In a scene from Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Report, a
future cop on the run ducks into the Washington Metro to evade
his pursuers. Within seconds, a passenger’s paper-thin digital
newspaper, displaying USA Today, updates to show the fugitive’s
face. We’ve reached the stage where people are reading on
instantly updatable digital devices, but our devices don’t
resemble newspapers so much as, well, tablets. Now, a
breakthrough in computer displays that are both flexible and
potentially inexpensive is poised to make this moment of movie
sci-fi gadgetry a reality with a tablet that is rollable,
researchers say. The key is improvements in electronic paper, or
e-Paper, which is designed to mimic the look of ink on a sheet.
E-Paper enjoys multiple advantages over the displays currently
used in tablets. First, it does not emit light like a TV but
instead shares paper’s reflective qualities, meaning that it
does not require constant power to be read—leading to
significant energy savings. Second, since less en