This e-paper self-destructs in 16 hours

[Alexander Turcic]

Tom Cruise aka Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible would have falled for this. Xerox scientists have found a way to make content on an electronic paper transient, that is to erase it after a period of time. UK-based PC Pro writes:

Inspired by the fact that many print outs have a life-span of a few hours (think of the emails you may print out just to read, or the content you proof read on the train journey back home), the specially prepared paper will preserve its content for up to 16 hours.

The paper is composed of a polymer-based photochromic material which has reversible imaging properties. The problem in general with photochromic materials is that, until now, they have failed mainly due to limited life spans and poor image stability under ambient light and heat. But Xerox promises to spend more time into research to find a way to preserve the content if the user desires.

[via Slashdot]

[NatCh]

I read a book some years ago titled The Turing Option (don't recall the author off hand), one of the incidental technologies in the near-future book was something called an "Etern-i-tree" (or something close) printer that basically recycled flimsiplas "paper" -- this sounds a lot like that. It's always pretty cool to see sci-fi go to sci-fact.

[CommanderROR]

sounds like a good DRM option...:-)