E-Paper Ready for Rollout
BusinessWeek has a story on electronic ink applications, such as Hitachi’s electronic paper advertisement displays, updated via wireless connection.
They remind us of the fact that modern information technoloy has not led to the once envisioned paper-free office.
But the fact is, paper hasn’t gone away. The spread of the Internet and the rise of the PC have made information ever more accessible, leading not to the death of paper but to its proliferation. In 2004, worldwide paper production was roughly 400 million tons, compared with about 300 million in 1995, according to Japan Pulp & Paper statistics.
It remains to be seen whether or how soon e-paper will replace real paper. Applications such as rewritable shop price tags and billboards, where e-paper can provide added functionality, compared with traditional paper,
could help the market for e-paper surge to nearly $900 million by 2011, from $2 million last year, according to Tokyo-based market watcher Techno System Research.
The article goes on to mention colour electronic paper and printable OLEDs.
It’s cleary a business article, so we can forgive them for confusing some of the technical details:
Despite their differences, LCDs and OLEDs share two important traits: They can quickly change what they display and don’t need a backlight, so the only time they use power is when text or images change.
Of course LCDs and OLEDs are fast compared to most e-paper types, but, unlike bistable e-paper, constantly require power. Also, most LCDs do need a backlight (or frontlight), at least for low-light situations.