Changing Signs

Ran Poliakine, founder of promising start-up Magink, envisions a future in which his “digital ink” technology will be used in products all around us, forever changing everything from billboards to laptops. For example, you would be able to “cover your living room with digital wallpaper that will be able to change, even the color, according to the seasons around the year”. A bit far-fetched, but his dream may well come true in the near future.
Magink has developed the world’s first full-color digital ink, which is a reflective, oily organic paste set between two conductive glass or plastic plates. The paste consists of tiny structures resembling the DNA helix. Under white light, the helixes normally look red. When electricity passes through the paste, the helixes change shape slightly and turn to another color until a new electrical signal changes the colors again (Source: BusinessWeek).

Magink is already making its presence felt in the outdoor advertising business. Since 2003, it has installed thousands of signs and billboards around Japan with the help of Mitsubishi which manufactures the low-cost, low-energy, high-resolution displays. Magink-enabled billboards and signs are proving to be big business because of their superiority over their traditional, LED (light-emitting diode) and LCD (liquid-crystal display) counterparts. Magink displays reflect sunlight and don’t need a continuous stream of electricity to operate (Source: Wired News). They are also much cheaper. Most importantly, the images on signs can be changed wirelessly, updated to give information like weather, ads or traffic information.
Let’s Get Down To Business…
One could easily see the importance of continuously re-inventing and innovating to come up with newer technologies that can provide cheaper alternatives and add more value to existing products. Improvement is the key!
Related Ideas & Trends
Changing at the Push of a Button [Wired News]
The Signs They Are A-Changin’ [BusinessWeek]
Your Message Here, in a Flash [The New York Times]