Tech For Life

Every once in a while a gadget, gizmo, or technology comes along that revolutionises the way the world, or at least some part of it works. The wheel, liquid crystal and piezo electric watches are all examples. I think Electronic Ink (E-ink from now on…) is just one of these technologies.

For those that haven’t come across it before, E-ink is a new way of displaying information on a screen. E-ink displays are black and white for the moment, but it’s the way they work, and most importantly the way they look that is so exciting. As you can see from the image above, looking at a screen using E-ink is more or less just like looking at the printed word on paper. This is a combination of Electronic Ink, and EPD, the Electronic Paper Display.

The EPD works by utilising electrically charged microcapsules of tinted ‘ink’ held within it. When the charge is one way, the capsules float to the surface, when it is another way, they sink back down. Simple eh? Even better, the microcapsules don’t need any power to maintain whichever charge they currently hold. This means that once the screen is displaying something, it uses no power at all until it needs to change that display. Think of that compared to a PC, PDA or laptop!

More coming soon…