|
Colour e-ink (Triton) from E-Ink Corporation uses an RGB filter layered over an existing E-Ink screen. Trouble is, this makes it appear washed out and low contrast. It has been integrated into a few products (Ectaco Jetbook Color for instance) but has in general been rejected by anyone with eyes.
Colour e-paper covers a few technologies. For a while everyone was looking at Pixel Qi and Qualcomm Mirasol. Pixel Qi is dead, and I'm not altogether sure what's happening with Mirasol currently. Their displays looked pretty washed out too unfortunately.
The most promising seems to be electrowetting, similar to LCD but instead of liquid crystals, a charge is applied to tiny sectioned off drops of ink. This basically causes them to either shrink up like a scrotum in a stiff breeze or pancake as flat as they can depending on the charge.
Get a whole bunch of drops in cyan magenta and yellow, arrange them in a matrix and voila electrowetting screen.
Electrowetting seems to be happening in just one company - Liquavista. Liquavista were bought by Samsung in 2010, and subsequently acquired by Amazon in 2013. Whether Amazon did this to genuinely invest in colour e-paper or prevent potential competition - it's hard to say.
|