A research group at Philips and Eink is currently developing a new type of display technology they call electrowetting. The technology takes advantage of an oil that does not mix with water. The coloured oils can be manipulated quickly and accurately to produce video displays, the researchers say. When a voltage is passed threw the paper, the oil will move rendering the paper white. The images can switch quickly from one colour to the next, this in the end will produce very high-definition moving or still pictures. Once the image is on the screen the power source can be removed and the image will stay on the “screen”. It can then also be bent moved and even folded without losing any quality to the images being displayed. In addition, they demonstrated a colour concept which is intrinsically four times brighter than reflective liquid-crystal displays and twice as bright as other emerging technologies. The screens currently can display up to 160 pixels per inch comfortably.

Philips predicts this technology will be ready the end of this year/early next and will be used for wall mounted computer screens, moving clothes, palm pilots and school text books. An interesting new use for this technology could be within the art community. Imagine being able to take your art with you anywhere folded up in your pocket digitally without having to worry about printing it at a low quality, ink smudging or even it getting ripped. In the future we could find art galleries no longer need to put framed pictures on the wall, all they would need to do is wallpaper the gallery with Eink paper and change the images on it electronically. The future of displaying art is here deviants, let us embrace it.

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