ereading tech roundup

The ereader market is maturing. Richly featured tablets have finally arrived in the form of the iPad. At the other end of the price scale is the stripped down third generation Kindle, while the Indian government has unveiled a linux-based tablet/eReader with an apparent unit cost of around $NZ50.

However the next wave of innovation is already coming over the horizon, and fully-flexible displays and interactive touch or 'haptics' are two technologies which have been demonstrated by working prototypes. Sony's rollable OLED display can continue to play video while being rolled and unrolled, while researchers at the Disney-backed research labs at Carnegie Mellon University are developing technology for 'haptic' displays which respond to the users' touch. Researcher Dr Ivan Poupyrev states that

"The basic goal of the technology we are developing at Disney is to create a perception of texture - to let people 'feel' objects on screen by stroking them with their fingers."

According to Poupyrev, the technology 'can recreate the feeling of paper of a textile, simulate the smoothness of glass and even the roughness of sand paper'. He believes that combining haptics with flexibility will provide a whole new class of displays:

"iPad allows people to touch virtual objects as though they were real," he said. "Flexibility should take a further step and let people feel them, stretch them, bend them and have them react to these interactions," he said.

Another fusion of technologies was recently unveiled by HP: a mylar-based flexible display capable of displaying video which is also bistable and thus hold images in a zero-power mode similar to e-ink technologies. Tech blogger Fabrizio Pilato reported that 'this type of display could be included in e-book readers, smartbooks, or slates... HP wants to create devices that deliver more richness while still maintaining mobility.'

The development of these technologies into consumer products depend on the commercialisation of technologies which are currently hideously expensive. OLED technology is also being heavily developed for use as a green lighting technology, where it is expected to grow 'from almost nil to more than $[US]4.5 billion by 2013' by market research firm NanoMarkets. While these predictions are considered optimistic by some, the industrial economies of scale which will be brought about OLED lighting will hasten the affordability of a whole new generation of haptic, flexible and low-power displays for use in ereading technology.