Desmarais Providence College, [email protected]

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Desmarais, Norman, "E Ink and Digital Paper" (2003). Library Faculty and Staff papers. 17. https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/facstaff_pubs/17

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Phillips Memorial Library at DigitalCommons@Providence. It has been accepted for inclusion in Library Faculty and Staff papers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Providence. For more information, please contact [email protected]. c/o Katina Strauch 209 Richardson Avenue MSC 98, The Citadel Charleston, SC 29409 SPECIAL REPRINT ™ VOLUME 14, NUMBER 6 DECEMBER 2002 - JANUARY 2003

ISSN: 1043-2094 “Linking Publishers, Vendors and Librarians” Innovations Affecting Us — E Ink and Digital Paper by Norman Desmarais (Acquisitions Librarian, Phillips Memorial Library, Providence College, Providence, RI 02918; Phone: 401-865-2241; Fax: 401-865-2823)

he main objections people have to read- embedded in their own silicone rubber sheet to Penney. The large signs (44 inches by 15 inches) ing books and documents in electronic function; but the silicone sheet could conceivably needed a very low resolution of only 2-3 dpi (dots Tformat have to do with comfort. The read- be applied to other surfaces. per inch) and were a little more than 5mm thick. ing devices, whether computer monitors or dedi- Computer monitors, by comparison, display at 70 cated devices, cause eye strain, are hard to read at E-Ink dpi and most laser printers print at 600 dpi.) The various angles and under various lighting condi- Joseph Jacobson, who was doing postdoctoral company claims its electronic paper has a resolu- tions, and lack paper’s portability and ease of research in physics at Stanford University in 1995, tion of 200 dpi which can increase to 300 dpi with use. Two companies are working to change that. turned to electrophoresis to develop his vision of the use of 30-micron beads. E Ink and Gyricon Media are working on digi- an eBook that could be reconfigured electronically E Ink allows an image to remain on the screen tal paper technologies, hoping to make digital to display the text of any of hundreds of “books” even after the power source is shut off. It enjoys displays as easy and convenient to use as ink on stored in silicon memory in the book’s spine. Elec- low power consumption, drawing less than 1/ paper. trophoresis uses an electric field to charge particles. 1000th the power required by a standard notebook Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Jacobson founded E Ink Corp. in 1997 which computer screen when used for normal reading. began work on electronic-ink or electronic reus- derives its name from the electrophoretic ink pro- This results in longer battery life. Portable devices able paper, depending on how you want to look at cess. incorporating E Ink displays could have far smaller it, in 1975. It is this technology that underlies the E Ink’s prototype displays use E Ink’s elec- batteries, making them even less expensive and efforts of both E Ink and Gyricon Media. It uses tronic ink and Lucent’s active-matrix drive circuits more portable. microscopic beads that change color under an elec- printed on thin, plastic film. The electronic ink The company claims that electronic ink displays trical charge. E Ink’s Electronic Ink uses millions has qualities similar to paper: extraordinary bright- are lighter, five times brighter, 30-percent thinner, of tiny “switchable” transparent polymer ness and contrast under a wide range of lighting and have a higher resolution than traditional LCD microcapsules — about 100,000 per square inch conditions and easy viewing from all angles. The displays. They have a high contrast in daylight, of inked area. These microcapsules, which are plastic transistors have properties similar to those improved by switching from blue to deep black analogous to the microencapsulated coatings on of silicon chip semiconductors; but they are flex- ink with other two-color options available and full business forms, contain microscopic white pigment ible and can be printed. color possible. The bright paper-white background spheres immersed in a dark dye. A positive charge The first flexible electronic-ink display was a eliminates the need for a backlight in most appli- attracts the white chips to the top of the sphere and five-by-five-inch screen with the consistency and cations. Because electronic ink displays read like a negative charge repels them to the bottom, where thickness of a computer mouse pad. A partnership ink on paper, they should cause less eyestrain than they are obscured by the dye, causing text to ap- with IBM Research resulted in a flexible 12.1 inch most other displays that typically emit or transmit pear. Reversing the process produces white let- diagonal (25 square inch area) display with the light. They also allow a wide viewing angle. ters on a dark background. Once switched, they resolution of a typical laptop computer monitor (83 While the J.C. Penney test proved the con- retain their setting with little or no additional power. dpi). It is roughly one quarter the thickness and cept that electronic ink could be used on any These microcapsules can be sprayed or pressed weight of a standard liquid crystal display (LCD) surface where a display is needed, the company onto a variety of materials, such as plastic, glass, panel and can display both text and simple graphic has withdrawn from the store market and turned and paper. images while being flexed. LCD is the most popu- its attention to the more lucrative handheld dis- Gyricon Media’s SmartPaper uses tiny solid lar display technology, found in everything from play market. It plans to develop high-resolu- beads suspended in pockets of oil fixed in a sili- digital watches and calculators to mobile phones, tion displays for portable devices, such as cel- cone rubber sheet. These beads, which are half flat-screen televisions, and even microwave ov- lular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), black and half white, turn freely depending on their ens. and eBook reader devices with screens as easy charge. The black side has a static charge, while The company’s first product, called to read as ink on paper. the white side is neutral. These beads must be “Immedia,” was an indoor display board for J.C. continued on page 89

88 Against the Grain / Special Reprint — December 2002 - January 2003 Gyricon Media envisions a paper substitute infrared, making it usable at night with night Innovations Affecting Us capable of printing itself that could serve to dis- vision goggles which interests the U.S. military’s from page 88 play up-to-the-minute news or feature stories. eBook effort. The computing power could reside either in a Philips Components, a division of Royal The cholesteric-LCD requires the electric binder holding the sheets or in a wand or stylus current to reach a certain threshold before it Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, teamed device. Both devices are expected to receive with E Ink to manufacture and sell display mod- works. That results in little “cross-talk” between data wirelessly and imprint text and images on neighboring elements in the display, allowing ules using E Ink technology for PDAs and elec- the sheets, refreshing them as often as needed. tronic books, hoping to gain a competitive ad- for much simpler and cheaper wiring to switch The devices could eventually read the pages as the pixels on and off. Even though the choles- vantage in battery life for its handheld devices well as write to them, making them two-way. because electronic paper consumes as little as teric display is only 1.5mm thick, it still needs a Electric Paper could be almost as cheap and rigid plastic surface. That means it cannot be one hundredth the power of a comparable LCD reader-friendly as paper and as spontaneous and screen. folded or even furled. Although Ch-LCD has rich as the Internet because the remote server great potential for devices like PDAs and E Ink’s ultimate goal is to develop what it and the wand or binder would concentrate all eBooks, it is out of the running as an alternative calls “radio paper” — flexible digital paper with the power, weight, and cost. to newsprint. high-resolution color and the capability of be- Analysts expect Xerox to pursue the “magic Hewlett-Packard is experimenting with ing reconfigured instantly via a computer, a wand” approach. The wand or stylus would con- wireless data network, or the Internet. It could slightly elastic liquid-crystal materials that con- tain an array of electric contacts and memory sist of molecules that can be stable in two dif- be used both in computers and in ultra-thin, devices. The words and images would be up- lightweight displays for portable information ferent orientations. This approach does not need dated by drawing the wand over the “paper,” or energy to maintain the display. Meanwhile, appliances. Radio paper could result in pulling the “paper” through a slot in the wand. reprogrammable books, newspapers, billboards Microsoft Corp. is working on a project called This approach has the advantage that it could “ClearType.” and other documents that need refreshing with become a portable printer, copier, fax, and scan- the latest information, garments, and even wall- ner. But this makes Electric Paper little more The Myth of the Paperless Office paper. than a photocopier with re-usable paper — an These electronic ink or digital paper tech- E Ink envisions its eBook to have “real pages idea that had been tried before and had failed. nologies aim for universal display applications, that can be leafed through, thumbed over and Sceptics are quick to point out that Xerox ranging from desktop computers to PDAs, tele- read on the beach.” The company also antici- has a history of failing to commercialize great phones, wristwatches, etc. The devices will pates pages that will let a reader switch from ideas developed inside PARC. The graphical probably weigh less and use less power than the daily newspaper to a best-selling novel at user-interface popularized by Apple’s existing devices. They promise much easier the press of a button, achieving a cross between Macintosh and Microsoft’s Windows, drop- reading with text easily viewable under varied broadcast and print. Potential applications could down menus, the computer mouse, and even lighting conditions and from a wide range of range from reusable technical manuals to dis- Ethernet originated in Xerox PARC’s labs to reading angles. They target applications that plays for handheld devices. be ignored and developed and commercialized have conventionally used paper, such as bill- E Ink faces some stiff challenges. Compe- by other companies. Gyricon could end up fol- boards, in-store displays, newspapers, wallpa- tition will come from Gyricon Media, organic lowing suit. per, shelf price tags, and other applications light-emitting diodes, and carbon-based com- Gyricon faces several challenges, such as in- where the content is subject to change. pounds that are pliable and relatively energy- creasing resolution, improving the whiteness While the technology shows promise for im- efficient and capable of producing light-emit- from the current LCD gray, developing full proving readability over existing devices, it remains ting semiconductors. color, making the sheets fully erasable, and anchored in the ink on paper or book metaphors. Gyricon shielding them from electrical interference. The publishing industry is undergoing a paradigm Sheridon already has a patent to use transpar- shift; but the metaphors still describe innovations Nicholas K. Sheridon invented Gyricon ent Gyricon beads with thin disks of color filter in terms of what they replace rather than the new which is Greek for “rotating image” when he material. These cyan, magenta, and yellow reality. The principal concept underlying the elec- was a senior research fellow at Xerox Corp.’s beads would each be addressable by different tronic book remains the book rather than the im- Palo Alto Research Center in California. He voltage levels to produce color. proved functionality. The book, until now, desig- eventually formed Gyricon Media which be- nated a format — a group of pages of paper or came an independent venture in December, Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Display other material bound together; but the electronic 2000. Gyricon or Electric Paper uses thou- While digital ink and electronic paper hold book neither looks nor feels anything like a book. sands of tiny plastic balls that act as pixels em- much promise, they do not seem to pose a vi- The concept of the electronic book has shifted from bedded in a silicone rubber sheet. Each sheet, able threat to LCDs. Kent Displays and the form to the content, referring to the information including its plastic sheathing, is as thin as poster Hewlett-Packard are both working on LCDs content rather than the format or playback device. board and about as floppy. It can store digital that are as bi-stable and reflective as electronic images for months without power and can dis- paper. There is also competition from organic New technologies usually introduce new ca- play those images powered only by two AA bat- light-emitting diodes. pabilities or do something more efficiently. These characteristics, rather than the delivery medium, teries which can last up to two years. The sheets Kent Displays Inc. is focusing on choles- can also refresh and update images much the should drive the use of the metaphors. Paper is teric liquid crystal displays that are beginning superior to digital technology as a communications way a monitor does. to emerge from laboratories. Dr. J. William The company’s prototype product, called and storage medium in a number of ways. It is Doane created a technology called “cholesteric” cheaper, more portable, flexible, light, foldable, and SmartPaper was initially intended for use as liquid crystal displays (Ch-LCD) which uses liq- is more easily replaced than anything digital. Pa- point-of-purchase displays in retail stores. It uid-crystal material made from cholesterol. The per has good contrast as well as has high and even looks like an 11-by-14-inch panel on an alumi- Ch-LCD is chemically altered so that it is bi- num stand. It has an array of electrodes along reflectivity. It is readable in a variety of lighting stable making it reflective or non-reflective, conditions and from a wide range of angles. Pa- the edge that can update instantaneously the in- depending on the direction of the electric cur- formation displayed on the paper’s flexible, rub- per use is intuitive: it is humanly readable and re- rent applied to its surface. quires no training or special viewers that need elec- bery surface. This allows retailers to control Unlike standard LCDs, Ch-LCDs can be read product pricing from a central location, chang- trical power or batteries; and magnetic fields won’t from large angles and retain the full image when corrupt its content. Nor does it have to be “re- ing prices electronically on the store floor and power is removed from the display. They can at the cash register at the same time. freshed” periodically or converted to other media also be used in a variety of lighting conditions, or formats every ten years or so. However, ink on SmartPaper is 12 to 15 mils thick while including direct sunlight, because the display re- paper cannot be erased instantaneously and reused paper is only about four mils thick; so paper has flects light instead of emitting it. Not only do millions of times without wearing out. an advantage for look and feel. However, Ch-LCDs reflect light, they can reflect it near continued on page 90

Against the Grain / Special Reprint — December 2002 - January 2003 89 because they are display technologies, not stor- Innovations Affecting Us age technologies. On the other hand, digital “Linking from page 89 paper will certainly displace its share of paper, just as email and electronic forms have replaced Publishers, Vendors Some pundits have used the phrase “the paper-based memos and internal report docu- and Librarians” paperless office” to predict paper’s rapid demise. ments, if it is capable of storing book length But the paperless office is a myth. It will occur documents. Electronic books might eventually only after the paperless bathroom. Other tech- drive the creation of Internet-based “book of the nologies touted as instruments to bring about the month”-type subscription services. However, paperless office have contributed to the con- as long as the technologists resort to paradigms sumption of even more paper. of ink-on-paper to define its functionality, no Electronic ink and digital paper technologies digital medium will become recognized as a true Uncommon ... may do little to bring about the paperless office paradigm shift. Against the Grain is your key to the latest news about libraries, publishers, book jobbers, and References subscription agents. ATG is a Battey, Jim. Delivering On The Electronic-Pa- Orenstein, David. You’ve Heard Of Digital Ink; unique collection of reports on the per Promise. InfoWorld, 23:16 (Apr 16, 2001) How About Digital Paper? Computerworld, 33:4 issues, literature, and people that p.38. (Jan 25, 1999) p.81. impact the world of books, journals, Digital Ink Meets Electronic Paper. Economist, Terry, Ana Arias. Electronic Ink Technologies: and electronic information. 357:8200 (Dec. 9, 2000), pp19ss. Showing The Way To A Brighter Future. Library Ditlea, Steve. The Electronic Paper Chase. Sci- Hi Tech. 19: 4, 2001. entific American, 285 : 5 (Nov. 2001), pp50ss. • What Is Electronic Ink? Available on the E E Ink Corporation’s Immedia Technology to Ink Website at www.eink.com/technology/ Eventually Be Used in Electronic Publishing. index.htm. Information Today, 16:7 (Jul/Aug, 1999), p.33. • The Last Book. Joseph Jacobson in IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 36, No. 3; 1997. Avail- E Ink Demonstrates Active-Matrix Electronic able at www.research.ibm. com/journal/sj/ Unconventional ... Ink Display. Information Today, 18:6 (June, 363/jacobson.html. 2001) p.44. ATG is published six times a year, in • For more information on plastic transistors, February, April, June, September, Hane, Paula J. E Ink Demonstrates Active-Ma- go to www.bell-labs.com. trix Electronic Ink Display. Information To- November, and December/January. A • Information about Electronic Reusable Pa- six issue subscription is available for day, 18 : 6 (June, 2001), p.44 . per is available on the Xerox PARC Website Hane, Paula J. Xerox, E Ink Corp. Announce at www.parc.xerox.com/dhl/projects/gyricon/. only $40 U.S. ($50 Canada, $70 New Developments In Commercializing Digi- • Information about SmartPaper is available foreign), making it an uncommonly tal Paper. Information Today, 18:2 (Feb. 2001) on the Gyricon Media Website at www. good buy for all that it covers. Make p.33. gyriconmedia.com/smartpaper/index.asp. checks payable to Against the Grain, LLC and mail to: Katina Strauch 209 Richardson Avenue MSC 98, The Citadel

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90 Against the Grain / Special Reprint — December 2002 - January 2003