June 2012

Here's a summary of my visit to E Ink's booth at SID 2012. E Ink had a very large booth, showing dozens of E-readers and other devices that sport E Ink panels. Lot's of these used Ink-In-Motion, E Ink's segmented displays (rather then the active-matrix ones used in e-readers for example).

The largest display at the booth, and one of the most interesting ones was the hybrid EPD/LED traffic light concept. It uses a large circular e-paper panel, color filters and LEDs (in an outer ring). The hybrid traffic light provides higher visibility in direct sunlight than regular traffic lights (who need to "overpower" the sunlight). E Ink's concept uses 24 LEDs vs 200 in a regular traffic light. Great idea. Just below the traffic light E Ink built a small E Ink crosswalk - showing a nice usage of rugged shatterproof panels.

Fuji Xerox developed a new technology that enables color electrophoretic e-paper displays without using color filters. They call the new technology Independently Movalbe Color Particles (IMCP), and the idea is to use colored (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) particle that each have a different electrophoresis threshold. Only the particles that are drawn to the front substrate can be seen. There are also white particles in between (they do not move) and so white can be displayed.

Fuji Xerox says that the new displays are brighter and have more vivid colors compared to color-filtered e-paper displays (such as E Ink's Triton panels). They have shown a 5" 600x800 (220 ppi) prototype featuring a contrast ratio of 10:1. The backplane is a-Si.

The Wexler Flex One flexible e-reader is now shipping in china, and we've got the first video of this exciting new device. The reader uses LG's flexible plastic based E Ink panel (6", XGA 1024x768), and in fact the whole device is made from plastic and so can be bent - and is quite shatterproof (and very light). Here's our friend Sri from E Ink demonstrating it at SID 2012:

We do not know the price of this device yet, but according to Sri the flexible E Ink panel itself is only about 10-15% more expensive than a glass based display. The major downsize is that the resolution and speed of a plastic-based display is not as good as a glass based one. I personally think this was one of the most exciting demonstrations at SID...