By Craig Shutt

PALO ALTO, CALIF. - Gyricon Media Inc. is marketing an electronic, reusable "paper" as an alternative to in-store signage. The material, called SmartPaper, allows graphics, such as pricing, to be changed on command.

"Our goal is to help marketers effectively draw attention to their products and help companies put together better P-O-P programs," says John Russell, product manager for retail markets. The Palo Alto-based company, a spin-off of Xerox Corp., has partnered with Array Marketing Group, Thomson-Leeds Division, New York, to create P-O-P applications.

Doug B. Leeds, ceo of Array Marketing's Thomson-Leeds Division, says, "I believe this will revolutionize the way messages are delivered in-store. It eliminates the labor problem that happens at retail locations regardless of who is responsible for maintaining the signs, and it ensures messages are current, pertinent to the day or promotional message and consistently accurate."

When economics allow, Leeds envisions the signs being added to corrugated displays to deliver attention-grabbing messages or supply updated information or sports scores. The material features tiny solid beads that are embedded in a flexible plastic sheet in small cavities surrounded by a liquid. One hemisphere of each bead is a different color. When an external electrical charge is applied, the bead rotates to the programmed side to create a message or image. The system uses power only when it changes, requiring little energy. With the current system, images can be displayed with a resolution of 100 dpi. SmartPaper is controlled by Gyricon's MaestroSign Systems software.

Two types of signs can be created. Multiple fixed-image signs programmed prior to shipment can be produced in various sizes. These flash messages or images in sequence, creating a virtual-animation design.

A networked version allows marketers or managers to change information via radio-frequency connection to each sign, using a different "address" for each, as with an e-mail address. The wireless system allows new pricing or information, such as sports scores, to be transmitted instantly.

The signs don't fade over time, and the message doesn't change until a new current is applied, allowing it to remain in place for long periods, Russell says.

Although still in the development stage, Russell anticipates that initial pricing for the system will be about $100 for a quantity of the networked signs, and about $20 to $70 per piece of multiple fixed-image signs, in a size of 2 feet by 2 feet and larger. "We'd like to get them down to a price where marketers could consider them disposable," he says. Leeds says that the costs will be less than the cost to hire a detail service to change signage and more reliable than depending on the retailer to place or update signs.

Power requirements can be handled by a watch-sized battery that lasts for several months, or by AAA batteries, which will run for years, Russell says.

A Macy's department store in Bridgewater, N.J. has begun testing SmartPaper. The store features approximately 100 8-inch by 10-inch aisle signs that will provide product and pricing information controlled from the manager's office.

Russell says that several tests, aimed at back-to-school, Halloween and Christmas-holiday promotions, are being planned with marketers.