I just stumbled across this, and thought I'd pass it on.
http://www.slashgear.com/e-ink-next-gen-displays-get-video-demos-2082480/

Some demos for the next generation of E-Ink. Some may be interested.
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I think about 2010 Christmas or 2011 Spring i will be ready to replace my Kindle 1... and I will certainly hold out for a device with these new screens. I hope and expect it will be a Kindle 3.

Thanks for the video.

BOb

Nice, but notice that the screen refresh time appears to be of the order of about 5s! Very definitely still a prototype.

I was personally hoping to see a side-by-side of the new Vizplex and the old version, so the supposed contrast difference could be seen. Too bad about the release date and the general slogginess of their demo unit, but oh well.
Nice, but notice that the screen refresh time appears to be of the order of about 5s! Very definitely still a prototype.
It's not even a prototype device, but just a portable screen demo. E-Ink/PVI isn't doing the hardware outside the screen itself. Speed of underlying hardware/software will be the responsibility of other companies.

Nice, but notice that the screen refresh time appears to be of the order of about 5s! Very definitely still a prototype.

I wonder if some of that was loading the animation... because it seemed to be pretty fluid... which would talk to refresh rate of the screen.

I think they are going to need faster memory and controllers to really use the potential of this screen.

As you said, it is a very early prototype.

BOb

Looking at that animation, what would you estimate its frame rate was? 2 or 3 frames a second, it looked like to me. That speed could probably be achieved with current devices, especially using partial refresh of a small area of the screen. Hold down the page turn button of a Sony PRS-600 and it flips pages at about 3 or 4 pages a second.

Nice, but notice that the screen refresh time appears to be of the order of about 5s! Very definitely still a prototype.

Looking at that animation, what would you estimate its frame rate was? 2 or 3 frames a second,

Right, so 3 fps means the refresh time is much less than 5s. As I said, I think the time was in loading the animation.

But, I am more interested in the increased contrast than the ability to play animations.

BOb

Looking at that animation, what would you estimate its frame rate was? 2 or 3 frames a second, it looked like to me. That speed could probably be achieved with current devices, especially using partial refresh of a small area of the screen. Hold down the page turn button of a Sony PRS-600 and it flips pages at about 3 or 4 pages a second.
Partial refreshes are going much faster than 2-3fps. The speaker said that the animations can be done on the existing Vizplex as well.

The emphasis was greater contrast.

Doesn't look like it will do enough for me to want e-ink for my work reading (would pretty much have to catch LCD speed for that).

And my K1 will be fine for novel reading indefinitely.

Ill be SID in Seattle in May so Ill make sure to get more info.

Current vizplex does display animation.

the increase in contrast is the first step to color adoption since it allows them to add the filter layers while maintaining current "acceptable" contrast levels overall.

Yes the second demo is more important (I think) with the plastic display starting next year and at the very,very end, colour filters.

Demonstrator: "...almost doubling the contrast."
Clueless Tech journo: "And the advantage of that is better legibility outside in the daylight?"
The advantage of higher contrast ratio is better legibility inside and in conditions where the light is dim. eInk has never had a problem in full daylight.

I'm more impressed by this than any e-ink devices I've seen, apart, of course, from the prs 505. If they get it up and running for a reasonable price, and I have the money at the time, I might consider this: the contrast is the big selling factor.

Looking at that animation, what would you estimate its frame rate was? 2 or 3 frames a second, it looked like to me.

It looks more like ~10 fps to me.

I'm more impressed by this than any e-ink devices I've seen, apart, of course, from the prs 505. If they get it up and running for a reasonable price, and I have the money at the time, I might consider this: the contrast is the big selling factor.
I certainly hope the new screens are significantly better than that in the 505.

What I really want to know about is if there is any change in resolution density. A color filtered screen will need four sub-pixels to produce color while it currently takes one pixel to produce monochrome. It would be exciting if the new screens are double the resolution for monochrome devices. It's getting silly with e-ink devices getting bigger and bigger to accommodate the density of newspapers and textbooks.

And with the $500 ipad out there, I hope e-ink will see to it that at least their screen component is not to be blamed for high device prices. It's a bit absurd that current e-ink readers have pretty much the same ram amount and cpu power as a pda from ten years ago and yet priced to match other current devices that are many times more capable hardware-wise.