hybrid e ink lcd display price

Got a netbook? Specifically, got a Samsung N130 or a Lenovo S10-2? Even more specifically, do you use it in and outdoors, but find it hard to read in the sun? We have good news! The Maker Shed will sell you one of Pixel Qi"s dual-mode displays as a straight swap-in for your existing LCD-panel.

The 10.1-inch screen runs in one of two modes. When indoors, or watching video, you use the regular LCD display, which will look pretty much the same as the one you already have. When you"re in to mood for some reading, or you are outside in bright sunlight, or you"re just running low on battery power, you can switch to the e-ink mode.

This disables the backlight and shows you hi-res, grayscale pixels, much like you"d see on the screen of the Amazon Kindle. Because it only uses power when updating the screen, it sips power.

There is also a hybrid mode, which lets the sun reflect off the back of the display assembly and back out through the color LCD. This both saves battery power and lets you view a normal color display outdoors.

The panel will cost you $275, which puts it out of the "merely curious" bracket but is still cheap enough for people who do a lot of outdoor computing. The Maker Shed store page also says that the panel will likely work in any netbook: the Lenovo and the Samsung are just the only ones so far tested and guaranteed.

And according to the Pixel Qi blog, which first described the plan to sell these panels separately from the company"s own notebooks, the swap-operation (swaperation?) is easy:It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: it’s basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting [sic] the old screen and plugging this one in. That’s it. It’s a 5 minute operation.

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Apple has shown interest in creating a new iPad with a hybrid display that could dynamically switch all or just part of the full-color screen to low-power black-and-white e-ink for text and other static content.

The new dynamic, hybrid system described by Apple could have sections of the screen operate as a traditional LCD screen for displaying video, while other parts with static content would be served up in e-ink. Rather than depending on the user to switch between e-ink and LCD, Apple"s system would handle the work and provide content in the ideal context.

Apple"s interest in the technology was revealed this week in a new patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and first discovered by AppleInsider. The filing, entitled "Systems and Methods for Switching Between an Electronic Paper Display and a Video Display," describes hardware that can selectively switch between the two types of screens.

E-ink displays, or "electronic paper" as Apple refers to it throughout the filing, are advantageous because they do not require a backlight to operate, and they can be read more easily in direct sunlight. E-reader devices focused on delivering books, like the Amazon Kindle, use e-ink displays.

Of course, Apple is also involved in the sale of digital books through its own iBookstore. The iBooks application is available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, but it cannot be utilized on a device with an e-ink display.

Apple"s patent application notes that display types on a device are typically based on an assumption about the visual content that will most often be displayed on the screen. An LCD or OLED display is ideal for high-resolution content with colors, while e-ink is ideal for static black-and-white content, like text.

The solution is to offer a screen with "multiple composite display regions," where content could be shown in both the "electronic paper" mode and "video display" format at the same time. Such a screen would also include independently activated backlights, illuminating panels when necessary.

Apple could accomplish this by having a translucent e-ink display that would be placed on top of the traditional LCD or OLED screen on an iPad. The top screen would allow users to see past it, so that video content in full color could be displayed on the screen below. And of course, atop all that would be a touch panel, allowing users to interact with the device.

The patent application, made public this week, was first filed by Apple in October of 2009. The proposed invention is credited to Gloria Lin and Andrew Hodge.

A recently published patent application suggests Apple is exploring ways to incorporate e-ink display technology into its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And unlike other e-ink devices, Apple"s hybrid system would be able to display sharp text in a range of lighting situations without sacrificing the ability to display full color, video, and graphics.

The application, Systems and Methods for Switching Between an Electronic Paper Display and a Video Display, was originally filed in October 2009. It describes a hybrid system that employs a combination of "electronic paper" with a more traditional color LCD or OLED display to gain the advantages of both display types. Such a display would be formed by sandwiching a transparent e-ink screen between a backlit color LCD or OLED panel on the bottom and a touch-sensitive glass panel on the top. The color display could display full color graphics and video, while the e-ink layer could display sharp text.

While that description sounds somewhat similar to Pixel Qi"s hybrid e-ink displays which can switch between e-ink and color LCD modes, Apple"s patent takes things a couple steps further. Control circuitry would analyze the video input and could switch modes depending on the type of content. Furthermore, the control circuitry could independently switch different areas of the screen to either mode as needed. For instance, a webpage may have a range of text with an inline video. The system could display razor-sharp text using e-ink, while the video is displayed using the underlying color display. Advertisement

One particular feature of the system, according to the application, is that the control circuitry in particular analyzes the video input to determine how fast different elements are changing. If the rate of change exceeds the refresh rate of the e-ink display, the color display would take over. Imagine the webpage in the preceding example: if you scroll the page quickly, the color display would be used to smoothly animate the scrolling. Once the scrolling stopped, however, the e-ink display would take over for the text once again.

Apple files numerous patents every year, so the mere fact that Apple filed a patent for a hybrid e-ink display is no guarantee that it will incorporate the technology into a future product. However, the technology could particularly enhance the iPad for e-book reading purposes. The iPad"s current display is great for reading books heavy on color images or that contain motion graphics or video, but the relatively low pixel density and backlit screen still makes reading long passages of text tiresome for many users. Many readers tend to prefer e-ink based devices like Amazon"s Kindle for this reason.

And consumers are fairly satisfied with devices that get charged once every day, and can take a 15 minute quick-charge to add multiple hours of additional usage to them.

As noted, we already have e-ink phones that can do both colour and video[1], while there is some ghosting it"s getting to the point of usable. Just need a big display to match it.

eInk"s primary advantages are power (and only if your idle period is long enough; if you have to update it with any frequence you"re going to lose pretty soon to a memory LCD); and angles/polarity (specially compared to LCD), which some people also claim produces less headaches.

The company also doesn"t exist and only produced 10" 1024x600 screens, which are barely usable. If you know of another usable product, or have anything to back up your claims, please do share.

I also have the Metawatch. These are purely reflective, not transflective. They boast whopping 20:1 contrast ratios -- https://www.sharpsma.com/products?sharpCategory=Memory%20LCD... . Even at its best days (carta) eInk didn"t reach that 15:1 https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E_Ink_Carta , and nowadays it"s more like 10:1.

I"ve owned two devices with them so far, and quite frankly the newer one works just as well (if not better) than E-Ink outdoors but still has a backlight when necessary. Also, it can display color and smooth motion. The minor downside I see is the lack of an ability to display an image with zero battery consumption, such as on E-Ink, but the consumption is still so low that the transflective LCD watches can last weeks with an always-on display.

With the refresh rate of e-ink, wouldn"t the google play store be useless anyway? Most apps would be unbearable (games a non-starter, scrolling a no-no, etc).

Everybody would like a Ferrari/Rolex/etc., but they don"t get cheaper because of it. In fact, high demand combined with a monopoly means you don"t need to lower prices at all. (You lower price to raise demand, but you don"t need to if you have strong demand at your current prices).

Competition does lower prices. And with patents competition is impossible. As if for a competitor to make improvements to the process/technology, while still using parts of it (they would still infringe).

In my experience in the display industry, the main driver of price is cost and the main driver of cost is volume. If a customer puts in a signed escrowed order for a million displays lilke what Apple did, then processes get scaled, factories get built, and per-unit prices go down.

That my understanding of how 6" matrix E-Ink displays went from costing thousands of dollars per display when they were being built in low volumes of hundreds of displays to costing sub-50 when they were being built for Sony, Amazon and others in volumes of hundreds of thousands of displays. The same is true of the LCD industry and the OLED industry. The same is true of the cellphone industry.

I can"t understand what exactly you"re talking about. Is this the E-Ink-is-expensive-because-of-patents trope? I"ve asked before whenever I see this trope on HN, what specific patent are you referring to? Patent thicket? This extraordinary claim requires evidence. I go to SID, never heard anyone claiming this kind of stuff. Tonnes of competition but physics, featureset, costs, volume, customer demand gets in the way. It is why even well funded companies like Liquavista-Amazon and Mirasol-Qualcom didn"t make it.

I"m talking about exactly this: if a company holds patents on a technology, other companies can"t improve the same technology (using parts of the patented tech and improving specific aspects with inventions of their own) without licensing it.

You"re making a claim equivalent to saying Microsoft holds patents on operating system technologies, other companies can"t improve the same technology.

I"m guessing you"re not actually involved in the display industry because you chose not to reply with a clearly defined specific problem that is blocked by patents. I actually work in the display industry so I just see the repetition and self-citation claims (OP"s article refers to yet another HN throwaway post) on HN as being disappointing.

But they can"t make a filesystem that also leverages X, Y, Z (or any combination of them) unless they license, and also can"t make a filesystem with an improved version of X, Y, or Z lest they infringe on the X, Y, Z pattent.

So this isn"t about other companies still being able to make improved eg. OSes in the general sense, but if they can build improved OSes that also leverage the same patented techniques where needed (and they can"t).

> So this isn"t about other companies still being able to make improved eg. OSes in the general sense, but if they can build improved OSes that also leverage the same patented techniques where needed (and they can"t)

I think I"ve explained my point clearly enough. I"ll wait for you to give some factual evidence as to which patent you believe is giving rise to your statement of "they can"t".

:-) I wouldn"t describe myself as pro-patent. I would say I"m pro-fair play. If Alice spends years in front of a fume hood developing a new ITO coating or polymer that reduces cost and improves manufacturability of a product, then she deserves to be protected from corporate VP Big Bob getting his engineer to just reverse engineer Alice"s work. If you agree that Alice"s work deserves some protection for some period of time, then we both share the same concept of right/wrong. Whether patents are the best way, and how they can be made more effective and less vulnerable to turkeys and vultures, is a discussion we could have in good faith. But at the very least we would need to base the discussion on facts rather than what I see in some other posts (not alleging you have done this) where they"re writing Kiplingesque just-so stories to explain display product pricing while not knowing the difference between ITO and AgNP.

Thanks for having some persecution syndrome or conspiracy theory about "the downvote brigade" and about me having "some other agenda for promoting this story".

In actually, I don"t give a duck about the E-ink industry, but I do dislike the effect patents have in general, and am talking out of general principles about that.

You might be happy with E-ink patents in particular or patens in general. You might also be an E-ink industry insider (wouldn"t that make you the one that is more possible to have an "agenda" ot at least a vested interest?), and have far more information that me, a mere e-ink consumer, about the impact of patents there.

You could still respond (or not respond) on a thread about the impact on patents (on e-ink and in general) without being rude and second-guessing the other person.

I have not read such claims. What I have read are individual small-scale customers approaching base layer producers like E-Ink and being disappointed after expecting assistance in getting their product ideas to market. That"s analogous to a 10,000 unit/month or less customer approaching say a liquid crystal supplier, or AU Optronics and expecting any form of support or assistance. The outcome of such an interaction is pretty much guaranteed. Even the top tier distributors won"t talk to you unless you"re expected to order at least 100,000 units a year. Anything less and you go through the normal OEM development path of which there"s tonnes of partners. You do what everybody else who has a display product idea does, which is go to SID or maybe just CES, and talk to OEM vendors. If you"ve got an E-Ink product idea, probably somebody like Netronix would be your OEM partner but even they probably won"t talk to you unless you"re putting down big NRE. That"s just how it is. Volume drives the products. You can"t have small volume and cheap unless you"re reusing some component that someone else has driven the volume for. That"s just as true in the display industry as it is in any other tech industry, eg: LCDs, OLEDs, CPUs, memory, sensors, even passives like resistors and capacitors!

I don"t follow. I also don"t see how it is different than any other industry be it bricks or CPUs. Buy a few and the per unit price is high. Buy millions and the per unit price is low.

I keep seeing this claim. I believe it is wrong and asked for evidence. In response to which OP has promised to correct the article. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26247268

Which companies / patents did they buy up? I keep seeing this rumor floating around but their Wikipedia article lists exactly one acquisition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#Acquisition) and a casual Google doesn"t show any others.

I am curious if you work in the display industry. Do you know what the pricing for PQi displays actually was? Did you actually use a PixelQi display on a daily basis yourself? To be clear, I"m not attempting to be negative, but I actually work in the display industry and found the PixelQi display on the OLPC-XO-1 to be unusable. My perception of the display was one with very low quality color with backlight; and terrible viewing angle and unreadable contrast levels in bright sunlight. It also had low resolution. The XO-1 display I had access to had lots of pixel defects. If I am not mistaken (as I do not know actual pricing that Quanta got for the PixelQi displays) they were more expensive than LCDs and required additional parts that made managing their supply chain overall difficult. Most experts in my industry that I talked to expressed the opinion that it was a reality-distortion field type charismatic executive who managed to convince people at OLPC to try that idea. It was funded by UN and money from developing countries budgets who were excited by the promise of being able to educate their masses. Sadly it looks as if those countries were taken for a ride, rather than benefiting from a genuinely merit based idea.

So I am very interested to hear what details you will share to back up the "really good" and "clearly affordable" parts of your claim. If your claim is true then it would suggest that my whole industry ought to abandon our current design and architectural roadmaps and switch to Jepsen"s design! :-D I say that in a humourous context because last I heard in 2019 Jepsen abandoned badmouthing the entire display industry and switched to talking about telepathy and VR.

It seems kind of obvious to me that if it was cheaper people would reach for it more often and find cool uses for it. There’s some more circular logic for you.

As I have stated, I was looking for evidence or proof for OP"s claim about patents and did not find it, nor does OP appear to be able or willing to back up his/her claim. My opinion is that display pricing is driven primarily by volume, and secondarily by a lot of other rapidly fluctuating variables related to ITO/TFT manufacturing costs. I"m sure patents has some effect on the industry, but most likely negligible as I"ve never heard companies being impacted by it. At least not in my corner of the industry.

To be frank, I believe OP"s claim about patents is wrong and is just some kind of worldview that for some reason has caught on recently in HN and is getting repeated without being challenged.

The simplest evidence I can give that volume is the main driver of pricing is to compare EPD 6" matrix display pricing between 2007 where it was 100x more expensive than it is today. Patents haven"t changed. Volume has. That was driven by large scale buyers like Sony, Amazon, and others.

It"s been far, far too long (read: four months) since we"ve heard a peep from the gentle souls over at Pixel Qi, but it looks like the long, heart-wrenching wait for the hybrid display that"s bound to revolutionize Western civilization is nearing an end. According to the startup"s CEO herself, Mary Lou Jepsen, the primetime-ready 3Qi display should make its glorious debut on an undisclosed tablet to be announced next month. For those out of the loop, this transflective display contains both e-ink and LCD properties, one for outdoor reading scenarios and the other for multimedia viewing. The amazing part is that toggling between the two is as simple as flipping a switch, which obviously means great things for battery life on whatever device it"s shoved into. We"ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more, but do us a favor and cross your fingers for good luck. Toes too, por favor.

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is exploring the use of color paper displays by E Ink for its future products. Kuo says that this manufacturer’s technology is particularly well suited to enabling a low-power second screen experience for a foldable form factor device.

Of course, Apple does not currently make a foldable although there have been ongoing rumors that the company is considering designs for a foldable iPad.

Back in February, both display analyst Ross Young and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman referenced a 20-inch folding MacBook/iPad design apparently in development.

What Kuo seems to be suggesting is that the e-paper panel would serve as the outward-facing display, providing a low-power accessory screen experience for users, who want to get some utility out of their foldable without having to unfold it.

For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold features a 6.2-inch AMOLED cover display, which makes the device look almost like a standard phone in closed operation. The user can unfold the device to reveal the flexible 7.6-inch main screen inside. An e-ink display would not be appropriate for this design.

However, the Galaxy Z Flip features a very small 1.9-inch OLED cover screen, which acts as a simple readout for the time and notifications display. This could easily be imagined as a color e-ink surface though, extending battery life significantly as e-ink do not consume power for static content. The significantly lower refresh rate of e-ink panels, compared to OLED or LCD, does not matter too much in this context either.

This use case is closer to what Kuo describes; e-ink / e-paper could become the mainstream choice for these outer accessory displays. Of course, Apple’s plans could change it any time and it tests many different technologies continuously. At this point, anything beyond the idea that they are exploring the potential for the the technology would be mere speculation.

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When we think of e-ink, our minds usually turn to e-readers. When Amazon released its first Kindle in 2007, many other companies jumped aboard, creating their own e-readers and e-ink displays.

E-ink was designed as an electronic screen that acts like paper, which is why e-ink technology is also referred to as e-paper: electronic paper. In the age of vibrant LED, LCD, plasma, or other modern displays, do we really need another type of display?

Where e-ink technology really stands out is its low use of power. Simple e-ink displays can last years on one charge. The more complex ones that use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth still last months.

Secondly, e-ink users prefer a display that isn’t backlit. We stare at backlit screens all day; they’ve lost their novelty. People want something different to look at instead of the computers we’ve been stuck in front of since the 1990s. Plus, e-ink offers non-glare displays, which are easier on the eyes than other displays on the market.

Next, some people still prefer that classic look of pen and paper or chalk and a chalkboard. Today, most companies and businesses want a touch of class with their modern style. Rather than making your office resemble a walk down the Star Trek Enterprise, add some class with paperlike displays instead of blazing LCD screens.

Thirdly, e-ink displays are getting larger. Originally, the biggest e-ink displays on the market were no bigger than a book. The largest e-ink display today is a whopping 42 inches across: not bad for a technology that’s not even a decade and a half old.

Whatever you can do with paper, imagine doing it with an e-ink display. Most of the uses for e-ink today originate from someone dreaming how to make a paper experience better. Here are some examples.

At the end of 2020, Visionect announced Joan 32, a 32-inch e-ink display. It can be placed wherever it’s needed the most, whether that be an office building, an airport in a shopping mall, or anywhere else where information needs to be displayed. It’s most often used for corporate communication, digital menus, airport signage or to provide wayfinding information.

Joan’s battery lasts for weeks and can be recharged overnight. There’s no need for a constant power source, drilling, or wiring, which is a huge advantage over LCD screens.

Launched in 2017, reMarkable recreates the pen and paper look and feel that a backlit screen simply can’t. The device is listed as a “tablet” with one very notable difference to the popular tablets on the market: it uses e-ink.

In 2020, IONNYK came up with the idea to use e-ink in place of black and white photos. IONNYK’s 31-inch display is encased in a frame, which cycles through a galley of images. The result is lifelike photography that convinces viewers they’re looking at real photo prints. IONNYK’s frames are based on Visionect’s 32-inch screens.

E Ink is the first company to offer a 42-inch e-ink display. Their large e-ink displays can be used for food menus, floor plans, interactive whiteboard simulations, and more. Whatever its use, the large e-ink display is sure to add a touch of class to any environment.

Although it’s come a long way, e-ink technology is not as responsive as LCD, LED, and other mainstream displays. Users report e-ink displays taking “15 to 20 seconds to power on completely,” not to mention seconds to simply wake them from sleep mode.

While Amazon was the first to release an e-reader, Sony was the first to make their e-reader usable in the dark. Since then, it’s been commonplace for e-readers to have front lighting for users to read in the dark.

Because e-ink uses capsules with different colored particles that rise and sink to change the screen’s color, the devices are limited to greyscale displays. While some e-ink displays are breaching this barrier, it’ll take a while for others to add more colors to their e-ink technology.

Considering e-ink displays are composed of millions of minuscule capsules in a thin film, it will take a lot of investment for the displays to get much larger than 42 inches. Although progress is coming, it won’t be as rapid as Samsung’s Wall and its 292-inch screen.

As mentioned, it takes a lot of investment to get e-ink displays to be larger and colorful. Therefore, the displays aren’t cheap. With only a few e-ink manufacturers releasing e-ink displays, there aren’t really less-pricey alternatives.

Are they worth it? If you’re a classicist, pragmatist, or innovator, e-ink displays are for you. The devices are classy and low-maintenance with endless uses. If your room isn’t too dark to read a piece of paper, you’ll love integrating e-ink displays in your space.

This is one of those things I’m going to have to actually see to grasp exactly how this can be done.  Comparing a Kindlee-ink display and an iPhone’s LCD display is like comparing apples to oranges.  They are so different.  They each have different functions and the Kindle is designed just for reading.  Sometimes it is good to escape internet and games, and just read.

From what I understand, the user will be able to switch between the iPhone 4 display and an e-ink display depending on their needs.  So, in theory, you could use the Kindle Application on your iPhone, and it would be more Kindle like than than the current version that is on the iPhone.  If you can use that application, it would still allow you to download and purchase books from the Kindle Store.

So, could this development kill the Kindle if it went into production?  Probably not.  Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) could either make a rival Kindle device, or they can focus on the Kindle software platform and e-book sales.  E-book sales are getting better and better all the time.  Especially with authors writing books exclusively for the e-book platform. Another key factor is cost.  Many people can’t afford an iPad yet.  Even an iPhone costs more than the Kindle does.

At CES 2023, TCL dropped a whole bag of gadgets — including new phones, a Windows convertible, and a new tablet with its own take on the color e-ink tech. Say hello to the TCL Nxtpaper 12 Pro tablet, which aims to beat the likes of Apple and Samsung with a palatable price, a screen that feels like paper, and a large canvas, too.

Unlike regular LCD panels that alter the screen temperature and give it a yellowish tint, TCL’s Nxtpaper tech relies on a built-in multi-layer filter system. This not only cuts down on the blue light exposure but also keeps the color profile as close to natural as possible and reduces the glare effect.

TCL ships a dedicated reading mode with its Nxtpaper line of tablets that turns the screen output into a grayscale mode for an e-ink experience. As for the paper part in the marketing material, TCL claims “a tactile feeling just like touching real paper,” adding that the actual display surface has a paper-like finish to the touch.

On the software side, you get a dedicated PC mode for effortless file management, plus a floating window mode to handle multiple app windows with ease. Take that, iPadOS 16. Disappointingly, the TCL Nxtpaper 12 Pro still runs Android 12 out of the box.

In 2023, TCL claims to have upgraded the Nxtpaper display tech, doubling the brightness output for a more comfortable outdoor viewing experience. However, the company assures that despite the bump in brightness figures, the screen is still capable of reducing the blue light output by up to 61 percent.

Delving into the technical side of things, the Nxtpaper 12 Pro tablet offers a fairly sharp 12.2-inch 2K (2160 x 1440 pixels) display with 370 nits of peak brightness and a 3:2 aspect ratio, somewhat like the iPad Pro. The stylus-ready screen, however, still doesn’t offer any high-refresh-rate magic.

The tablet draws power from the MediaTek MT8771 chipset, the same as the TCL 10S 5G tablet. It will be available in a single configuration packing 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. Thankfully, you can pop in an SDHC or SDXC card to boost the memory.

The 8,000mAh battery is claimed to last up to 13 hours, beating the figures Apple touts for the iPad Pro. The TCL Nxtpaper 12 Pro supports 18W fast charging, and thankfully, the power brick comes bundled in the retail package. Notably, TCL bundles the standard e-pen stylus that can recognize over 8,192 pressure levels in the retail package, just like Samsung.

TCL also sells a detachable keyboard and a stand case, but you’ll need to fork over extra cash for that. There are a couple of 8-megapixel cameras on the front and a 13-megapixel camera at the back. The tablet is already up for grabs, priced at $499. There’s a 5G-ready version that will hit the shelves “later this year,” carrying a price tag of $549.

At its current asking price, the TCL Nxtpaper 12 Pro definitely offers a superior screen experience compared to the 10th Gen iPad and undercuts the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. However, it does so at the cost of a significantly weaker processor. Plus, TCL’s software update record isn’t as good as Samsung’s or Apple’s.

At CES 2023, we interviewed the Assistant Vice President of E Ink, Tim O’Malley. The company is well-known in the tech world and produces e-ink displays that are used in e-readers, laptops, wearables, phones, and many other products.

Mr. O’Malley revealed a lot during the interview, including details about E Ink’s cooperation with BMW, its plans for expanding to other industries, and much more. You can read a brief overview of the interview below or check out the whole thing in the video above.

Q: Can you tell us a little more about your collaboration with BMW? Also, what challenges did you have to overcome to make it possible for BMW to put your color-changing material on their car?

A: A big announcement happened at the keynote, with BMW introducing its concept electric car. The car has a color-changing surface all over it, and we at E Ink are thrilled that we were able to work with BMW and supply them with the material they needed.

They really care about the lines and curves of the car at BMW in order to get the design they want. Some of these lines and curves are not the friendliest to work with, so we had to bend the material and build in ways to relieve the stress on it. There’s a big team at BMW we worked with to figure all this out.

A: The concept car uses 32 colors and can switch between them on any of its panels. However, the product we’re coming out with first will only use eight colors.

A: There are quite a few. We came out with the Gallery 3 product last year that brings full color to the e-reader platform. There are seven companies that are already interested in using it.

We also brought saturated full-color to retail, and we’re continuing to make progress in this area. I’m also really thrilled about some of the wearables like the Fossil Hybrid watch announced earlier this week. It combines fashion with the elements of great design and the use of our display.

Then there’s also the recently announced Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Twist, which spins to reveal an OLED display on one side and an e-ink display on the other.

A: Yes, we have. The energy efficiency has a lot to do with the fact that our products are relatively low voltage. There’s no power being used when a display is showing an image. We use power to update the display, and once that’s done, the display is not drawing power anymore. So a lot of the demos we carry around show full images, but we don’t actually have any power cords with us.

So a lot of the applications our products are a great fit for have a lower use cycle. Think of a retail store that only updates its prices on e-ink displays every now and then.

A: We have a product line called JustTint at E Ink, which can switch from transparent to mostly opaque. We’re continuing to advance the technology and are working with partners to bring it to market. We’ve discussed using it for automotive sunroofs, for example, which is really exciting.

So if you look at electric cars, it can get really hot when you open the sunroof, but if you then turn on the AC, you can’t drive as far because the battery life takes a hit. So with our products, you won’t have to make those tradeoffs.

A: We generally say it’s paper. We’re trying to bring additional functionality to places where people usually use paper. These include reading, note-taking, smart city signage, and retail shelf tags. These started as paper applications. We know that in some devices people choose LCD displays if they make sense for their use case, but e-ink displays can also be used in many cases and are better for our eyes.

Q: What do you see for the future? If we look 15 or 20 years down the line, do you think it will still be possible to improve your products and technology substantially?

A: Absolutely. We’re working on transparent films, which aren’t even full products yet, and we’ve just started our journey when it comes to color displays. I recently heard a quote by Bill Gates that I really liked. He said, “We overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do in 10 years.”

We want to expand our business to cars, billboards, and more. The application of low-power full-color technology in this space is what the world needs right now.

This is just a quick overview of the conversation we had with Tim O’Malley from E Ink. If you want to learn more, check out the video at the top of the page.

Lenovo"s 2018 Yoga Book (C930) is a Windows 10 tablet/laptop hybrid that features a 10.8" 2560x1600 LCD display and a large (around 8", it seems) E Ink display that operates as a dynamic keyboard, a notepad or an e-reader. Other features include an Intel m3-7Y30 or Core i5-7Y54 processor, 4GB RAM and up to 256GB of SSD storage.

Many e-readers, devices meant to replace traditional books, utilize electronic paper for their displays in order to further resemble paper books; one such example is the Kindle series by Amazon.

Electronic paper, also sometimes electronic ink, e-ink or electrophoretic display, are display devices that mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper.flat panel displays that emit light, an electronic paper display reflects ambient light like paper. This may make them more comfortable to read, and provide a wider viewing angle than most light-emitting displays. The contrast ratio in electronic displays available as of 2008 approaches newspaper, and newly (2008) developed displays are slightly better.

Many electronic paper technologies hold static text and images indefinitely without electricity. Flexible electronic paper uses plastic substrates and plastic electronics for the display backplane. Applications of electronic visual displays include electronic shelf labels and digital signage,smartphone displays, and e-readers able to display digital versions of books and magazines.

Electronic paper was first developed in the 1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xerox"s Palo Alto Research Center.Gyricon, consisted of polyethylene spheres between 75 and 106 micrometers across. Each sphere is a Janus particle composed of negatively charged black plastic on one side and positively charged white plastic on the other (each bead is thus a dipole).polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as the material for the spheres, dramatically improving the video speed and decreasing the control voltage needed.

In the simplest implementation of an electrophoretic display, titanium dioxide (titania) particles approximately one micrometer in diameter are dispersed in a hydrocarbon oil. A dark-colored dye is also added to the oil, along with surfactants and charging agents that cause the particles to take on an electric charge. This mixture is placed between two parallel, conductive plates separated by a gap of 10 to 100 micrometres. When a voltage is applied across the two plates, the particles migrate electrophoretically to the plate that bears the opposite charge from that on the particles. When the particles are located at the front (viewing) side of the display, it appears white, because the light is scattered back to the viewer by the high-indexpixels), then an image can be formed by applying the appropriate voltage to each region of the display to create a pattern of reflecting and absorbing regions.

An electrophoretic display - also known as an EPD - are typically addressed using MOSFET-based thin-film transistor (TFT) technology. TFTs are requiredactive matrix displays used in the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo eReader, and iRex iLiad e-readers. These displays are constructed from an electrophoretic imaging film manufactured by E Ink Corporation. A mobile phone that used the technology is the Motorola Fone.

Electrophoretic Display technology has also been developed by SiPix and Bridgestone/Delta. SiPix is now part of E Ink Corporation. The SiPix design uses a flexible 0.15 mm Microcup architecture, instead of E Ink"s 0.04 mm diameter microcapsules.Bridgestone Corp."s Advanced Materials Division cooperated with Delta Optoelectronics Inc. in developing Quick Response Liquid Powder Display technology.

Electrophoretic displays can be manufactured using the Electronics on Plastic by Laser Release (EPLaR) process developed by Philips Research to enable existing AM-LCD manufacturing plants to create flexible plastic displays.

In the 1990s another type of electronic ink based on a microencapsulated electrophoretic display was conceived and prototyped by a team of undergraduates at MITBarrett Comiskey, Joseph Jacobson, Jeremy Rubin and Russ Wilcox co-founded E Ink Corporation in 1997 to commercialize the technology. E ink subsequently formed a partnership with Philips Components two years later to develop and market the technology. In 2005, Philips sold the electronic paper business as well as its related patents to Prime View International."It has for many years been an ambition of researchers in display media to create a flexible low-cost system that is the electronic analog of paper. In this context, microparticle-based displays have long intrigued researchers. Switchable contrast in such displays is achieved by the electromigration of highly scattering or absorbing microparticles (in the size range 0.1–5 μm), quite distinct from the molecular-scale properties that govern the behavior of the more familiar liquid-crystal displays. Micro-particle-based displays possess intrinsic bistability, exhibit extremely low power d.c. field addressing and have demonstrated high contrast and reflectivity. These features, combined with a near-lambertian viewing characteristic, result in an "ink on paper" look. But such displays have to date suffered from short lifetimes and difficulty in manufacture. Here we report the synthesis of an electrophoretic ink based on the microencapsulation of an electrophoretic dispersion. The use of a microencapsulated electrophoretic medium solves the lifetime issues and permits the fabrication of a bistable electronic display solely by means of printing. This system may satisfy the practical requirements of electronic paper."

This used tiny microcapsules filled with electrically charged white particles suspended in a colored oil.circuitry controlled whether the white particles were at the top of the capsule (so it looked white to the viewer) or at the bottom of the capsule (so the viewer saw the color of the oil). This was essentially a reintroduction of the well-known electrophoretic display technology, but microcapsules meant the display could be made on flexible plastic sheets instead of glass.

One early version of the electronic paper consists of a sheet of very small transparent capsules, each about 40 micrometers across. Each capsule contains an oily solution containing black dye (the electronic ink), with numerous white titanium dioxide particles suspended within. The particles are slightly negatively charged, and each one is naturally white.liquid polymer, sandwiched between two arrays of electrodes, the upper of which is transparent. The two arrays are aligned to divide the sheet into pixels, and each pixel corresponds to a pair of electrodes situated on either side of the sheet. The sheet is laminated with transparent plastic for protection, resulting in an overall thickness of 80 micrometers, or twice that of ordinary paper.

The network of electrodes connects to display circuitry, which turns the electronic ink "on" and "off" at specific pixels by applying a voltage to specific electrode pairs. A negative charge to the surface electrode repels the particles to the bottom of local capsules, forcing the black dye to the surface and turning the pixel black. Reversing the voltage has the opposite effect. It forces the particles to the surface, turning the pixel white. A more recent implementation of this concept requires only one layer of electrodes beneath the microcapsules.

Electrowetting display (EWD) is based on controlling the shape of a confined water/oil interface by an applied voltage. With no voltage applied, the (colored) oil forms a flat film between the water and a hydrophobic (water-repellent) insulating coating of an electrode, resulting in a colored pixel. When a voltage is applied between the electrode and the water, the interfacial tension between the water and the coating changes. As a result, the stacked state is no longer stable, causing the water to move the oil aside. This makes a partly transparent pixel, or, if a reflective white surface is under the switchable element, a white pixel. Because of the small pixel size, the user only experiences the average reflection, which provides a high-brightness, high-contrast switchable element.

Displays based on electrowetting provide several attractive features. The switching between white and colored reflection is fast enough to display video content.

This results in the availability of two-thirds of the display area to reflect light in any desired color. This is achieved by building up a pixel with a stack of two independently controllable colored oil films plus a color filter.

The colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow, which is a subtractive system, comparable to the principle used in inkjet printing. Compared to LCD, brightness is gained because no polarisers are required.

Electrofluidic display is a variation of an electrowetting display. Electrofluidic displays place an aqueous pigment dispersion inside a tiny reservoir. The reservoir comprises <5-10% of the viewable pixel area and therefore the pigment is substantially hidden from view.

The core technology was invented at the Novel Devices Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. The technology is currently being commercialized by Gamma Dynamics.

The technology used in electronic visual displays that can create various colors via interference of reflected light. The color is selected with an electrically switched light modulator comprising a microscopic cavity that is switched on and off using driver integrated circuits similar to those used to address liquid-crystal displays (LCD).

Other research efforts into e-paper have involved using organic transistors embedded into flexible substrates,triads, typically consisting of the standard cyan, magenta and yellow, in the same way as CRT monitors (although using subtractive primary colors as opposed to additive primary colors). The display is then controlled like any other electronic color display.

E Ink Corporation of E Ink Holdings Inc. released the first colored E Ink displays to be used in a marketed product. The Ectaco Jetbook Color was released in 2012 as the first colored electronic ink device, which used E Ink"s Triton display technology.

Several companies are simultaneously developing electronic paper and ink. While the technologies used by each company provide many of the same features, each has its own distinct technological advantages. All electronic paper technologies face the following general challenges:

Electronic ink can be applied to flexible or rigid materials. For flexible displays, the base requires a thin, flexible material tough enough to withstand considerable wear, such as extremely thin plastic. The method of how the inks are encapsulated and then applied to the substrate is what distinguishes each company from others. These processes are complex and are carefully guarded industry secrets. Nevertheless, making electronic paper is less complex and costly than LCDs.

There are many approaches to electronic paper, with many companies developing technology in this area. Other technologies being applied to electronic paper include modifications of liquid-crystal displays, electrochromic displays, and the electronic equivalent of an Etch A Sketch at Kyushu University. Advantages of electronic paper include low power usage (power is only drawn when the display is updated), flexibility and better readability than most displays. Electronic ink can be printed on any surface, including walls, billboards, product labels and T-shirts. The ink"s flexibility would also make it possible to develop rollable displays for electronic devices.

In December 2005, Seiko released the first electronic ink based watch called the Spectrum SVRD001 wristwatch, which has a flexible electrophoretic displayPebble smart watch (2013) uses a low-power memory LCD manufactured by Sharp for its e-paper display.

In 2019, Fossil launched a hybrid smartwatch called the Hybrid HR, integrating an always on electronic ink display with physical hands and dial to simulate the look of a traditional analog watch.

In 2004, Sony released the Librié in Japan, the first e-book reader with an electronic paper E Ink display.Sony Reader e-book reader in the USA. On October 2, 2007, Sony announced the PRS-505, an updated version of the Reader. In November 2008, Sony released the PRS-700BC, which incorporated a backlight and a touchscreen.

In late 2007, Amazon began producing and marketing the Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader with an e-paper display. In February 2009, Amazon released the Kindle 2 and in May 2009 the larger Kindle DX was announced. In July 2010 the third-generation Kindle was announced, with notable design changes.

In 2020, Onyx released the first frontlit 13.3 inch electronic paper Android tablet, the Boox Max Lumi. At the end of the same year, Bigme released the first 10.3 inch color electronic paper Android tablet, the Bigme B1 Pro. This was also the first large electronic paper tablet to support 4g cellular data.

The French daily iRex iLiad. Two different processing platforms were used to deliver readable information of the daily, one based on the newly developed GPP electronic ink platform from

Flexible display cards enable financial payment cardholders to generate a one-time password to reduce online banking and transaction fraud. Electronic paper offers a flat and thin alternative to existing key fob tokens for data security. The world"s first ISO compliant smart card with an embedded display was developed by Innovative Card Technologies and nCryptone in 2005. The cards were manufactured by Nagra ID.

The Samsung Alias 2 mobile phone incorporates electronic ink from E Ink into the keypad, which allows the keypad to change character sets and orientation while in different display modes.

On December 12, 2012, Yota Devices announced the first "YotaPhone" prototype and was later released in December 2013, a unique double-display smartphone. It has a 4.3-inch, HD LCD on the front and an electronic ink display on the back.

On May and June 2020, Hisense released the hisense A5c and A5 pro cc, the first color electronic ink smartphones. With a single color display, with toggable front light running android 9 and Android 10.

E-paper based electronic shelf labels (ESL) are used to digitally display the prices of goods at retail stores. Electronic-paper-based labels are updated via two-way infrared or radio technology and powered by a rechargeable coin cell.

E-paper displays at bus or trams stops can be remotely updated. Compared to LED or liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), they consume lower energy and the text or graphics stays visible during a power failure. Compared to LCDs, it is well visible also under full sunshine.

Typically, e-paper electronic Tags integrate e-ink technology with wireless interfaces like NFC or UHF. They are most commonly used as employees" ID cards or as production labels to track manufacturing changes and status. E-Paper Tags are also increasingly being used as shipping labels, especially in the case of reusable boxes.

An interesting feature provided by some e-paper Tags manufacturers is batteryless design. This means that the power needed for a display"s content update is provided wirelessly and the module itself doesn"t contain any battery.

Other proposed applications include clothes, digital photo frames, information boards, and keyboards. Keyboards with dynamically changeable keys are useful for less represented languages, non-standard keyboard layouts such as Dvorak, or for special non-alphabetical applications such as video editing or games.

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There are two main types of eReader display technology: E-Ink (electronic ink) and LCD (liquid crystal display). In general, E-Ink readers are considered to be easier to read, with higher contrast, no glare and a more natural reading experience. LCD screens, on the other hand,are both more dynamic and more affordable. Each display technology has its own inherent pros and cons which should be considered before investing in an electronic reader.

E-Ink, or electronic ink, is used in the Amazon Kindle. E-Ink screens use a special type of electronic paper where characters and images are created by arranging pixels on a screen. The mechanism is similar to that of an Etch-a-Sketch. In this way, power is only needed to arrange the pixels. The image remains on the screen even if the unit is powered down.

In terms of reading, E-Ink screens are more like physical books printed on paper. They are not backlit, thus they need a light source to be read, just like a book. The benefits of this is that it produces less strain on the eyes and is a more natural reading experience. Furthermore, you won’t experience glare in bright lights and direct sunlight. E-Ink also holds its charge for a very long time.

The drawbacks of E-Ink is that it cannot display moving images, such as video or cursors, nor can it display color. E-Ink, for now, can only be displayed in shades of grey.

An LCD screen is on an eReader is the same as the screen on your laptop computer, flat screen TV or smartphone. The screen is backlit, thus requiring more battery power. Furthermore, the glass screen creates a glare. LCD screens are also notoriously difficult to read in direct sunlight. Viewing an LCD screen over long periods of time is also less enjoyable than reading a book or an E-Ink screen.

The pros of an LCD screen is that it can display full color and video. LCD screens are also very affordable and can be outfitted with touchscreens for easy navigation. In fact, many smartphones and tablets double as eReaders, such as the iPod Touch, iPad and BlackBerry Storm.

When deciding which type of eReader screen is best for you, there are two things you should consider: your usage and your needs. If you plan on reading outdoors or in brightly lit areas or for long periods of time, an E-Ink eReader makes sense because of its lack of a glare and its long battery life. But if you’d like to read in the dark—such as in bed or on a red eye flight—an LCD screen may be better. Furthermore, eReaders with LCD screens can offer other functionality, such as video or web browsing, bringing it closer to a smartphone experience.

Bottom-line: For those who intend to use your eReader strictly for books and strictly in well-lit areas, the E-Ink models are likely the best for you. If you are looking for an eReader that can do a bit more than simply read books and magazines, and LCD smartphone, tablet or reader could give you more bang for your buck.

Watches do not just serve to remind the wearer of the time. These custom accessories also make an essential part of your outfit. A e ink watch takes the whole fashion meaning to a different level, thanks to their exquisite and bold looks. If you want a collection that suits your taste, then Alibaba.com is the place to shop. Whether you buy retail or wholesale to resell, the affordable prices on China"s largest wholesale platform will prove meaningful. From the men"s and women"s collections and even watches for kids, you can find it all at affordableibib...

Alibaba.com stocks a variety of electronic, analog, and automatic watches. Therefore, users can benefit from the bipolar liquid and quartz crystals plus enjoy electronic components" functionalities. Alternatively, you can choose to go fully analog with your watch. Besides that, you can select the automatic e ink watch that combines the goodness of the regular automatic mechanical watch and that of a pure quartz watch. Since watches will be here for the foreseeable future, you can start a venture by sourcing supplies from reputable manufacturers and suppliers across China.

Following the expansion of industrial printing, the market for e ink watch has expanded, and Alibaba.com helps you cater to this market gap by connecting you to sellers and suppliers in the industry. Whether you are working on glass, textile, metal, paper, or packaging, you can find the parts you want at Alibaba.com. You can also shop for customized tools, high-speed parts that are compatible with your printing equipment. From precision tuning to engraving components on your printer, motors to gears for your machine, or even circuit boards and pumps, Alibaba has got it all.