By PETER SINCLAIR
It's over three years now since I grandly announced the death of paper as we've known it and informed Herald readers that digital paper - Gyricon - was about to revolutionise the printed word.
Well, I was a tad premature first time round so let's try it again. Because
by the time these words appear, Gyricon's first working spinoff of the digital paper concept will be up and running, the first true application of the internet to a paper-like material.
Instantly updateable point-of-sale SmartPaper placards will be appearing all over in New Jersey's legendary Macy's department store. Powered by simple AA batteries, each will be updated across a wireless network using TCP/IP, the common language of the internet itself.
It means that Macy's will be able instantly to change thousands of pricing-signs from a central computer right across the store - or its whole chain of stores, for that matter.
Palo Alto's Gyricon Media is an offshoot of the legendary Xerox PARC technology lab - the one which more or less developed the PC but didn't realise it had.
Xerox scientist Nicholas Sheridon worked out how to incorporate millions of tiny plastic balls (0.03mm, or 4 to the pixel), white on one side and black on the other, into latex-thin sheets of silica, Earth's cheapest and most common ingredient.
Soaked in oil, the sheets expand and slippery pockets form around each ball, letting it rotate.
Given a small charge, slightly greater on one side, the balls lift in their cells when an electric field is applied to the surface of the sheet, spin excitedly like tiny compasses to point either black or white side upwards, and are then slammed against the far wall, where they stick until dislodged by another field.
Higher voltages make the balls stick before completing their rotation, producing shades of grey. Research on a colour version is well advanced.
Result: Gyricon - thin, flexible sheets for writing and reading which last practically forever - can be pre- or re-programmed millions of times, and cost no more than fine stationery. Silicon has triumphed over cellulose.
A standard SmartPaper sheet has a resolution of 100dpi (dots per inch) - treatment which wouldn't do a thing for the Mona Lisa but which would be just fine for: "SALE! $$$ off everything!"
You write on them with a stylus which spreads a tiny electric field instead of ink. The pocket-protector, too, is doomed.
At the moment, the largest SmartPaper prototypes are 18x28 inches, but in theory there's no reason they couldn't be scaled right up to billboard-size, allowing updateable nationwide advertising networks at a fraction of present costs.
The days of the LCD screen on laptops are probably numbered as well, although Alan Sobel, editor of the Journal for the Society of Information Display, predicts a fight - the impact of electronic paper on business will be profound as corporations struggle to retain some of their huge investment in traditional products.
Other applications aren't hard to think of, like e-paper displays for perishable data such as lottery numbers, weather reports, sports scores.
One of the ideas at the top of Gyricon's wish-list is a portable electronic newspaper, battery-powered and updateable via the net. This can only be sensational news for the print media and associated advertising industries.
As for e-wallpaper and its potential in home décor - the chances are good that e-paper will become a vibrant new medium in its own right, as well as revolutionising existing products.
How about programmable bumper stickers? Or clothing that changed colour to whatever you want whenever you want!
My mind is doing a bit of a boggle already.
BOOKMARKS
POST-NAPSTER MP3: Audiogalaxy
Gnutella and BearShare not doing it for you? A lot of search issues in the post-Napster era are suddenly addressed in Audiogalaxy, a fairly new alternative for free music downloads that is winning a lot of friends.
Like Napster, Audiogalaxy filters copyrighted music from its system, but with a difference - the company helps search off-network for music it refuses to host itself, guiding people to free copies of almost any popular song. People say they are impressed by features such as "resume," which saves time by allowing them to seamlessly pick up where they left off if a download gets cut off midstream.
And, most importantly, searches seem to turn up pretty much anything you look for.
Advisory: MP3 mania returns.
CEO WEB TRAINING: CEOonline
In a flurry of heady claims, the site has been designed to deliver the essential first step for chief executive officers, business owners and managers to get relevant business information at one location on the web.
"Powerful business information, instantly accessible! Real 24-hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year convenience that gives you the information you need, and that you can actually use immediately," and so on.
Why spend more time looking through "business" websites than running your business, they ask.
Why indeed?
Advisory: case studies, business answers ...
* pete@ihug.co.nz
Gyricon
Gyricon Media
Audiogalaxy
CEO online
<i>Peter Sinclair:</i> Reusable paper that lasts forever
By PETER SINCLAIR
It's over three years now since I grandly announced the death of paper as we've known it and informed Herald readers that digital paper - Gyricon - was about to revolutionise the printed word.
Well, I was a tad premature first time round so let's try it again. Because
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