Electronic paper

Electronic paper
written by Mara Manduchi
Bachelors in Astronomy-University of Bologna,Italy
Teacher of Physics and Mathematics
Currently attending the SSIS School of the University of Bologna,Italy



introduction

the electronic paper, also called e-paper, is a display technology which has been designed to mimic the aspect of a printed paper on a specific display.
The e-paper gives to readers the chance to read magazines,books and journals on a technological support.


history

In 1970 Nick Sheridon who was working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), created the first version of today's electronic paper, called Gyricon.
Nevertheless the research for the real version of e-paper started only after 1998.Infact it was the members of E Ink who in 1997, through researches in the Massachusetts Institute of Tecnology’s Media Lab, found the Electrophoretic Frontplane technology.
In 2004 companies such as Philips, Sony and E-Ink announced the first application of an Epd (Electronic Paper Display) in a new reader for e-books created by Sony.

Advantages/Disadvantages
E-book readers,which are an application of electronic paper technology, are very managable, light and have the dimensions of a book. Moreover they are easy to read. It has to be stressed that one of the most important advantages is the reduction of the paper which is consumed on a daily basis and the amount of energy which is saved up.


Futur goals

In these days e-book readers have a very high cost but it is predicted that in a short period of time, they will be affordable in a large scale.


E-paper
As written before,the electronic paper is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink and paper.It has been invented thanks to the will to minimize the use of ordinary paper.It has two basic components which are the following: the frontplane which is made out of electornic ink, also called e-ink and the backplane which is used to produce the text and the immages on the page e-ink.
The enormous progress during the last ten years have given place to the developpment of extremely managable supports,easy to read and very ecological! Infact there is a grear reduction of the quantity of paper which is used. Furthermore e-ink is saving up energy given that the later is needed during the upload of a page and not to maintain the visible parts on the display.

An application of this technology is the electonic reader.This display of reading books in an electronic format,already out in the market, is revolutioning the world of books.
Infact magazines, journals and books can be downloaded on the e-book reader at a low cost in comparison to the traditional books.

There are a few houses of publish which are extending the production of e-books in books for school which can be stored in a USB key.This could be very useful for students on a financial level. Moreover the more innovative aspect of e-books is the fact that they can be regularly uploaded with new material through an interactive procedure. Infact several european countries are about to finance programs which will include the use of e-books,even though these are not present at the moment in most of the schools.