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Electronic paper on the anvil

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DQI Bureau
New Update

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. 

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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.

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Source: Internet

MODS to give DVDs a run

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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

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