Bendable braille e-paper

The 4 x 4cm device is only 1mm thick and can display up to 24letters of braille at a time. The letters can be refreshed with newtext in about 1 second. If integrated into a prepaid card, it could, forexample, indicate the amount of money left on the card.

The device is a plastic film on which organic transistors, whichserve as "soft electric switches," and high polymer sheets are placed.It consumes less than 1 milliwatt of electricity, about the same amountof power needed by cellular phones and digital cameras.

The team hope to improve the product so it can display up to 576letters at a time. The researchers aim to commercialize the device infive or six years.

Source: ntech.t.u-tokyo.ac.jpAdded: 20 December 2005