Siemens, a German electrical engineering company, has built
a revolutionary prototype of electronic paper.
The Technology
The key to the importance of Siemens’ e-paper is its
ability to be manufactured for an extremely low cost. This
low cost of production is accomplished by using a very simple
manufacturing technique called microcontact printing. This
technique is crucial in keeping the manufacturing costs down
because it does not require the expensive “clean rooms” needed
to build today’s electronic components
The power source is a small battery pack that can run for
several months and is equally simple and inexpensive.
The e-paper itself is made out of thin flexible plastic
that is less than a millimitre thick with the display components
stamped into it.
The Cost
The cost is crucial. What the e-paper does is not actually
very impressive in itself. It has a small number of pixels
per inch and its frame rate is abysmally slow by television
and monitor standards. But it is so affordable that it
could potential be adapted to any product.
According to a statement made by a Siemens representative,
a 1-by-2-inch, paper-thin electronic display that Kodak developed
at a cost of more than $40, Siemens' is able to make for
just 30 cents.
The Impact
Among the many industries that this might have an impact
on, the effects on the marketing industry can be expected
to be particularly keen. The imagination reels at the impact
this will have when one takes the time to consider all
of the places that a low-cost electronic paper could be
situated.
The applications for this new technology have yet to be
fully explored. What is generally agreed upon, however, is
that there will be a great many potential applications. A
huge roll of e-paper could be unrolled and hung to create
a
massive animated billboard with the ease of hanging
paper.
Business
cards with
digital displays could be updated as needed. The
cereal aisle of every grocery store could be filled with
boxes decaled in animated promotions.
The Concerns
Criticism is already brewing around this new and potentially
powerful technology. With the ever increasing pervasiveness
of advertising some see e-paper as a wonderful marketing
tool but also potentially dangerous to our cultures mental
health.
In a statement to Wired magazine, Kalle Lasn, founder of
Adbusters Media Foundation, worried that “we live in
an age when we the people have lost control of our own culture
that is being spoon-fed to us by marketers and advertising
agencies -- and that is where all of the breakthroughs are
happening."
The war between people like Kalle Lasn and the marketing
frims of the world will, however, will have to wait a little
longer. Siemens’ e-paper is still in the development
phase and is yet to pass the final test of functioning properly
after mass-production.
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