Five Years

E-ink is still a fledgling technology, but it presents a number of interesting possibilities for educators and students.

At present, the greatest limitations associated with reading information online are related to the machines we use to interface with these technologies. Laptops have short battery lives, and are impossible to read in direct, bright sunlight. Cellular phones and PDAs are small, and cannot display enough text to make reading a pleasant activity.

E-ink provides some solutions to these problems. The technology uses an electric charge to align particles suspended in a sheet of polymer. Unlike LCD technologies, these sheets do not require a backlight, and so can be read anywhere one can read a book. They can also be erased and rewritten instantly, and could conceivably contain moving images.

Rudimentary tools like Amazon.com's Kindle and Sony's eBook reader already show that the technology has some value in the marketplace. However, it may take many years before people make practical use of them. Right now, I can only hope for the day when I can access news, entertainment, and video from a wireless device that I can use in broad daylight.