評論
打印
If you thought erasable ink was cool, wait until you hear about today’s topic on A Moment of Science: electronic ink.
如果你覺得可擦墨水很酷的話，那就等你聽完今天所講的這個話題---電子墨水后再下結論吧。
To begin with a slightly technical explanation, electronic ink consists of three parts: millions of tiny, microscopic capsules, an oily liquid filling the capsules, and negatively charged colored chips or spheres floating inside the capsules. Electrical charges cause the colored chips or spheres to arrange themselves into letters, numbers, and other characters when the ink is spread on a surface.
理論上來講，電子墨水主要由三部分組成：數以百萬的細小微型膠囊，填充膠囊的油狀液體以及浮在膠囊里的帶有負電荷的彩色芯片（或球體）。當墨水灑在物體表面時，彩色芯片在電荷的作用下就會形成字母、數字或文字。
If that description is slightly confusing, try imagining electronic ink as consisting of millions of clear beach balls. Each ball contains hundreds of white Ping-Pong balls floating in blue dye. The Ping-Pong balls make the top of the beach ball appear white, while the bottom appears blue.
如果我這么講你有點難以理解的話，那就把電子墨水想象成是由數以百萬的沙灘球組成。每個沙灘球球內都含有數百個白色的乒乓球浮在藍色液體中。乒乓球會讓沙灘球頂部呈現白色，而底部呈現出藍色。
Now imagine that you’ve spread millions of these beach balls on a wide, flat surface and gone up in a helicopter for a bird’s-eye view. You see an all-white field. Using a device to control the movement of the Ping-Pong balls, you cause some of them to sink, revealing the blue dye. With precise control, you could use the resulting patterns of light and dark to create characters.
現在想象一下你將這些沙灘球放在一個寬而平的表面上，然后乘上直升機從上面俯瞰。你會看到一片白色。然后，你用設備來控制乒乓球的運動，讓某些球下沉，呈現出藍色。通過準確的控制顏色的深淺，你就可以寫出字了。
In a nutshell, that’s how electronic ink works. So what’s it good for? Electronic books, for one. In the near future we may leaf through a volume written with electronic ink that contain hundreds of different texts. With the push of a button, Shakespeare may morph into Dr. Seuss. Another push and the ink re-arranges itself into Crime and Punishment. No matter how it’s used, electronic ink is sure to jolt our understanding of the printed page.
簡單來說，這就是電子墨水的工作原理。那么電子墨水有什么好處呢？就拿電子書來舉個例子，在不遠的將來，我們可能會閱讀用電子墨水寫成的書卷，這些書卷包含著數百種書籍。只要輕輕一摁，莎士比亞就會變成瑟斯博士，再摁一下，就會變成罪與罰。電子墨水無論怎么樣被使用，它終將顛覆我們對于印刷頁面的理解。
