[Summary] In April 1997, researchers at the MIT Media Lab (MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology) founded the company E Ink to develop an electronic ink technology. Very briefly (and not so well) explained, the technology was the following one: caught between two sheets of flexible plastic, millions of micro-capsules, each of them containing black and white particles, are in suspension in a clear fluid. A positive or negative electric field indicates the desired group of particles on the surface, to view, modify or delete data. The first screen using this technology was available as a prototype in July 2002, and marketed in 2004. Other screens followed for various ebook readers (Librié, Sony Reader, Cybook, Kindle, Nook, etc.), as well as prototypes of flexible displays announcing the forthcoming electronic paper.
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In April 1997, researchers at the MIT Media Lab (MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology) founded the company E Ink to develop an electronic ink technology.
The first screen using this technology was available as a prototype in July 2002, and marketed in 2004. Other screens followed for various ebook readers (Librié, Sony Reader, Cybook, Kindle, Nook, etc.), as well as prototypes of flexible displays announcing the forthcoming electronic paper.
As explained on the company's website: "Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. Although revolutionary in concept, electronic ink is a straightforward fusion of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot. To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. These microcapsules are suspended in a liquid 'carrier medium' allowing them to be printed using existing screen printing processes onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric and even paper. Ultimately electronic ink will permit most any surface to become a display, bringing information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us."
LCD screens of ebook readers were replaced by E Ink screens. Launched in April 2004 by Sony in Japan, the Librié was the first ebook reader with a 6-inch E Ink screen. Launched in October 2006 in the U.S., the Sony Reader had a E Ink screen that gave “an excellent reading experience very close to that of real paper, making it very easy going on the eyes" (Mike Cook, editor of epubBooks.com). The Sony Reader was then available in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and France, with various models. The Cybook Gen3 launched by Bookeen in July 2007, the Kindle launched by Amazon in November 2007, and the Nook launched by Barnes & Noble in November 2009 also had E Ink screens.
Another display technology was the gyricon, developed since 1997 by PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), the Xerox center in Silicon Valley, California. In December 2000, some researchers at PARC founded the company Gyricon Media to market the SmartPaper, an electronic paper based on the gyricon technology. Very briefly (and not so well) explained, the technology was the following one: in between two sheets of flexible plastic, millions of micro-cells contain two-tone (black and white) beads suspended in a clear liquid. Each bead has an electric charge. An external electrical pulse makes the balls rotate and change color, to display, modify, or delete data. In 2004, Gyricon Media began marketing commercial advertising, for example small posters running on batteries. The company ended its activities in 2005, with R&D activities going on at Xerox.
Another project has been developed by the company Plastic Logic, this time using both proprietary plastic electronics and the E Ink Technology. As explained on the company’s website in 2009: "Technology for plastic electronics on thin and flexible plastic substrates was developed at Cambridge University’s renowned Cavendish Laboratory in the 1990s. In 2000, Plastic Logic was spun out of Cavendish Laboratory to develop a broad range of products using the plastic electronics technology."
1997 > THE ELECTRONIC BEOWULF PROJECT
[Summary] Some digitized versions of treasures from the British Library were freely available online in the late 1990s. One of the first digitized treasures was Beowulf, the earliest known narrative poem in English, and one of the most famous works of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The British Library holds the only known manuscript of Beowulf, dated circa 1000. Brian Lang, chief executive of the library, explained on the website: "The Beowulf manuscript is a unique treasure and imposes on the Library a responsibility to scholars throughout the world. Digital photography offered for the first time the possibility of recording text concealed by early repairs, and a less expensive and safer way of recording readings under special light conditions. (…) This work has not only advanced scholarship; it has also captured the imagination of a wider public, engaging people (through press reports and the availability over computer networks of selected images and text) in the appreciation of one of the primary artefacts of our shared cultural heritage."