E Ink are showing a new credit card with a small E Ink display. It is used to display a generated secure transaction code with the press of a button. The battery lasts for 3 years. Apparently they're already producing and shipping these in Korea:
E Ink Holdings say that they expect to ship 20-30 million e-paper panels in 2011. The company is still expanding its production capacity. By September 2011, E Ink's capacity will be three times the level a year ago.
Fujitsu and Sapporo Shirakaba-dai Hospital announced that it jointly developed a clinical appointment guidance system that uses color e-paper. The system has began full operation at the hospital. The new system guides patients to examination rooms or diagnostic testing rooms and is wirelessly connected to an electronic medical record system. Patients can view in real-time their place in queue when waiting to see their doctor.
We're guessing Fujitsu is using their own color e-paper technology. Fujitsu announced a hospital registration system back in July 2010, which used monochrome E Ink, but the new one uses color e-paper.
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It's been a while since we heard some news regarding AUO's Sipix e-paper technology. IRX Innovation tested the new panel and found it's fast enough for video (6fps):
In fact IRX engineers say that this could be improved to 10fps just by loading the images into a memory buffer. The panel on show offers VGA resolution (480x640), 100Hz refresh rate and 4 gray levels (although this will be improved to 16 levels). Here's a closeup of the panel:
Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is showing new large (100x24cm) flexible e-paper based on Cholesteric LCD. It's shaped like a scroll - printed on what seems to be a red/gold fabric.
According to reports, this display is very power efficient and doesn't seem pixelated at all. The monochrome display itself is showing some Chinese characters (translated as 'establish country 100 years', apparently, referring to the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in 1911). It seems that this is a segmented display and not a matrix display. It's a shame that we do not have any technical info on this display yet.
Delta Electronics is showing their e-paper roadmap for 2011-2014. The company is ready to mass produce color e-paper panels - up to 21" in size. These panels have been showed earlier this month. The company will improve the color count from 4096 to 16.7M by next year, and will also improve the panel's reflectivity and writing method (which will make them faster). By 2012 the company will be able to make 32" e-paper panels.
The more interesting news is that the company has start sample production of flexible e-paper displays. by 2012 they will start 'semi-production' of 10" panels - and mass production will start in 2014.
Here's a nice video showing a game of Angry Birds on a rooted Nook Touch e-reader. Unfortunately, the device is too slow for this game which flashes a lot and does't handle the actual game animation at all:
The Nook Touch (Wi-Fi version) costs $139.
CopyTele announced it has signed two license agreements with AUO to produce and market their e-paper and nano-display (LVND)Â technologies. AUO's e-paper license is exclusive and they can also sublicense the technology to third parties. The nano-display patents license is non exclusive.
AUO will pay $10 million to CopyTele for those license. There are also royalty payments by AUO. CopyTele's e-paper technology is electrophoretic based and utilizes specially coated particles in combination with a unique type of pixel structure to create an image.
Portugal's Ynvisible won a grant from the Portuguese National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) to help develop electrochromic displays. The total project is valued at over â¬1 million. Ynvisible's electrochromic ink technology is aimed towards packaging, advertising, print media, signage and smart wearables. Initial products will include point-of-sale posters and advertising.
Delta Electronics is showing some new e-paper displays prototypes sized 4.1", 8.2", 13.1" and 21" (A3). They are using Bridgestone's AeroBee technology - which results in power efficient, reflective, touch enabled color e-paper panels. The 21" display weights less than 2Kg and can be used in billboards and large-size display projects. Delta is also working towards a solution for interactive learning - and will present a device aimed for schools in first half of 2012.
Bridgestone themselves unveiled 21" panels back in April and the company also plans to market their own panels apparently.