Tomorrow's Paper-Thin Screen Gems

Most shoppers who visited the Macy's department store in Bridgewater, N.J., between June, 2001, and this past March likely missed the significance of a dozen or so unusual signs in the center aisle of the kids' section. The two-color, 11-inch by 14-inch placards looked much like ordinary paper signs: Their large font showcased product names and prices. But they were really flat-panel displays, whose messages could be changed wirelessly -- devices that as recently as a few years ago would have been considered the stuff of science fiction.

The displays used so little power that three AA batteries could have run one for more than a year -- one hundredth the power usage of today's average computer display. With different background electronics that are still being developed, these rigid displays could even one day be rolled up or folded, and carried around like a piece of paper.