i2R’s e-paper is a new kind of paper that might just help prevent even more trees from being felled just because we love printing far more documentation than is actually required, in addition to a gazillion other excuses. Well, this is not the kind of paper that we think it is according to its Taiwan-based developers, but rather, the e-paper will rely on a thermal printer that is not too different from the ones found in fax machines. Whenever you no longer need whatever is written on the paper, just flip the switch on and all content on the paper will be erased – letting you do so for up to 260 times.
Scientists over at the Industrial Technology Research Institute were the ones behind the e-paper’s development, where it is said to be the ideal replacement for paper signs and posters which are commonplace worldwide at the moment. Well, hopefully such paper will be cheap to produce, otherwise pasting up these posters and what-have-you all over the place might just see cases of vandalism stealing the e-paper for its inherent worth.
The e-paper does not use patterned electrodes, being very light, soft and rewritable, making it more or less the “true e-paper.” It is said that an A4-sized piece will cost around $2 a pop, with hopes to delivering it to consumers in 2 years’ time. Hooray for the environment!
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