E Ink - Page 19

The Australian road and maritime Services (RMS) installed the world's first E Ink traffic signs that are optimized for road traffic. The signs use wireless communication over the cellular network can can withstand the sun's heat and power outages as it is powered by solar energy.

The management system was developed by Visionect. The company explains that the hardware components are managed by server software programmed to 'wake up' the sign for certain pre-scheduled windows of time when the content on the sign will be changed using 3G technology. When the system is in sleep mode, it uses no power - due to the E Ink's display non volatility.

Sony launched its own crowd funding platform helped to find and finance Sony employees projects. The platform is called First Flight, and two of the first three projects use E Ink displays.

One of the E Ink projects is Sony's FES E Ink watch, that already attempted crowd funding back in 2014. The second project is the HUIS E Ink remote controller - and this one already managed to raise over $72,000 (well past its $40,000 target).

In 2013, CST introduced the CST-01 ultra-thin, flexible E Ink watch. The company later raised over $300,000 in a kickstarter campaign, offering each watch for $129.

Unfortunatly, CST faced production problems, and due to low component yields, and actual price of each watch climbed to $260. CST decided to change its manufacturor (Flextronics), but it is almost out of money.

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati, in collaboration with Merck and HP are developing low-cost large films that can be used to create smart windows that can dynamically adapt for brightness, color temperatures and opacity.

The so-called electro-kinetic pixel technology is based on the electrophoretic principle - the same one used in E Ink panels. The researchers are developing a way to create large-sized sheets of those pixels at low cost.

Waveshare is now offering a 4.3" 800x600 E Ink module Kit. The kit has a serial interface and an embedded font library. The font library supports 32, 48 and 64 dot matrix English and GBK Chinese fonts. The kit also includes 128Mb of flash memory, and consumes very little power (sleep current less than 5mA).

Hauwei announced a new flagship Android smartphone, the P8. One of the accessories that Hauwei offers is an E Ink cover, that includes a 4.3" E Ink display that can be used to show notifications (weather, calendar or clock) - or as a small e-reader.

The P8 sports a thin (6.4 mm) metal body, 5.2" FHD LCD display, Octa-Core CPU, Android 5.0, 13Mp camera, 8Mp front (selfie) camera, dual SIM and 16/64GB. The P8 will launch soon in Europe for €500 (16GB).

According to reports, Onyx is developing a 13.3" Android (4.4.4) e-reader for the consumer market, and hopefully it will cost less than Sony's 13.3" Digital Paper device which costs over $1,000. The reported target price is $750 - which makes it cheaper than Sony's reader, but still out of reach of most consumers.

Sony 13.3-inch Digital Paper

According to the Good eReader, Onyx's reader will use the same 1200x1600 13.3" E Ink Mobius panel as used in Sony's reader (and Dasung's Paperlike monitors). They report that this display uses a plastic TFT - which, if true, probably means it is made by Plastic Logic.

Dragon Innovation launched a new crowdfunding campaign with an aim to raise $50,000 for the world's first E Ink shoe, the Volvorii Timeless. The high-heeled shoe has an embedded flexible E Ink display and a Bluetooth LE module (with battery wireless charging).

Dragon raised over $17,000, and they have 22 days to reach their $50,000 goal.

Bookeen and solar innovator SunPartner are developing an e-reader with a built-in solar panel. SunPartner's technology (called Wysips - What You See is Photovoltaic Surface) enables a transparent solar panel to be embedded in the display. This means that the device will charge when light is present - even while reading and you do not have to turn it over.

Most mobile devices use too much power to be actually solar charged, but with an e-reader this may work very well. Bookeen aims to release the solar-powered e-reader in 2016.

UK's retailer Sainsbury is trailing new E Ink shelf price labels at its Shoreditch Old Street Local store. Sainsbury hopes that the new digital labels will enable them to provide quicker and efficient digital pricing information. The trial's aim is to see how much paper and time is saved using the new labels.

Each unit is assigned to a certain product, and then prices and offers are updated automatically from central systems. The units use secure, encrypted software and are designed to resist cold temperatures in fridges and freezers. Some of the units will use E Ink's new Spectra panels that support white, black and red colors.