Smart Pen & Paper
From Isopedia
Technical Information
Smart Paper is a material that looks and feels like thick, glossy paper, but is a controllable high resolution display surface. Smart Paper is made by E Ink. E Ink produces microencapsulated electronic ink and has it coated onto an ITO-coated (Indium Tin Oxide) (http://www.pgo-online.com/intl/katalog/ito.html) plastic substance in a fast, efficient roll-to-roll process. The ink film is combined with a thin adhesive and a plastic release sheet to form the E Ink film. The film is then converted into individual sheets and packaged for shipment to the display manufacturer.
There are two versions of Smart Paper: Normal and Advanced. The Normal Smart Paper can function as a simple touch screen. Writing can only be recognized with a Smart Pen. Its surface can change many times per second, but not quick enough for video applications. Its resolution can be compared to a 20th century newspaper. The Advanced Smart Paper’s resolution is like of a modern high-quality art book, and it can change quickly that it can be used to display video images in perfect quality.
Smart Paper products are Datacloth, Single Sheets and Smart Book. A Datacloth is a single sheet of Advanced Smart Paper with a set of processors. Single Sheets of Smart Paper cost $5 for a 8” x 11” sheet. A “ring binder” with a reader for small storage media and a cable plug-in Connector that can load data into the pages cost $30 and weighs 1 pound empty. A Smart Book is a book whose sheets and cover are Smart Paper. They have data cable, but no real processing power. They can be linked to a computer, but the book itself is just a display device. A Smart Book comes in three sizes. The small size is about the size of a pocket calendar, it has 30-40 pages and comes with a flexible polymer cover. Its storage is 200MB and costs about $75. The medium size is about the size of a regular GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System) book (8” x 11”), has about 90-110 pages, still polymer or leather cover, weighs about 5 pounds. Its storage is 5GB and it costs $100. The large size is a very large book (11” x 16”). It has 50-70 pages, hard polymer or aluminum cover. It is good for maps and as a portfolio for presentations. It weighs 2 pounds. Its storage is 25GB and it costs $400.
Book Computers with Smart Paper Interfaces require unique operating systems. One of them is “Alexandria” made by Wise Systems. It divides the book into chapters, and provides a table of contents and an index. It arranges the documents over the pages, presents controls as forms, sets and manages hyperlinks and bookmarks pages that were last visited. “Alexandria” lets programs that are not designed for Book Computers run on a page as if it were a normal screen.
Smart Books upload data with a standard Datacables or by radio. A Smart Book does not have much computing power; it should be just enough to actively call a library through the public communication net and request downloads. Smart Books have tiny discs with huge storage capacity called “Smart Spine:” 1GB for a small Smart Book, 5GB for a medium book, and 10 GB for the full sized version.
Smart Paper recognizes user writings with Smart Pen. Smart Pen is a device that resembles a fat pen, but contains a tiny computer and a set of sensors that record and analyze every motion, and then transmit this information to a nearby computer via infrared, radio or direct electrical signal. A Smart Pen helps a computer to recognize handwritten or drawn input.
Historical Information
Digital, or “smart” paper is not a new idea. In the Early 1970’s developers at Xerox prototyped an early model in which their “screen” contained millions of magnetic particles, white on one side, and black on the other. Electric charges to the enclosure flipped the particles, creating a crude display resembling indistinctive pixels on a modern computer screen. The project was scrapped, due to inability to incorporate it into the modern market. Again, in 1993, Jacobson, a noted physicist, remembers delving into the topic because he found interest in a book that was able to type set itself! He was the first however to realize that a vinyl outer shell was the best alternative to create a flexible, paper-like surface. And, by carefully applying electronic charges to the vinyl surface, the particles would be attracted, and would create the desired display.
Jacobson then went further into his theory about how to actually integrate an onboard processor into the paper. Possibilities included self validating tickets, packages with labels that appeared when moved, and countless other possibilities. His microprocessor was to in essence, be made of ink. Including a basic transistor within the particles! His idea of the electronic book was one which is still in pursuit today. While these displays sound complex and expensive, the display, once created, needs almost no power what so ever to maintain its stability. Two AA batteries can maintain an “e book” for over two years!
Jacobson is continually developing technology in this field, including a “crawler” which could create an e book out of material from websites and other databases. Jacobson’s ideals were soon replicated by a company called E Ink. Founded in 1997, in Cambridge, MA, their research began in an MIT lab. This company, through the development and production of electronic displays has become the leading provider of electronic paper displays (EPDs). Not only has E Ink begun to revolutionize the print industry with products based on the studies of Jacobson, but they also have broadened their spectrum into displays in general, for example, clocks, signs, advertisements, etc. In more recent news, in April of 2004, Sony introduced Libre. Based on the technology of E Ink, Libre is an e book that is approximately the size and weight of the average paperback. It includes a small processor, a special application of the Linux operating system, USB capability, a stylus, capable of writing notes in the margins, and 10mb of storage for those notes.
References
Team Members
- Stephen Allegretto
- Michelle Alviso
- Bretton Hunchak
- Joseph Ottaviano
