Official News page 5

REAL LIFE NEWS: AN E-BOOK LIKE PAPER

by Hazed

I've been contemplating the Kindle, Amazon's e-book reader. A few weeks ago somebody sat next to me on the bus and pulled out a Kindle. This was the first time I'd seen one in the flesh, so to speak, and I was impressed. I think I might put it on my Christmas wish list, in the hope that Santa brings me one.

However, it may be better if I hold out for the next generation of e-book readers, because there's a new breakthrough that may make all the current ones on sale completely obsolete within five years. Scientists at Cincinnati University in Ohio have come up with paper that can display electronic images - just like those newspapers in the Harry Potter films, where the pictures come to life.

Andrew Steckl, an electrical engineering professor, said, "It is pretty exciting. With the right paper, the right process and the right device fabrication technique, you can get results that are as good as you would get on glass, and our results are good enough for a video-style e-reader."

He believes that in future, display devices could be rollable, feel like paper, and deliver books, news, color video and so on, in all conditions, including brightly lit rooms or sunlight.

"Nothing looks better than paper for reading," he said. "We hope to have something that would actually look like paper but behave like a computer monitor. 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 in the trash."

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