Moving print adverts coming soon

Moving Graphics paper thin

This is cool. It is basically an interactive screen as thin as a credit card.

Concert tickets, magazine adverts and cereal packets could feature interactive moving graphics by 2007, according to German electronics giant Siemens.Researchers at the firm have developed a printable interactive display with a similar thickness to paper.

"A pillbox could display instructions for how [the pills] should be taken and provide this information in several languages with the push of a button," says Siemens spokesman Norbert Aschenbrenner. "Admission tickets for trade shows could indicate the booths where various exhibitors are located."

The prototype screen is monochrome and can switch between its two colours in less than half a second. A working model, revealed at the Plastic Electronics 2005 conference in Frankfurt, Germany, in October, also has a controller. By scrolling through a list of companies, the user can bring up maps for each one’s location on the screen.

The screen works faster and has a higher resolution than previous prototypes. It is also simpler and cheaper to produce than "electronic paper" devices, which act more like scroll-down displays, and must be connected to a computer. The new display can be used independently with just a battery.

Developer Axel Gerlt says it is possible to print several different monochrome patches onto the same display to create a more vivid moving picture. Eventually, he says, it should be feasible to create a multicoloured display.