Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is working on making dynamic sheets of electronic reusable paper no thicker than a standard transparency. The team researching it see many possiblities such as printing machines that use the resusable plastic sheets, scanners that allow one to copy a page straight on to the sheet, as well as books made with the plastic pages.

The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center describes it in the following way:

"Electronic reusable paper utilizes a display technology, invented at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), called "Gyricon." A Gyricon sheet is a thin layer of transparent plastic in which millions of small beads, somewhat like toner particles, are randomly dispersed. The beads, each contained in an oil-filled cavity, are free to rotate within those cavities. The beads are "bichromal," with hemispheres of two contrasting colors (e.g. black and white, red and white), and charged so they exhibit an electrical dipole. When voltage is applied to the surface of the sheet, the beads rotate to present one colored side to the viewer. Voltages can be applied to the surface to create images such as text and pictures. The image will persist until new voltage patterns are applied."

• Gyricon info at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center site
• Another company working on reusable, electric paper - E Ink