Epson's E-ink RFID tags

Privacy concerns aside, RFID has the promise to evolve into a disruptive technology (mostly by streamlining supply chains and inventory management) once production volume drives down costs enough to justify its implementation. Manufacturers are well aware of this, and are hard at work differentiating their tags from the competition's, as is evident in Epson's innovative RFID chip that incorporates a display using digital ink technology from E-Ink. The electrophoretic effect (a little help here please, physics majors) allows the tag to display data without the use of batteries when activated by a RFID scanner. We imagine that someday this tech will be used to give consumers all sorts of important information about retail products, such as diplaying a "HAHAHA" when you sheepishly approach the checkout line with the Blu-ray disc of Richard Simmons's "Sweatin' With the Oldies: The Death Row Years."

[Thanks, Ed]

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

Hi,

there is another company who owns the patent to print low cost RFID, InkSure. Read more here if interested:
http://www.techwear-weblog.com/50226711/rfid_intermediary.php

Michael

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

hi guys,

I used to work in the lab that invented E-ink. Electrophoretic basically refers to the fact that it's an electric field that is changing the color of the pixels in the display. What's going on is that there are tiny charged white particles, and they are moving toward or away from the surface of the display through a thick, opaque oil. Because they are being pushed by an electric field, they are being "electrophoresed". When they are at the top, they show through and the pixel is white. When they are at the back, effectively behind the oil, the display shows black (or whatever color the oil happens to be. originally, it happened to be closer to blue.) A nice side-effect of this is that once the particles have moved to the front or the back, they stay there, no need to use any more electricity, unlike an LCD. This makes E-ink displays use really low amounts of energy. Which must make it a good match for RFID because RFID tags only get very intermittent power from the activating coil.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

Ok doesn't take a Physics Major to understand the jagon that is the "electrophoretic effect." Seems logical that it refers to the electromagnetic field a scanner emits (powers RFID tags to allow data Read/Write) also seems it would power the display as-well. You should note that E-ink only uses power to transition pixels from WtoB/BtoW. E-ink is not limited to monochrome either. Imagine Playboys that updates playmates with age... sounds like my fathers worst nightmare. God forbid he have to buy one after the fall of the female bowl-cut. Gah... it burns the eyes!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

Sawyer is basically correct, except E-Ink currently uses a dual partical system. So, instead of white particles in a blue dye, there are positively charged black particles and negatively charged white particles, in a transparent oil. It is a small point, but it allows the displys to get true black and white, and better contrast between states.

But, the display is image stable, and reflective, so unlike an LCD, OLED, PLASMA, or just about anyother display technology out there, it only uses electricity when it switches. And Epson is able to use the power in the RFID field to not only figure out what the update should be but also to update the display