Electronic paper on the anvil

Research to develop an interactive, low-cost electronic display screen as
thin as paper, that will revolution ize the multi-million pound display screen
market, has been awarded funding support. 

This research builds on the Paisley
University's collaborative work with DuPont-Teijin Films; which is a
three-year, 690,000 pounds project that will see the university's research
used to provide a key component necessary for the next generation of screens.

Electronic
paper is one form of reusable flat-panel display technology that exhibits some
or all of the characteristics of paper and ink. Embedded in a thin sheet of
plastic are thousands of spherical particles, each of which is half-black and
half-white.

The spheres are charged, so that by applying a voltage, either the
white or the black side appears on the sheet's visible surface at that spot.
By pixellating the 'page', the black and white specks can be arranged to
make words and images that look like those printed with ink on paper.

Source: Internet

MODS to give DVDs a run

A new disk format is all set to leave the DVDs and CDs of the world lagging
behind in the storage run. Multiplexed Optical Data Storage (MODS) is the new
optical disk developed at Imperial College London (IPL) by an international team
comprising scientists. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference 2004
in Taiwan, Dr Peter Török, Lecturer in Photonics in ICL's Department of
Physics, described the new method for potential encoding and storing up to one
terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of data, or 472 hours of film, on one optical disk
the size of a CD or DVD.

The
ICL researchers, working closely with colleagues at the Institute of
Microtechnology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and in the Department of
Electrical & Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Greece, estimate that MODS disks would cost approximately the same to
manufacture as an ordinary DVD. Also any system playing them would be backward
compatible with existing optical formats, meaning that CDs and DVDs could be
played on a MODS system. Dr Török believes that the first disks could be on
the shelves between 2010 and 2015 if his team is able to secure funding for
further development. MODS disks will not be the first to challenge DVDs'
domination of the audiovisual optical disk market. BluRay disks, having five
times the capacity of a DVD at 25 GB per layer, are expected to be released
towards the end of 2005.

The 1 terabyte disk would be double sided and dual layer but even a
single-sided, single-layer MODS disk could hold the Lord Of The Rings trilogy 13
times over, or all 238 episodes of Friends.

Source: London press Service