Developed by the E-ink Corporation, a
spin-off of MIT Media Lab, the E-ink technology is used in e-readers such as
the Kindle and the Nook.
Electronic ink is made up of tiny capsules,
each of which contains positively charged white particles and negatively
charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a positive or negative
electric field is applied, the respective particles move to the top of the
capsule where they become visible to the user, resulting in the surface
appearing white or black at that spot.
One of the other features of e-ink is that
it uses Bi-stable technology. What this means is that the image on the screen
will be retained even if the power is removed, because it only consumes power
when turning to a new page, or a new image. So you can take much time as you
want to read your kindle if the battery if the battery is low, but don’t you
turn that page!
While there have been some criticisms of
the e-ink technology being friendlier to the eye because of the absence of a
back lights, that is the largest cited reason for using e-readers. The only
downside is that when you read your famous controversial book on the bus, that
pretty girl seated next to you won’t have a conversation starter because she
won’t know what you’re reading – unless you stick the cover of the book on your
reader, which frankly is pretty weird.
