Electronics become more realistic: Silk-based flexible ereaders

Photo from: http://www.slashgear.com/

(This blog post has been edited from its original published version by the author)
 
I was interested to learn that Researchers at a Taiwan university recnetly claimed that they have figured out a way of using silk membranes to help create bendable or flexible electronic devices such as eReaders, LED displays and radio-frequency identificaton tools according to a March 3 article by PC World. 

Wouldn’t that be something, an electronic device that you could bend like you would a magazine or newspaper. I’d buy it just for the uniqueness of it, I mean seriously, how many computers or eReaders can you bend right now?

According to the March 3rd article from PC World : 

The technology turns liquid silk into membranes that work as insulators for flexible thin-film transistors, a component of bendable electronics. The membranes may even improve the speed and performance of a device's transistors.

This video from YouTube explains more about flexible electronics

But, as a journalism student I see this new invention of flexible ‘silk’ technology to be intriguing. Not only will it help keep the idea of holding a traditional newspaper somewhat alive, it will also add new possibilities for, not only writers, but designers as well. Designers would no longer have to stick to straight horizontal designs, but could add curves and other creative features to their publications.

I would rather have my publication be on a flexible electronic device or flexible eReader rather than a regular eReader, at least it would still be similar to the original thing and would have more possibilities. 

According to a March 4 article on SlashGear.com, the Taiwanese researchers have already started discussions with manufacturers to start the new silk based electronics market.

All this new technology is both amazing and mind boggling to me. I just can’t imagine using silk membranes to come up with flexible technological devices. Wow! That’s all I can say about that.

However, we may be waiting for sometime until we see flexible ‘silk’ technology on our local shelves as the Slash Gear article explained:

Although silk is among the more expensive fabrics, in comparison to flexible electronics components it’s far more affordable. The research team expects the silk cost to be around $0.03 per device, and since it’s a natural fiber the ecological impact is reduced as well. No word on which manufacturers are looking to use the new fabric technology, nor when we could expect to see rollable displays and other gadgets based on it.

This isn’t the first time that academic researchers in Taiwan have come up with big technological ideas. In fact, the article on PC World explained a face-recognition vending machine, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, and a webcam-mounted laptop antenna that scans library documents are just some of the other big Taiwanese inventions. 

I know I will be eagerly awaiting the release of these new and intriguing devices as well as watching for more amazing Taiwan inventions. Until then I will be watching for more surprising technological inventions to change the way we consume the written word…