In the mid-1990s, Joe Jacobson, a post-doctoral student at Stanford University, envisioned a book with content that could be changed and renewed at the push of a button. Jacobson set out to create a changeable display, sketching out a system of black and white particles encapsulated in microspheres and embedded in a display medium. This was the beginning of electronic ink.

A few years later, Jacobson—by now a professor in MIT's Media Lab—enlisted students Barrett Comiskey and JD Albert to help advance the technology. In 1997, the inventors launched E Ink and a reading revolution.