Once again Charbax from ARMdevices.net has posted a lengthy interview with Sriram Peruvemba, the marketing director of E Ink.
Much like the video interview with E Ink posted back in July from SID, this video shows demos of several products and prototypes that use E Ink technology. Most of the products were already shown in the previous video, but there are some new items worth looking at.
One of the things that jumps out is the color Triton display combined with a front light (starts at 10:40). Using a front light makes the colors appear brighter and the overall color less gray.
There’s also mention of how the new Triton 2 displays have better color saturation because E Ink has made the pixels larger, which isn’t so great for reading but is better for other applications like signage.
They show off the new flexible E Ink displays again that are much more durable than existing screens. Hopefully these start becoming more widely used because regular E Ink screens are very fragile.
The highlight of the video is a prototype for a dual-screen phone that has an LCD screen on one side and an E Ink screen on the other (starts at 15:40). That would be a cool idea for tablets too (Amazon seems to think so too because they recently applied to patent the concept). E Ink says they’ve already developed the product and it could be out in a few months.
E Ink at IFA 2012
Photo via Stuff TV
What a clever idea! You could have your phone’s backlit screen powered off and still have the e-ink screen update with scrolling text messages, tweets and facebook updates thus saving power. And imagine an “inklet” a dual sided e-reader/e-ink/tablet device where you just flip it over to read outside with a reflective screen.
I am still waiting on the new Nook with the revolutionary screen. It would be a real negative if B&N does not come out with new news before the new Amazon Fire.
E-ink on one side and LCD on the other sounds like a FAIL. Such product will never be successful.
Agreed.
I like the idea of having a screen on each side and being able to switch as desired.
However, there will need to be a way to protect the screen not being used (otherwise it’s going to get fingerprint smudges constantly). Maybe a snap-on cover you can easily pop on and off as needed. The cover could trigger a switch on the side of the device that automatically powers off the screen it’s covering.
And a powerful processor will be a must-have, otherwise this device will be unbelievably slow to respond.
Personally I would love to be able to switch between applications that work best for e-ink (reading any kind of document) and for LCD (anything requiring a fair amount of video or other motion).
I’d want it 10.1″ or a bit bigger, though, to make PDF reading as straightforward as possible.
Reminds me of the enTourage Pocket eDge
Yes to e-ink devices big enough to read PDFs on properly – dammit! :p