ElectrowettingElectrowetting is not just what a robo-baby does in his cyber-diaper. It’s a method of e-ink-like display technology under development, and a recent discovery by a University of Cincinatti engineering researcher could eventually lead to e-paper screens constructed out of e-ink on ordinary paper, rather than glass—reducing the price of e-reader displays considerably.

Given that the screen is usually the most expensive part of any tablet or e-book reader, this could lead to e-ink readers that are literally disposable—while at the same time looking better than e-ink displays today.

“Nothing looks better than paper for reading,” said [Electrical Engineering Professor Andrew] Steckl, an Ohio Eminent Scholar. “We hope to have something that would actually look like paper but behave like a computer monitor in terms of its ability to store information. We would have something that is very cheap, very fast, full-color and at the end of the day or the end of the week, you could pitch it into the trash.”

In addition to being cheap and looking good, it would also be considerably more biodegradable than today’s electronic devices.

Of course, this is little more than a technology demonstration at the moment. Steckl hopes to attract commercial interest for the next stage of the development process, which could take three to five years to bring a product to market.

This development could very well revolutionize the e-reader market, moving e-readers from expensive to disposable much as cell phones moved from the unwieldy, hyper-costly DynaTAC to disposable TracFones.

(Found via Engadget and Wired.)

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