Plastic Logic: eBooks you really can take anywhere?

How do you prefer to read stuff?

Most of us would prefer to hold a newspaper, a book or a magazine, rather than stare at a computer screen. Resolution, colour and refresh frequency may have improved, but they still glare at us and are hopeless in bright sunlight.

A number of ePaper products are already on the market and they overcome some of the computer screen problems by using electronic ink (e-Ink). Dark and light molecules are forced to the surface by an electrical charge. Once set, they remain in place until a fresh charge is applied. Just like printed paper, these displays require only ambient light to be readable.

Unfortunately, the present crop of readers are either small, heavy, rigid or all three. This is caused by the need to protect the conventional backplane electronics which sit on a glass-like silicon substrate. They may also have a glass screen protecting the surface of the 'paper'.

If computer industry eminence grise, Hermann Hauser, has his way, this is soon to change. He's backed Plastic Logic since 2000, when it was first spun out of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory.

The company has found a way to print electronics onto plastic instead of silicon. Blending this technology with electronic ink, the company has come up with something which is lighter and more flexible than current displays although, at the moment, it's probably more like stiffish card than paper.

It still needs a compartment to hold the battery, controllers and some conventional electronics. In all the prototype shots, this runs along one edge. However, it is definitely lighter, larger, thinner and more flexible than anything we've seen to date. And a battery will last for up to 3,000 page 'turns'.

This week saw the foundation stone laid for Plastic Logic's factory near Dresden airport. It expects to be in production next year, producing a million displays of up to 10" diagonal with up to 150 pixels per inch and up to 16 levels of grey. The company has already experimented with larger sizes and higher resolutions, which bodes well for the future.