E-ink’s benefits over other forms of display are obvious: you don’t have to backlight it if you don’t want to, so it’s very easy on the eye and also on a device’s battery. You can effectively use it to produce an electronic screen that’s as pleasant to look at as a printed piece of paper. And the technology seems set to take another leap forward with the announcement that University of Cincinnati researchers have developed an e-ink technology that’s quick enough to competently display full color video – but so cheap that it can be completely disposable. How? Well, instead of using glass or flexible plastic as the basic substrate layer, they’re using paper – and getting excellent results. So you could end up with single-page disposable electronic newspapers and magazines that use a tiny fraction of the paper their printed counterparts require. Clever stuff!
I wonder if e-ink will replace LCD someday?
E-Ink is a bust for me because I sit in a darkened office/bunker/ManCave [classified] hours a day.
If it doesn’t glow, I can’t use it.
That doesn’t mean it not a neat idea.
It just better not make my displays all go away like my CRTs all went away.
msbpodcast: buy a lamp.
also the article says you don’t HAVE to use a backlight. So you could if you needed too.
This is great! I will have something to watch while I am standing in a bread line a few years from now. It will probably be all propaganda all the time … like Fox News.
If you want bright, look for emissive polymeric LED displays.
They may also be cheap enough to print if the drivers can be printed as well. Sadly they require current, not voltage drivers, something polymers really don’t want to do.
I want toilet paper with an e-ink printout of Sarah Palin on every sheet of paper. That way every time I wipe my ass with it she’ll cringe and do a silent scream.
#6 In the words of William Shatner; “Get a life”
#7 Amar,
U mad?
#6 – Palin Derangement Syndrome strikes again!
Great, more stuff to throw away.
It uses water, so i guess it’s environmentally safe. so cheap it’s disposable.. sounds too good to be true.. probably a scam to get CV money.
I can’t see it replacing an LCD anytime soon. The refresh rate is just too slow.
However, it is great for reading.
#6 Typical leftist. This blog was about a new display technology, girlie.
I for one welcome our new absorbent displays.
Next generation e-readers for sure. Nice. What will replace LCD’s are OLED’s.
Both technologies will hopefully be perfected and manufactured in the US.
Electrowetting displays show a lot of promise but it will be a race against color e-ink and cholesteric LCD in the bi-stable display space.
LCD in any iteration is backlit, so it has a disadvantage in that aspect vs tech like OLED and inorganic EL. However, LCD is sick mature and nobody can touch the manufacturing cost-effectiveness. LED-driven LCD will dominate all displays in every size for the forseeable future.
OLED is superior in performance to LED in that it is an emissive technology and therefore not only doesn’t need a backlight but as a lambertian emitter has optical advantages as well. However, the tech still needs to address uneven phosphor decay (OLEDs as organic chemicals do oxiddize in the presence os moisture and/or oxygen) and general display lifetime, which is why I have always maintained that it will only be a sucess in the near term (5-10 years) in portable devices as their operating lifetimes are short enough to accommodate OLED’s decay issue.
There may even be a chance for iridescent display technology (formerly Iridigm, now Mirasol) from Qualcomm if they can commercialize it eventually and make it price competitive. It is reflective color that is also bistable but is only available in very small screen sizes.
It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. It’s a nice time to be an oberver in this market (but the players must need a pepto-bismol IV).