Just ran into this article over at New Scientist. Some researchers at the University of Toronto have developed a new material that's a kind of flexible crystal. This material is perfect for color e-paper because it reflects ambient light and requires no backlighting.
The really new aspect of this material, though, is that it can change color to become any color in the world: all the way from infra-red to ultra-violet and all colors of the spectrum. It selectively reflects the colors in ambient light. This paves the way for
true full-color displays that have never been seen before, anywhere. All existing display technology has a limited color gamut, and is incapable of producing all colors that the human eye can see. With these new crystals, e-paper may also become the first display technology to truly reproduce pictures of the world as we see it!
The article quotes the researchers as saying the technology could be on the market in only two years, but I imagine it'll take longer than that. Still, very exciting!
The New Scientist article is
here.
The researchers' new start-up company, called Opalux, has a web page
here.