Today in Tokyo Japan Sony unveiled a prototype of its flexible epaper that is very news paper-esque. It uses a solid plastic substrate that allows the display to be bended in varying degrees.
Every year or so, Sony holds a large convention in Japan where it shows off all of the companies prototypes that have up their sleeves. What caught the our attention was that normally e-paper is contained a glass substrate, which encases the epaper/eink screen. This one, actually has a different one all together, which made the e-ink so much more vibrant.
One of the benefits of the plastic substrate vs. the glass is that it is much more resilient and less prone to breaking when dropped or grazed against a sharp object.
Although Sony has not mentioned what product lines or failed to mention any ground breaking Sony E-Readers coming up in the future, but with technology like this being developed by a mega company, the possibilities of a new breed of e-reader or flexible paper functioning as a e-ink white board, or a folding newspaper is making me salivate.
Thanks to the Sony Insider for the scoop.
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Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
