#electronic paper

New Electronic Paper Displays Brilliant Colors With Minimum Energy Consumption

Imagine sitting out in the sun, reading a digital screen as thin as paper, but seeing the same image quality as if you were indoors. Thanks to research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, it could soon be a reality.  A new type of reflective screen – sometimes described as ‘electronic paper’ – offers optimal color display, while using ambient light to keep energy consumption to a minimum.

Traditional digital screens use a backlight to illuminate the text or images displayed upon them. This is fine indoors, but we’ve all experienced the difficulties of viewing such screens in bright sunshine. Reflective screens, however, attempt to use the ambient light, mimicking the way our eyes respond to natural paper.

“For reflective screens to compete with the energy-intensive digital screens that we use today, images and colors must be reproduced with the same high quality. That will be the real breakthrough. Our research now shows how the technology can be optimized, making it attractive for commercial use,” says Marika Gugole, Doctoral Student at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

‘Paper Torch’ - by nendo - in collaboration with AgIC & Takeo ____

'Smart' paper can conduct electricity, detect water

In cities and large-scale manufacturing plants, a water leak in a complicated network of pipes can take tremendous time and effort to detect, as technicians must disassemble many pieces to locate the problem. The American Water Works Association indicates that nearly a quarter-million water line breaks occur each year in the U.S., costing public water utilities about $2.8 billion annually.

A University of Washington team wants to simplify the process for discovering detrimental leaks by developing "smart" paper that can sense the presence of water. The paper, laced with conductive nanomaterials, can be employed as a switch, turning on or off an LED light or an alarm system indicating the absence or presence of water.

The researchers described their discovery in a paper appearing in the November issue of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

"Water sensing is very challenging to do due to the polar nature of water, and what is used now is very expensive and not practical to implement," said lead author Anthony Dichiara, a UW assistant professor of bioresource science and engineering in the School of Environment and Forest Sciences. "That led to the reason to pursue this work."

This is a 7.5 inch e-ink screen with 800x480 resolution, SPI interface, and the display is capable to display images with black and white content. Your image holds indefinitely without power – put up your image, then shut down the power. Once these e-paper modules are updated they don't require any power and can actually be disconnected entirely and the content will remain on the display indefinitely.