There’s a great scene in the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise’s character boards a tube train and watches a passenger reading a newspaper. The amazing thing about this newspaper, however, is that it updates like a web page and appears to have video playing on it.

Movies are great for giving us glimpses into a future that is simply unachievable. I’m sure we’ll never see time travel, or even see people teleport from one place to another. Believe it or not, though, having ‘video paper’ is not the stuff of science fiction… it’s becoming science fact.

For everyone working in advertising and direct marketing, the introduction of a cost-effective ‘video paper’ will revolutionise the industry the same way the internet has. In fact we could quickly see the lines blurring between the internet and what we now consider ‘printed communications’, as newspapers essentially become updated exactly like a website.

Consumers would walk down aisles in supermarkets and have packets of soap powder playing video at them. Envelopes would land on our doormats and desks and play video to us as we picked them up or approached them. We’d even have DVD cases in stores playing trailers to us of the films contained within them. And yes… you’d board a train and see some guy reading, watching and listening to The Times e-paper.

This may seem like ‘blue sky’ thinking that should only be in a film like Minority Report. Believe it or not, though, there are quite a few companies out there making significant strides in the development of e-paper.

An Electronic Paper Display is a display that possesses a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption, and a thin, light form. It gives the viewer the experience of reading from paper, while having the power of updatable information.

Electronic Ink enables this technology. Electronic Ink is a reflective technology, which requires no front or backlight, is viewable under a wide range of lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, and requires no power to maintain an image. Several companies, including the UK-based company Plastic Logic, are developing the Electronic Ink technology.

Here are just a few examples:

e-paper from Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic’s mission is to revolutionise the way people acquire, organise and consume information. And they are certainly doing that with their twist, bend or throw e-paper. In fact Richard Archuleta, CEO of Plastic Logic commented that: “Plastic Logic’s e-paper technology has the potential to radically change the way the world consumes information and entertainment.”

Sony’s Electronic Paper Video Display

On 25 May 2007 USAToday.com reported that Sony had developed ‘a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video’. The display is 0.01 inches thick and combines Sony’s organic thin film transistor, which is required to make flexible displays, and organic electroluminescent display. “In the future, it could get wrapped around a lamppost or a person’s wrist, even worn as clothing,” said Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa. “Perhaps it can be put up like wallpaper.”

Phillips Flexible Screen

Phillips has developed ‘Polymer Vision’, as thin and flexible as paper, technology that can display high-quality text and visuals and be rolled up to the thickness of a finger. This technology has been implemented into Phillips’ own e-reader, the Readius. There are a number of solid tablet-like e-readers on the market that store a veritable library of novels. All of these, though, are very rigid and quite large and not ‘travel friendly’. With Readius you have a display that can simply roll away when you’re not using it. Like other e-readers it allows you to store a library of novels but unlike other e-readers you can get your own personally selected news ‘as it happens’ thanks to it having web access through the high-speed 3.5G network… a technology written about in many Science Fiction novels that is now a part of our daily lives.

In fact, as you watch the many videos that are available on Youtube, you really do begin to see the possibilities of e-paper – especially if technology can become cost-effective.

You’d be right in pointing out, though, that none of the products I have mentioned are actually paper. They’re essentially thin screens that will all require a power source and wireless network connection in order to work. Essentially they are better than paper, and allow us to move away from cutting down trees or recycling to having a piece of technology that will last for years.

It’s fair to say we are a long way off seeing this technology landing on our doormats or in our supermarket aisles. But for those of us who have placed lenticulars on cereal boxes or on envelopes, it’s clear to see that one day we could be placing a piece of Polymer on our materials to play a short 20-second movie clip to sell our products.

Read more on Julian's blog here.