Ciba Inc.
Klybeckstrasse 141, P.O. Box
Basel
4002
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 61 636 49 16
Fax.:
+41 61 636 25 59
Electrochromic - Phones in switching colors
By Rebekka Edlund
How about a mobile phone that switches colors instead of ringing, or a printed ad that changes colors to attract attention?
Four years ago, Ciba and the University of Florida, Gainesville, started to work on electrochromism, a technology enabling objects to have dynamic, switching color properties. Among the many possible application areas are windows and displays.
For displays, the possibilities that dynamic colors open up are wide – and pretty wild. Ideas include mobile phones that switch colors instead of vibrating when “ringing” in silent mode and bottle labels that change color to attract attention on the shelf.
One idea is to use the switching colors to communicate that the phone’s battery is low, or that there is an incoming call. Electrochromic polymers require very little electricity to switch color, fractions of a volt are enough. In this application the cell phone battery would provide the electricity.
Other possible applications are so-called electroactive labels, a type of small, portable billboard. This concept was recently to be seen at kiosks worldwide, as the US lifestyle magazine Esquire published an issue with an electronic-paper (using electrophoresis, as opposed to electrochromism) display on the cover, displaying a headline blinking in black and white.
“What we are aiming for – with the help of partner manufacturing brands who can bring this technology into the market– are displays which show vivid colors to compete with and ultimately replace LCD displays,” says Ciba’s Joe Babiarz. “The advantage of this type of technology, when compared to what is currently available, is that displays could be printed on plastic, displaying high-definition colors on extremely thin, light, and flexible surfaces,” he says.
“In the short term we can imagine their use in less demanding applications such as bottle labels. But in the long term we dream about creating thin, full-color displays that can be rolled up and taken with you,” says Joe.
