aiming s for shops, A. And they have bigger pla to create poster-sized di flashing cereal boxes and packaging for toys and, within three to five years, even changing text in magazines. Although the technology is still in its infancy, companies, including the advertising giant JCDecaux, which owns over 600,000 billboard: 40 countries, are beginning to take notic B_ Another difficulty is that the colour is no match for the bright hues of computer screens. Berggren admits that commercial printers describe his displays as ‘terrible’. So in order to compete, the.team will need polymers that produce magenta, cyan, black and yellow, the primary colours used in printing. Progress in this area has been made and a complex polymer that can turn yellow has already been found. C That's exactly what Berggren and his colleagues at Linképing University and the Advanced Centre for Research in Electronics and Optics in Norrk®ping, Sweden, have been doing. Four years ago, they asked paper makers whether they'd like more from their newspaper and packaging by adding electronic circuits, sensors and displays, also made from paper. The response was overwhelming and last year the researchers unveiled an electronic display printed on standard paper. Eventually, they hope to develop the technology that will enable them to convert any piece of paper into a fully functioning display. D_ Whatever the power source, there are two good reasons why electronic paper might just take off, Firstly, if the printing is done using industrial reel-to-reel processes, it will cost only a couple of euros per square metre. Secondly, you can throw it in the recycling bin when you've finished with it, E H For indecisive home improvers who are rooms, high-tech yenr, Magnus Berggren of Linkdping University in Sweden and his team printed cheap, electronic displays on pi the way for moving images, changing colours and text on everything from wallpaper to milk cartons and advertising billboards. The display exploits the unusual electrochemical properties of poly (3, 4- ethylenedioxythiophene) or PEDOT. Pixels made from this transparent polymer turn blue when a voltage is applied. When the voltage is reversed, the pixels become clear again. The chemical reactions behind this transformation are ‘bi-stable’. This means that to flip the polymers from one state to the other, only a voltage needs to be applied when the information needs updating. Paper has survived the test of time because you can write and draw anything you like on it, fold it up and put it in your pocket. And unlike an electronic screen, you can read a newspaper from any angle in bright sunlight. Paper also feels good and, above all, it is cheap to make in huge quantities. Every year, the global paper industry churns out nearly 320 million tonnes of the stuff. ‘To overlay the transistors with display cells, Berggren then passes the paper through a laminator, which covers it with a layer of plastic peppered with holes, Using another sereen printer, he then fills these holes with an electrolyte similar to the liquid found in car batteries. This allows a final layer of PEDOT to react chemically when a voltage is applied to the electrodes. The final step involves laminating the paper again, this time with a thin plastic foil made of PEDOT, The end product feels like glossy inkjet paper.