Concert tickets, magazine adverts and cereal packets could feature interactive moving graphics by 2007, according to German electronics giant Siemens. Researchers at the firm have developed a printable interactive display with a similar thickness to paper.
The prototype screen is monochrome and can switch between its two colours in less than half a second. A working model, revealed at the Plastic Electronics 2005 conference in Frankfurt, Germany, in October, also has a controller. By scrolling through a list of companies, the user can bring up maps for each one’s location on the screen.
The screen works faster and has a higher resolution than previous prototypes. It is also simpler and cheaper to produce than “electronic paper” devices, which act more like scroll-down displays, and must be connected to a computer. The new display can be used independently with just a battery.
