Conjectures and Refutations � Blog Archive � Okay, Now Dead Tree Media is Dead

Matt McIntosh is a smartass, but he links to a very interesting new technology.

The article he link talks about a new portable electronic reading device:

The screen uses E Ink technology developed by a Cambridge, Massachusetts, company. It consists of 480,000 tiny "microcapsules," each of which contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When current is applied to electrodes underneath these capsules, they turn black or white, depending on the polarity of the current.

The result is a display that looks far more like ordinary paper than a liquid crystal display, because the pixels reflect ambient light rather than transmit light from behind. There's no flicker, because the pixels are completely static (in an LCD or a cathode-ray tube display, by contrast, pixels need to be "refreshed" 60 times per second or more).

The E Ink technology also conserves batteries because current is used only when pixels need to change their color -- between virtual page turns, the Reader consumes no current at all. Its batteries will last for about 7,500 pages, according to Sony.

And as Matt was so quick to point out, this kind of takes my idea about an online library to the cleaners. If the technology catches on, of course.

Certainly would be nice to be able to read something on a screen without the detriment to your eyes.