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The Future of E-Readers is Spelled M-I-R-A-S-O-L

Posted by Thomas Riggs in E-books technology trends on December 4, 2009

In the midst of a revolution, when changes roll over the present with rapidity and disregard, it’s hard to see far into the future. In fact, at best you might be able to catalog various abstract possibilities to come, much like guessing the end of a novel when you’re still on page 20.

Then again, sometimes you see something, and you know you’ve glimpsed the inevitable. That happened to me yesterday.

E-readers are about to change so dramatically that the present Kindle is going to seem like an Etch A Sketch. What makes an e-reader so different from a computer screen is its screen surface.

With no backlighting and an appearance almost like paper, the e-reader screen is easy on the eyes. It’s like reading a paper book. Almost. But at today’s technology, it’s also slow, clumsy, and one dimensional. Like a book, you might say, but being accustomed to the mesmerizing tricks of computers and the Internet and judging by the widespread fetish of the iPhone, people are going to want more.

They’re going to get a lot more, probably by the fall of 2010.

Take a look at this short video below of the new Mirasol screen, made by Qualcomm, which, like the E-Ink technology of the Kindle, is not backlit, meaning the screen is illuminated by ambient light in a room or, if you’re outside, by the sun. Like the Kindle, it is easy on the eyes, it uses very little energy, and can produce a paperlike image for ebooks. But it’s also extremely fast and can stream video in rich color like your computer or an iPhone. It’s stunning.

The screen is likely to be used not only on e-readers but also on cell phones, which should dramatically increase their battery life.

Although another company might beat Qualcomm with a different technology, Mirasol or something similar is soon going to provide all the benefits of the present e-reader while transforming it into a multifunctional device for the Internet, music, videos, and all the things of the future we haven’t yet imagined.

      

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