Patent ID: 7479942

Claim:
A method for writing and erasing an electric writeable medium comprising a backplane electrode, a display layer coupled to the backplane electrode, and a resistive layer coupled to the display layer, wherein the display layer includes a plurality of elements in an enabling medium, the method comprising: applying a first voltage differential between a stylus and the backplane electrode, wherein the first voltage differential is sufficient to cause one or more of the elements in the display layer to display a first color; depositing charge on one or more portions of the resistive layer by applying the stylus to the resistive layer, the resistive layer comprising an array of electrodes positioned within recesses formed in an upper portion of the resistive layer, wherein a top surface of the resistive layer laterally abuts a top surface of the array of electrodes such that the top surfaces of the resistive layer and the array of electrodes each separately form portions of a top surface of a contiguous planar surface and a lower portion of the resistive layer extends continuously underneath the entire array of electrodes, wherein the resistive layer has a sufficiently high resistivity to substantially inhibit the deposited charge from spreading laterally through the resistive layer; and applying a second voltage differential, inverse to the first voltage differential, between the resistive layer and the backplane electrode, wherein the second voltage differential is sufficient to erase the elements in the display layer to display a second color.