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If anyone was in the US in early September and went to Barnes & Noble bookstore, they may have noticed the September issue of Esquire magazine. Now I confess Esquire is not my normal reading, but it has published numerous iconic images that many people will recognise, even if they don't know the source. It may well be they have done it again, because the September 2008 issue had an interactive, electronic display built into the cover, 'Welcome to the 21st Century' it proudly trumpeted to buyers.

This is the first example of a mainstream publisher using the technology. Indeed, it had to invent the power supply to drive the E Ink Corporation’s black and white VizPlex panel display. A lot of planning went into the cover, starting last summer when Hearst (Esquire’s parent company) contracted E Ink to develop the display with advertising partner Ford who funded much of the cost. The car manufacturer ran an inside front cover double-page ad in the issue, also using moving imagery, to showcase the new 2009 Ford Flex pickup truck giving the illusion of moving words and images.

Technological advances
E Ink Corporation was founded in 1997, spun out of the Cambridge Massachusetts’s MIT Media Lab and is probably the leading supplier of electronic paper displays. The technology uses electronic ink, positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden.

By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which makes the surface appear dark at that spot. This material is applied onto an indium tin oxide-coated plastic substrate, combined with a thin adhesive and a plastic release layer that is sheeted and packed. Power is required to change the display, which remains static when switched off, so the flashing display for the cover requires continuous battery power. It is essentially the same technology used in Sony’s latest e-book, Reader, and the Amazon Kindle reader.

The Esquire cover display was assembled in several factories across China (to add a bit of drama, flooding destroyed the first 250,000 batteries), where over 100,000 covers were produced.

Then the countdown began, once activated the batteries have a ninety day life. The components were then taken to Negras in Mexico, where over 100,000 covers were hand assembled with a thin layer of foam to protect the electronics. Completed covers were shipped to Donnelley’s plant in Kentucky, where a specially modified rig was used to handle the cover on the perfect binder.

Even before the launch an interesting debate on the ‘greenness’ of the issue has started with environmental groups kicking up a storm. They highlighted the impact of the components, transport and difficulty of recycling compared to a conventional magazine.

The magazine provides recycling instructions, tear off the cover and dispose of the display unit in your recycling. The entire electronic assembly can be recycled through local municipal waste program in the same manner as household batteries, paper goes into normal recycling, and the protective foam in plastic recycling streams, so it is a little more complicated than a normal magazine.

As a further twist, maybe building reader interest, the editor is inviting readers to try and extend the battery life or to hack the circuit board, displays, or the E Ink technology itself and then contact the magazine. Future technology developments will enable many new applications through ultra-thin, lightweight, rugged, flexible, full colour displays and over time these will become more widely used. As volumes increase, the costs will come down and expect to see packaging and labels employing these systems in due course.

Sean Smyth is an independent ‘techie’ providing support for organisations looking to apply technology effectively. Smyth can be contacted on sean.smyth@dsl.pipex.com

30-SECOND BRIEFING ON... ELECTRONIC DISPLAYS

• The September issue of Esquire magazine ran a novel electronic display on the cover of 100,000 of the 700,000 print run using E Ink VizPlex technology to present a flashing message of ‘Welcome to the 21st Century’

• In planning for more than a year, it developed new battery technology to power the display for more than three months. The electronics for the special covers were made in China, assembled in Mexico and bound onto the magazine in Kentucky at the normal printer

• E Ink Corporation developed the display. The company spun out of the Cambridge Massachusetts’s MIT Media Lab and is probably the leading supplier of electronic paper displays. The technology uses electronic ink

• Power is required to change the display that otherwise remains static, so the cover requires continuous battery power

• It is the same technology used in Sony’s latest e-book and the Amazon Kindle reader

• This is certainly a shape of things to come, the first application is very expensive but as costs come down and volumes increase there will be more applications in labels and packaging