Rather than using e-ink or an LCD screen, the proposed e- reader uses a split-flap display to display each page. Now, instead of passively waiting for whole display to change when flipping pages, the user is provided with the captivating spectacle of each letter changing to the next with a satisfying whir-click.-- SirBobofBobton, Mar 18 2010 Split-flap display http://www.youtube....watch?v=qA6zn3nP7tYAlso called a Solari board [SirBobofBobton, Mar 18 2010] bad enough looking for the next train and where it stops - can't imagine Marcus Chown's latest displayed like this...-- po, Mar 18 2010 Sort of _Brazil_ian Kindle, eh? I'm not hugely into retro-tech, but [+] in gratitude for teaching me what those things are called.-- mouseposture, Mar 18 2010 Oh my god. This is brilliant! I absolutely love the idea, and I'm sure it could be implemented. We need to find a patent lawyer and a watchmaker. May this single bun of mine [+] stand in lieu of the pile of buns which I would give, had I the means to do so.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 18 2010 Only if it can be entirely mechanical: the e-book would be stored on a pinned cylinder, or perhaps a punched paper tape. Miniaturisation is an issue... would the most space-effective method be a punched tape inside a cassette?-- pocmloc, Mar 18 2010 Are you proposing a stack of all possible letters, spaces, numbers and punctuation marks at each possible letter position on the page? Say, 127 characters for basic ASCII text? That's going to be rather a dense and heavy e-reader, is it not?
I'm not objecting. Let's make it clockwork. Wind it up with a big brass key. Load new books with paper punch tape. [+]
If instead you use a dot-matrix split flap display, you can use much smaller mechanisms for each pixel, but many, many more of them, more densely packed.
/edit to add/ [pomloc]: quarter-inch paper punch tape in the form of cassettes is genius in and of itself.-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 18 2010 //punched tape inside a cassette// Agreed: Sweet!-- mouseposture, Mar 18 2010 random, halfbakery