What is the current state of Color eInk Research?

[tnforpaul45]

Didn't see a discussion on this: Can anyone comment as to the current state of Color eInk research, why Kobo / Amazon hasn't jumped on this yet, current leaders? I would think this is a huge untapped market in the U.S., but I am wayyy behind on the current state of the R&D. Would love input.

Thanks!

[Nate the great]

Color E-ink is stalled. The existing tech is ugly, and we have no evidence that new tech is coming.

Color epaper, on the other hand, could potentially show up this year or the next (fingers crossed).

[HarryHutton]

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.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

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.

I'm, in some ways, as anti-Amazon as anyone here. But I find it inconceivable that Amazon's top executives would tell the engineers at the Liquavista subsidiary, who certainly exist, to do bad job. IMHO Amazon would be more than delighted if their people invented a low-power reflective display with color saturation and contrast rivaling the LCD. The problem is that, looking at the Liquavista web site, they haven't been able to invent it yet:

http://www.liquavista.com/news-and-e...and-downloads/

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I'm, in some ways, as anti-Amazon as anyone here. But I find it inconceivable that Amazon's top executives would tell the engineers at the Liquavista subsidiary, who certainly exist, to do bad job. IMHO Amazon would be more than delighted if their people invented a low-power reflective display with color saturation and contrast rivaling the LCD. The problem is that, looking at the Liquavista web site, they haven't been able to invent it yet:

http://www.liquavista.com/news-and-e...and-downloads/

Liquavista is not good enough yet. Otherwise Amazon would have been out with a tablet and phone that lasts a week. And its firephone would have been huge instead of a flop.

[fjtorres]

Amazon's recent Liquavista patents for dual layer displays (high-hes b&w below a lower-res color layer) don't look to be focused on tablets but rather on ereaders. Although a phone...?

*That* could be interesting...

[markom]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Liquavista is not good enough yet. Otherwise Amazon would have been out with a tablet and phone that lasts a week. And its firephone would have been huge instead of a flop.

I doubt they will put at risk their Kindle eink sales if there are no similar e-paper technologies around to fight against.

So, it's more likely they'll make it later rather than earlier.

As affordable 13" b/w eink is still at least two years away, color e-paper lcd is probably a three or four.

[Barty]

A company whose name I cannot think of at the moment showed a flexible e-ink tablet years ago. They scuttled their plan when the iPad came out.

An e-ink display without a fragile glass substrate has been possible for years. It's more feasible and arguably more useful than a poor color display. Maybe amazon will put that in their next kindle iteration.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Barty

A company whose name I cannot think of at the moment showed a flexible e-ink tablet years ago. They scuttled their plan when the iPad came out.

.

Wexler:
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2014/05/01/10887/

The screens were made by LG using eInk film and their own backplanes.

[HarryHutton]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I'm, in some ways, as anti-Amazon as anyone here. But I find it inconceivable that Amazon's top executives would tell the engineers at the Liquavista subsidiary, who certainly exist, to do bad job. IMHO Amazon would be more than delighted if their people invented a low-power reflective display with color saturation and contrast rivaling the LCD. The problem is that, looking at the Liquavista web site, they haven't been able to invent it yet:

http://www.liquavista.com/news-and-e...and-downloads/

You're right Steve, my statement was offhand. They bought to prevent rivals from acquiring it for sure - implying they did see potential in it, and they want to be the ones rolling the dice.


EDIT:

Originally Posted by Barty

A company whose name I cannot think of at the moment showed a flexible e-ink tablet years ago. They scuttled their plan when the iPad came out.

An e-ink display without a fragile glass substrate has been possible for years. It's more feasible and arguably more useful than a poor color display. Maybe amazon will put that in their next kindle iteration.

Might've been the Plastic Logic Que

"But the Que’s moment in the sun was short lived. Just three weeks later, at an event in San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad — and with it effectively blew Plastic Logic out of the water."
- Why Plastic Logic failed despite the ebook boom

[Barty]

^^^ that's it, thanks

[webroot]

Color eink would require bright - white light to perceive the actual color on the screen, correct me if i am wrong.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by webroot

Color eink would require bright - white light to perceive the actual color on the screen, correct me if i am wrong.

For accurate color reproduction?
Most likely.
But relatively few displays of any size/type ship calibrated for accurate color and few if any portable gadgets can even be calibrated. Home Theater grade color purity isn't coming to reading devices any time soon. Not that it is needed.

But for now even USA Today color is likely out of reach for reflective displays.

[webroot]

Okay, so if.color eink is workable and we know human eyes are more sensitive to color than grayscale, and when ebooks have lot of images and maybe video then existing eink device feel terrible, so either we adopt color eink or days of eink is numbered which it will anyway, until they cost lower than LCD but that is not the case with color eink

[trocchietto]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

You're right Steve, my statement was offhand. They bought to prevent rivals from acquiring it for sure - implying they did see potential in it, and they want to be the ones rolling the dice.

you get the point beloved unknown mate.
i guess dozens of newcomers would be happy to launch and android eink color, even if not perfect.

in the end is more readable a washed color eink, than an lcd that show your face and sun on the screen.
a new ink color would be super helpful to tag highlights per color.

if this is not implemented by some risky differentiating strategy is just because these small startups probably do not have access to this technology imo. because there is for sure mine buy if somebody give me an android eink color washed under 200 eu