This Flexible, Thin E-Paper Can Reproduce A Wide Range Of Colors

Two Swedish researchers created a flexible, power-efficient material that could act just like an e-reader display, only in a variety of colors #objectmagic

Andreas Dahlin and grad student Kunli Xiong realized what they created while working on combining conductive polymers with nanostructures. Turns out the tiny cells could be turned on and off with a slight change in voltage. A display, for all intents and purposes, that didn’t behave like the traditional reflective one, since it didn’t emit light.

“It isn’t lit up like a standard display, but rather reflects the external light which illuminates it,” argued Dahlin in a news release. “Therefore it works very well where there is bright light, such as out in the sun, in contrast to standard LED displays that work best in darkness.”

By altering the cell formation, the e-paper can reflect a multitude of colors, beginning from red, green and blue. That’s fantastic, although we don’t know how intense can these colors be, a matter Dahlin is taking seriously under consideration.

Scientists are also thrilled by the resolution this material could have. They believe it could be high enough for any display, “perhaps a few micrometers per pixel (10^4 dpi)”, although the refresh rate would have to be a few times/second. 

We can’t wait to see it on future e-readers, provided that Dahlin can solve the remaining issues.