Competition for e-ink

[Laz116]

At the University of Cincinnati, scientists claim to have developed a a new liquid display type, which is meant to compete against e-ink.

Benefits of the EFD (ElectroFluidic Display):

• Full colour display
• Higher contrast than e-ink
• Better reflectance than e-ink
• Greater colour depth than e-ink
• very small fluid chambers allow flexible displays

A new company, Gamma Dynamics, has been created to expedite commercialization.

http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=10068

[JSWolf]

We get all these alternatives to eink yet where are they? What devices for sale use them? It's all good and such that there are alternatives, but what use are they if there are no devices for sale that use these alternative displays?

[pdurrant]

It sounds good, but notice what they don't say anything about yet - power consumption.

Their technology isn't yet "bi-stable". It requires a constant application of voltage to form an image.

Quite a long way t go yet before we see it in production.

Originally Posted by Laz116

At the University of Cincinnati, scientists claim to have developed a a new liquid display type, which is meant to compete against e-ink.

Benefits of the EFD (ElectroFluidic Display):

• Full colour display
• Higher contrast than e-ink
• Better reflectance than e-ink
• Greater colour depth than e-ink
• very small fluid chambers allow flexible displays

A new company, Gamma Dynamics, has been created to expedite commercialization.

http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=10068

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We get all these alternatives to eink yet where are they? What devices for sale use them? It's all good and such that there are alternatives, but what use are they if there are no devices for sale that use these alternative displays?

That's the difference between prototypes and real products. I always try to take stories like this with a few grains of salt. There have been LOTS of promising technology over the years that never made it out of an R&D lab because it either had too many problems or was impractical for large scale production. It seems every couple of weeks there's a story about the next "eInk killer", or whatever. I'll wait until I can actually buy one, before I get excited.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

That's the difference between prototypes and real products. I always try to take stories like this with a few grains of salt. There have been LOTS of promising technology over the years that never made it out of an R&D lab because it either had too many problems or was impractical for large scale production. It seems every couple of weeks there's a story about the next "eInk killer", or whatever. I'll wait until I can actually buy one, before I get excited.

Tech products can even make it out of R&D and then die in pre preduction (Bubble Memory) or be ready for release and die due to legal or financing problems (Wells Compustar).

[Laz116]

Naturally there's a very real chance that this technology never escapes the labs.

But that's how it is with new technology news. I don't really get the bitching. It is what it is.

If we all sat down and only dealt with what was here today we wouldn't even be able to make decent decisions about today because the expected future is a quite important part of the decisions we make here and now. A glimpse of a possible future isn't so bad, even though it isn't here the future still haunts the present.

But hey... in the future (sic!) I'll refrain from posting development news. I understand that we must only speak of things that are right here, right now.

[JSWolf]

I just won't get excited until something actually gets released and not just a news flash.

[Laz116]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just won't get excited until something actually gets released and not just a news flash.

And I just thought the news section was all about news flash.

[JSWolf]

But the news gets old the more we hear of some new technology to go one better than eink and then it never comes out in any product for sale.

[artifact]

New news on what is apparantly old tech over at Treehugger.

Lead researcher on the project Jason Heikenfeld states, "What we've developed breaks down a significant barrier to bright electronic displays that don't require a heavy battery to power them."

Behind the display screen are two layers of liquid (oil and a pigment dispersion fluid like an inkjet fluid). Between the two layers are reflective electrodes. Think of these electrodes as a highly reflective mirror.

Mirasol -- the technology that mimicks a butterfly's pigmentation for brightly colored displays -- is the closest competition, but still purportedly not as good as this latest breakthrough. The researchers expect that thanks to the ability to use current manufacturing equipment, we can expect to see the technology used for things like advertising displays in as little as three years.

[jee]

Looks promising. However, the first post contains a link to an article written a year ago. Check out this link http://gammadynamics.net/news/aploct2010/

[Papi]

http://www.e-ink-info.com/new-electr...play-developed

says it is bi-stable...Looks promising (I know as long as it's not "on the shelf" it doesn't mean anything, and sometimes I'm also tired of those "revolutionary" products which will never see the light of the day for 90% of them, but it's still interesting and definitely belong in the news section).

[lene1949]

I only use my reader to read books... I have never read a paperback or hardback for that matter, in colours... I create the colours myself, if the book is good enough.

[silv]

Wait 10 years before the first product appears. At that time there will be flexible color eink displays the size of newspapers.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jee

Looks promising. However, the first post contains a link to an article written a year ago.

That's not entirely unsurprising, considering that the post was written a year ago. April 2009, in fact.