14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that technological wonders never cease, one of the most recent ones being a sort of method that a certain group of researchers claim to be able to turn paper into a monitor that can later be thrown into the trash.
Even with all the advancements in virtual data storage and management, paper is still very much of everyone's every-day lives, especially those of bureaucrats.
Now, it seems that a certain Andrew Steckl from the University of Cincinnati has come up with a way to have this regular paper act much in the same way as e-paper.
Essentially, he and his researcher partners were able to devise a way of creating e-paper on paper, by using paper instead of glass as the substrate.
The method by which this will be accomplished is known as electrowetting and is a process by which a hydrophobic surface is applied within a display with a field of electricity.
"One of the main goals of e-paper is to replicate the look and feel of actual ink on paper," the researchers stated.
"We have, therefore, investigated the use of paper as the perfect substrate for EW devices to accomplish e-paper on paper."
"We hope to have something that would actually look like paper but behave like a computer monitor in terms of its ability to store information," Steckl added.
"We would have something that is very cheap, very fast, full-color and at the end of the day or the end of the week, you could pitch it into the trash."
Mostly, such e-paper on paper will have the advantages of being cheap to make and supporting everything up to high-resolution color video while still being possible to roll up and carry in a pocket.
The only real concern about such a product is that disposing of it may eventually impact negatively on the environment, but the researchers claim that it won't be too high.