
E Ink announces a full color electrophoretic ePaper display - jameshart
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160524006209/en/Ink-Announces-Advanced-Color-ePaper-Breakthrough-Technology
======
jessriedel
This will be perfect for electronic picture frames. I've given such devices to
family before, but their significant drawback is that they are backlit, so
they are much more distracting than normal print photographs and can't be put
in a bedroom or anywhere else that needs to be dark. But a electronic picture
frame with color e-ink would be an ideal use: Low power, no illumination, and
no need for fast updating.

~~~
boyter
I have always wanted a large one (24" or more) to display whatever painting I
find interesting on that day. I went looking several months ago without any
luck. These look like they would be perfect for my use case.

I find the idea of having whatever art piece I want on the wall very
appealing.

~~~
WalterBright
Hah, I got you all beat. I want an entire wall to be a display. I can set it
to have wallpaper (!) of any sort. People can hike the continental divide with
a gopro on their head, and I can have the wall display be the resulting video.
It would be quite awesome!

~~~
bananaoomarang
Can you imagine? If you had your wall papered in e-ink panels you could have
localised control too, cast something to one in particular or put up all your
holiday photos, one after the other.

Would not be pleasant when your whole room is flashing though.

~~~
WalterBright
I'm actually a bit surprised that there aren't gopro videos of spectacular
hikes that go real time step-by-step from start to finish, that one could use
as wallpaper. Wouldn't you want to get one from, let's say, climbing Everest?
Or mount one on the nose of a locomotive and film a coast-to-coast train
journey?

~~~
ingve
Not GoPro, but Norwegian broadcaster NRK have filmed several train journeys as
part of their "slow tv" offering. Original HD video files (200++ GB) are
available [0], and there are multiple versions on Youtube, like a 10 hour trip
with Nordlandsbanen from Trondheim to Bodø [1] and a 7 hour trip from Bergen
to Oslo [2], including a 10 minute stretch from Finse where the scenes from
Hoth in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back were filmed [3].

[0] [https://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-
eng/](https://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=831Drz4YQdQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=831Drz4YQdQ)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR15x_ujuPA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR15x_ujuPA)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql2qXpNVTjw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql2qXpNVTjw)

~~~
sciurus
You can find more videos via searching for the phrase "minutt for minutt" on
YouTube.

------
dragonmum
Slashgear posted a video of the actual color e-ink panels in operation.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA)

~~~
MBCook
It's unfortunate that it seems like the eInk flashing problem seems _so much
worse_ than on monochrome displays.

Once the image fully appears it looks great.

~~~
ori_b
I wonder if it's fast enough that they could do it line by line. It would be
slower, but it might look better having the picture cut over fully, instead of
flashing the entire screen over and over.

~~~
dhimes
Or just have a layer over it that goes opaque for a moment until the pic below
develops. Would be weird, but way less annoying.

------
makomk
This is a neat trick: "The richness of the colors is achieved by having all
the colored pigments in every picture element (pixel) rather than the side-by-
side pixel colors achieved with a CFA. This eliminates the light attenuation,
which can be quite significant." I believe this is why non-backlit colour LCDs
don't work so well - too much light attenuation from the fact that the colours
are side-by-side and so only let a third of the light through the colour
filters.

~~~
gregschlom
Any idea how they manage to control which pigments are shown?

In traditional B&W E-Ink, black pigments are negatively charged, while white
pigments are positively charged, so it's fairly straightforward to control
which ones to show. I wonder how they do it for color, since they would need
presumably 3 or 4 primary colors

~~~
stonogo
It's easy, in our digital world, to forget: electric charge is not binary. A
gamut of pigments that responded to a range of charges would serve.

~~~
imaginenore
That doesn't answer his question though. Let's say they have 4 types of
particles: CMYK. If the charges are as follows: C > M > Y > K, you will always
have C arrive to the front first. How do you make only Y go the front to
display pure yellow?

~~~
daurnimator
If it's like the video linked above
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA))
it doesn't go straight from Y to C; the "pixel" has to cycle through all the
other colours in between.

~~~
Turing_Machine
Maybe some kind of prism that flips one face at a time when it gets a pulse?

The other thought that came to mind would be some sort of resonance system...
send the right frequency, and the cyan (e.g.) particles bob up and down hard
enough to reach the surface, where they'd stick. Each particle would have its
own resonance frequency.

~~~
Turing_Machine
This looks like it may be the patent in question:

[https://www.google.com/patents/US8797634](https://www.google.com/patents/US8797634)

~~~
Dylan16807
So in summary, there are two layers. Top has white and magenta, bottom has
cyan and yellow.

The magenta particles let light through, the others do not.

The top layer can put white on top to make white.

The top layer can pull all the particles to the side to be completely clear.
This allows yellow/cyan/green depending on the state of the bottom layer.

The top layer can put magenta on top and white on bottom to make magenta.

The top layer can put magenta on top and pull white to the side to be clear
magenta. This allows red/blue/black respectively, when the bottom layer is
yellow/cyan/green.

Edit: But the initial article specifically says "The display utilizes a single
layer of electrophoretic fluid" so it sounds like it's using a different tech.

------
breck
Does anyone have a link to a good behind the scenes history of E Ink?

I've loved following them over the years. They were one of the first
"startups" I read about (in the Boston Globe) as a kid growing up outside
Boston in the 90's.

It seems like it's been an incredible uphill battle to make the tech work. I
love my Kindle screen and do hope that someday passive color screens can rival
light emitting ones.

~~~
Animats
It was way oversold at first. It was going to be really cheap, and flexible,
like a sheet of paper. It ended up being a front layer on an LCD-like device.
Early versions were dark grey on light grey, like cheap newsprint. The
contrast has been improving, but it's still not as good as printed paper.

Other than E-readers, the big application has been retail price signs.[1] With
a passive display, they can be battery powered and have a long battery life.
They only need to wake up and rewrite when the price changes. (Most of the ads
for these displays show something like "30% off!")

[1] [http://www.pervasivedisplays.com/](http://www.pervasivedisplays.com/)

~~~
copperx
> it's still not as good as printed paper.

Perhaps not as good as a glossy full-color textbook, but a few days ago I
bought a paperback and I was surprised how much I wanted to read it on my
Kindle instead. Paperbacks often have terrible resolution, and the contrast
isn't much better (paperbacks often have ivory-ish colored paper).

~~~
lallysingh
Okasaki's Functional Data Structures book, as an example?

~~~
goldenkey
Theres nothing like a good hardcover book easy on the eyes. I just ordered 3
hardcovers circa 1940. Cost me a bit but worth the nostalgia and ease of
reading

------
Marazan
I'm still waiting for the economically priced A4 black and white e-reader for
reading research papers on.

~~~
bres
Your comment just made me realise how much I want such device. An A4, 300-ppi
ereader would be godsent.

~~~
drited
This 13.3 inch device which is 300ppi and runs on Android is in pre-release,
expected to ship in volume within a month or so.
[http://www.amazon.com/Onyx-13-3-Android-Flexible-
Handwriting...](http://www.amazon.com/Onyx-13-3-Android-Flexible-
Handwriting/dp/B01EVACVHY)

~~~
creshal
Android 4.0, obsolete and out of any form of support since late 2012.

I hope you don't plan to connect this to the internet.

~~~
drited
"Android 4.0, obsolete and out of any form of support since late 2012.

I hope you don't plan to connect this to the internet."

I'll ignore the snarkiness of this comment. There aren't any other 13.3 inch e
ink readers out there that run on the latest version of Android. Furthermore,
Onyx have announced upgrades are coming for the Boox Max. Also, Android
support contrasts this device to say the Kindle DX which you can't use with
your favourite reading apps etc.

------
jagermo
I saw a few prototypes of Mirasol-based displays [1] over the year. So
amazing, however they never got a broad adaption.

I still would love to have a comic reader with Mirasol.

[1]
[https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mirasol](https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mirasol)

~~~
soggypenny
That's probably because Apple bought up Mirasol.
[http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/12/15/apple-has-taken-
ov...](http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/12/15/apple-has-taken-over-
qualcomms-imod-mirasol-display-lab-in-taiwan)

~~~
jagermo
Huh, I did not know that. But an interesting move, let's see if it pans out.

------
dahjelle
I'd love to have an e-ink monitor someday. I wouldn't need video-speed refresh
(probably?) or even color, but programming without staring into a flashlight
all day sounds really nice.

My monitor's brightness is already set at 4%.

~~~
mabbo
> I wouldn't need video-speed refresh (probably?)

My biggest barrier here would be the mouse. My mouse is an extension of my
hand. Imagine how hard it would be to manipulate objects in real life if you
had a half a second delay on what you felt and saw your hand do?

Similarly, you'd better be very accurate at typing- you won't notice a typo
until half a second later, by which time you've written 5 or 10 more
characters. You could go back and fix each one later, but again, with the slow
refresh the need for accuracy in knowing where you're typing now would be
problematic.

That said, I'm still excited. This tech is so lovely (I joined Amazon in part
because I love my Kindle).

~~~
creshal
> My biggest barrier here would be the mouse. My mouse is an extension of my
> hand. Imagine how hard it would be to manipulate objects in real life if you
> had a half a second delay on what you felt and saw your hand do?

To test, connect to a remote site with 1Mbit uplink via RDP or VNC. It tends
to drive you stark raving mad after an hour or so.

------
kepano
I can't wait for the refresh rate to catch up with other display technologies.
Imagine seeing a movie in subtractive color, it would be like watching a
moving painting.

~~~
distances
E-ink wall with high refresh rate at home. That would be awesome for daytime
movies!

------
Palomides
They say low power, but also a fluid, is this tech going to be capable of the
/no/ power display b/w eink does? That has always been one of the most
interesting aspects of it to me.

~~~
robert_foss
The article mentioned the displays being reflective, so that would likely mean
that they're making low/no power devices.

~~~
colordrops
Some LCDs are reflective and they still draw power. Being reflective is
orthogonal to to the amount of power being used. The question here is whether
an active current is necessary to keep the fluid in position, or if it will
maintain its image with zero power.

------
randomsearch
Magazines and newspapers.

Just in case it wasn't obvious why this will type of tech will be huge.

Also - IoT displays. Hell, in the long term, _all material that is graphically
designed and may need to change. Advertising, signs, dashboards, frickin'
everything.

~~~
swalsh
Magazines and newspapers are here today... it's called a kindle, or an ipad,
or an iphone. This doesn't change that game. It also still has the same
limitation of it's black and white brother. While the ink part scales, the
electronics behind it don't.

Don't get me wrong, I think color makes this a much better value
proposition... but I don't think our world is going to be wrapped in it
anytime soon.

~~~
jkestner
The ink part doesn't scale either — try pricing larger sizes. This is the
failed promise, that they'd be able to just manufacture sheets of the stuff
cheaply.

------
iMark
Wow, I had no idea e-ink had come so far.

Has the latency improved any?

~~~
breck
Yes, though I couldn't find good numbers with some quick searching. If anyone
finds a good source please share. FWIW, my new Kindle Voyage seems to turn
pages about 10x faster than my second generation Kindle.

~~~
gnoway
Serious question: what caused you to purchase a Voyage vs. an Oasis or regular
Paperwhite Kindle?

~~~
jsjohnst
I have almost every model of the Kindle (got rid of the DX, but have the rest
still) and definitely like the Voyage over the paperwhite. The responsiveness
and the overall crispness is better IMHO. I still really like the Paperwhite,
but if you use them side by side you'll see a definite difference IMHO.

------
partiallypro
Kindles where you can read comics, this is something I've wanted for a while.

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dilippkumar
Does anyone know what frame rates and power numbers this can achieve?

~~~
phonon
It takes a few seconds for the screen to change for the color display.
[http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/05/24/up-close-with-e-ink...](http://the-
digital-reader.com/2016/05/24/up-close-with-e-inks-new-high-resolution-color-
epaper-displays/) (Watch the video--the flickering are the colors changing.)

------
arviewer
Now we need good e-readers which can process PDF properly and fast. An iPad
with this screen would be a great alternative if video is not important. But
it probably will be Android that's going to drive these screens.

------
Shorel
Comics. This is for comics.

Marvel should partner with them.

~~~
distances
Or Disney. Would be nice to revisit the classical Carl Barks and Don Rosa
stories from my childhood. Though I'm not sure if Disney still owns the
stories or is somehow licensing the characters for independent publishers.

------
ajuc
Can we have a laptop with transparent LCD in front of a color e-Ink?

So that when stuff happens quickly LCD shows it, but when nothing happens for
some time - LCD turns transparent (maybe even just for the region of screen
that is static) and ePaper keeps showing it.

I'm thinking mostly static IDE with small debug window scrolling all the time.

Wonder if energy savings are worth it, but it could maybe be done just to make
it easier on the eyes.

~~~
yoz-y
My dream screen would have an OLED display behind an e-ink screen or something
similar. So you can choose whether you want each pixel to be reflexive or lit-
up. This would make for amazing experience. Of course both would have to be
able to run at at least 60Hz.

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mark-r
They don't say how many bits per pixel they achieve. I suspect it's quite
small, maybe as low as 3 - the sample image shows some posterization. With
high resolution and dithering it should be sufficient for the intended use
case of signage.

~~~
grenoire
'Including eight primary colours' probably means 3bpp indeed. However,
1600x2500 at 150 ppi is indeed enough to make it practically seamless with
dithering; especially on E Ink displays. I can hardly make the individual
pixels on my 1920x1090 phone, so I expect a higher resolution to achieve a
good effect regardless of the bpp.

~~~
badsock
Not a correction (given that they posted after you), but if krasin's mention
of 32k colours is right then it's 5bpp.

~~~
mark-r
That's actually 5 bits per channel, or 15 bits per pixel altogether. Quite an
achievement if true.

~~~
badsock
Ah, I meant per channel but I wrote per pixel - thanks for the correction.

------
frik
E Ink had already color and support for (small area) motion videos support E
Ink displays in 2009. At that time I got a Kindle 3 and there were hopes that
the next Kindle would get such an improved screen. Sadly, Amazon ditched the
bigger Kindle entirely and introduced Kindle Fire based on IPS display.

One day I would like a non-backlight color e-ink display ebook reader. And
large screen (non-backlight/optional-backlight) e-ink displays would be great
for various purposes like electronic wall painting that refresh once a day,
info screens, third monitor (eg reading ebooks on PC on a special eye-friendly
third monitor), etc

------
mrmondo
This is great news, awesome for textbooks etc... I've been waiting for this
for so long as e-ink Triton has been way too expensive and low resolution.

~~~
jkestner
Nothing about this indicates that they've solved the "too expensive" part,
unfortunately.

~~~
mrmondo
Very true, here's hoping!

------
wwweston
Did anyone see a link to where/how to order a kit?

~~~
dragonmum
This is from SID 2016. SID is the equivalent of SIGGRAPH for display
technology companies. So it would typically be 12 - 18 months from the time a
technology is demonstrated at SID to the point that it becomes available as a
development kit. For example, last year E-Ink demoed their 42" panels, and
they're now available as development kits, albeit at USD$6k per panel+kit! So
not exactly raspberry pi kind of pricing.

------
shmerl
Sounds promising. Are there any hackable e-book readers which use E Ink by the
way? I.e. where you can install Linux for example?

------
RubyPinch
Nice news, but I doubt this'll be any easier for hobbyists to acquire without
harvesting them from devices

~~~
distances
So the black and white e-ink screens are not currently being sold separately?

~~~
RubyPinch
they are, but like, they are usually ultra tiny (smaller than a business
card), or prohibitively expensive.

The best way of getting screens is to hop on ebay, and get a replacement
screen, then reverse engineer the connecter they use

------
a_sriram
This is so cool. I had always imagined these to replace my monitors. Looks
like its on its way soon.

~~~
monk_e_boy
Refresh will be way too slow... unless you are doing something unusual with
your pc.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
If you don't mind line-by-line or paginated scrolling, it will be fine for
most applications. Not video or gaming, of course, but software development,
web browsing, email, word processing, and spreadsheet editing are by no means
unusual use cases.

~~~
jonknee
Software development and web browsing seem like they would be a bear
(depending on the software you're developing I guess, anything with a GUI
would be tough). A touch based OS would be a must, cursors would be way too
laggy.

It would make a dandy comic book reader though!

------
Havoc
What are the practical applications of this in the near term though?

Can't really think of any. Signboards would be good but I doubt the
scale/price/size works out well (for now). ereaders don't really need colour
IMO though it would obviously be a benefit.

~~~
ralusek
E-Readers don't NEED color, but neither does your phone. Color is fun.

~~~
dangero
Color also conveys information more efficiently per pixel than black and
white.

------
pmlnr
> ACeP achieves a full color gamut

Which gamut?

------
Gabriel-Lewis
I can't wait to see this in Kindles and Innovative ideas like popSLATE
[http://popslate.com](http://popslate.com)

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
But, I just want a black and white Eink monitor.

------
wowtip
With good latency combined with pressure sensitive display this would be
exceptional for artists and just for everyday taking notes.

------
Zelmor
This will be huge in adverts on the streets, if UV does not degrade the
display. Electricity costs cut thousandfold.

------
bronz
its always refreshing to see incremental improvements in technology unfolding
before me.

------
kasikp
Weird that the official E Ink Corporation website has no mention of this.

------
auvi
does anybody know on which patent this technology is based?

~~~
arfar
A combination of any of these 1500

    
    
        https://patents.google.com/?assignee=E-Ink+Corporation&sort=new
    

This is the first one that comes up mentioning "color":

    
    
        https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160116816A1

------
MiloLiu
Really like it.

------
georgewsinger
Use cases?

~~~
vezycash
colored ebook reader, low powered electronic bill boards, camouflage armored
tanks, and planes, smart phones, smart watches e.g. Pebble, store signs,
laptop, monitor, tablet...

Basically, anything you can do with a LCD. This however uses way less power.

------
milesf
Let me know when I can 'wallpaper' my house with it. I hate painting rooms
just to change the colour.

