[extropy-chat] Umberto Eco: In Defense of Vegetal Memory

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

I agree, and I am sure smart paper will be available soon (say three to five years to complete tech development, plus a few years for the adaptation of the market). Here is a sign that things are happening:

>From a recent (Dec. 10, 2003) Gyricon press release: Gyricon LLC has announced release of its first commercial application of SmartPaper technology: SyncroSign Message Board. The product launch took place at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, where SmartPaper technology was developed.
SyncroSign Message Board is a battery-powered Wi-Fi network sign incorporating SmartPaper technology, a reusable display medium. A key feature of the sign is that it requires no power to display an image. Power is required only when the sign content changes, enabling the sign's long battery life. Messages and sign content can be updated wirelessly to the SyncroSign Message Board using Gyricon's SignSync software. The software enables remote message scheduling, the management of sign content, and is scalable from the deployment of an individual sign to a large enterprise installation.
"SyncroSign Message Board is truly next generation wireless signage," said Gyricon's President and CEO Bryan Lubel. "This is a simple, yet powerful application of SmartPaper. It is a great example of how a new technology can be used to dramatically change the way we approach a common market application. Through our market research and field testing, we have identified a huge potential market across many industries." While working at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), inventor Nick Sheridon developed the Gyricon technology. The basis of Gyricon's products is a paper-like alternative to liquid-crystal display screens and cathode-ray tubes. SmartPaper is a thin, flexible medium that weighs only a few ounces. Made of millions of tiny bi-chromal wax beads encased in a flexible sheet of elastomer, Gyricon's SmartPaper is easy to read, uses less power and is more portable than conventional displays.
SmartPaper is reusable display material that has many of the properties of traditional paper: stores an image - viewed in reflective light - has a wide viewing angle - flexible - relatively inexpensive - Unlike regular paper, however, it is electrically writeable and erasable and is the main media component of our eSignage solutions. Produced in a roll, like conventional paper, SmartPaper is actually two sheets of thin plastic with millions of tiny bichromal beads embedded in between. Each bead is smaller than a grain of sand and has a different color on each half or "side". The hemispheres are also charged differently (i.e. positive or negative). SmartPaper beads reside in their own cavities within the flexible sheet of material, so that under the influence of a voltage applied to the surface, they rotate to present one side or the other to the viewer. This image stays in place until a new voltage pattern is applied, which erases the previous image and generates a new one.
http://www.gyricon.com/pr_031210.asp

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org]On Behalf Of Emlyn
O'regan
Sent: viernes, 12 de diciembre de 2003 0:30
To: 'ExI chat list'
Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] Umberto Eco: In Defense of Vegetal Memory
Anyway, enough blathering. Electronic books will eventually kill of static
books, but we'll need smart paper before that happens. And then, no one will
miss the old books, because we wont be replacing them with something shitty,
we'll be replacing them with something just like they were, but better.