Fujitsu demos color e-ink LCD

We've been seeing a lot of e-ink passing through here lately, especially noteworthy was Citizen's recent e-ink LCD. But we have a feeling it's going to be a little while before anyone tops Fujitsu's bezel-tastic QVGA color LCD e-ink display, which holds color images steady in perpetuity without power. It's hard to tell how good the color representation is, what with that blaring flash, but the applications of color e-ink are enormous, especially as the displays get larger (and smaller) -- and Fujitsu does claim to have sheet paper-size prototypes.

[PDubNYC @ Apr 20th 2006 11:03AM]

Dude, cut your fingernail. That is all I can see when I look at that picture..

[DarkAardvark @ Sep 6th 2007 3:28PM]

he's obvoiusly a bassist

or not...

[Ben @ Apr 20th 2006 11:11AM]

Wow ... very neat indeed. When this matures and hits the market I can see portable electronics w/ screens battery ussage dropping immensly as they would only need to power the pixels that need to change ....

[Perley @ Apr 20th 2006 11:24AM]

I look forward to the day I can change my house decore without painting or wallpapering. A homeowners dream.

[Josh Warner @ Apr 20th 2006 11:42AM]

Perhaps I am off here - people, correct me further down if I am - but I think "e-ink LCD" is a contradiction of terms.

The way I understand how e-ink works is thus: essentially, little balls that are colored differently are flipped around by a magnetic field to specific orientations to display a picture, each ball being one "pixel." After they are oriented, they can remain that way indefinitely without power drain. Since their color is reflective, it depends on ambient light, does not require a backlight, and can be read in direct sunlight. This is an e-ink display.

LCDs are fundamentally different; they require both a backlight at all times and continuous power to keep the colors displayed, even for static images. This is a LCD, like a computer flat panel or the screen on a video Ipod (capitalized I on purpose, not by mistake, Apple fanboyz - lowercase I is stupid).

Therefore, (unless I'm wrong) the title should have been "Fujitsu demos color e-ink display" not "Fujitsu demos color e-ink LCD," and some of the text that places the two terms together is incorrect as well.

I may be wrong, but I am fairly certain I am correct in this. I don't usually rant like this on you guys, but they are two fundamentally different technologies that should not be confused.

[Chase M. @ Apr 20th 2006 12:21PM]

My interpretation of "e-ink" is any display that has very very good battery saving properties with a high enough (or non existant) refresh rate to be comfortable enough to read for hours.

[Udayan Tripathi @ Apr 20th 2006 12:30PM]

Engadget writers can only afford Honda Accords (see the car in the picture?) I envisaged Ryan rolling in a black Murcielago convertible, with Veronica riding shotgun.

Udayan

[Ted Henson @ Apr 20th 2006 12:38PM]

I have to believe that Josh is right, and I also agree the two technologies that should not be confused. Sheet size color e-ink books could be very useful.

[Jay @ Apr 20th 2006 12:56PM]

This looks like a 2-color display. It reminds me of primitive color newspaper printing in the 60s that used 2 colors, a kind of red and a kind of blue. The gamut of colors that could be reproduced was pretty limited.

[John Grozik @ Apr 20th 2006 2:10PM]

I have been following this technology for a few years, and recently started working with a B&W competitor of the original E-Ink company that developed this or a similar technology. E-ink, the company has a description of how the B&W technology works at the following URL. http://www.eink.com/technology/howitworks.html

I imagine that the color version uses color particles and clustered RGB globes to present a color image,

I'm interested in digital signage that knows I need a larger font and can adjust before I have to find my glasses. I would strongly support a wallpaper version of this (OK, perhaps a border first) so that I don't have to ever hang that stuff again!

[jcg @ Apr 20th 2006 2:18PM]

John Grozik, patent e-ink wall paper. You could become rich. I would love to have wall paper that I could adjust at any time. Or even the head lines for a newsite in the morning

[Carson @ Apr 20th 2006 2:19PM]

This is an cholesteric LCD and not electronic ink (e-ink). As far as I know, e-ink is used to describe "electrophoretic" displays and is the name of a company (E Ink). Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) are completely different. The largest differentiating attribute of a cholesteric LCD to a regular LCD is that this is bi-stable (no power needed when not updating the display). I think the broader category of display is ePaper or Electronic Paper Displays (EPD).

(http://www.eink.com/technology/index.html).

I think the title should be "Fujitsu Demos Bi-Stable LCD" or maybe "Fujitsu Demos Electronic Paper LCD".

[Carson @ Apr 20th 2006 2:23PM]

More info from Fujitsu on their "Electronic Paper" using "cholesteric LCD".

http://jp.fujitsu.com/group/labs/en/business/activities/activities-4/e-paper.html

[Tod @ Apr 20th 2006 2:58PM]

Yes, this is most likely a ChLCD (Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Display). Fujitsu Frontech licenses the Cholesteric technology from Kent Displays, Inc. See: http://www.kentdisplays.com/corporate/print/kd07192005.htm

[Ben Hobbs @ Apr 20th 2006 3:27PM]

Great,

So with $1,000's of dollars of Digital equipment we can show a passport sized photo that looks like it was taken in the 1960's. Rather than just use a photo from the 60's.

[AlanP @ Apr 20th 2006 7:48PM]

If people like Ben Hobbs, the last poster, were in charge we would nver have left the caves. He's just a hater, not a visionary. He's a cancer on society

[Christian Ratenburg @ Apr 21st 2006 4:01AM]

E Ink is a registered trademark of E Ink Corporation since 1997, when they began market maturing a very unique non-LCD display technology. Go to E Ink's web site (www.eink.com) and you will find many nice examples of uses of their technology including great photos of a color version of their displays (under press photos). They use a custom color filter from Toppan Printing Co., LTD.
The color looks a bit faded compared to Organic LED or backlit LCD screens, but please bear in mind that the reflective nature of the display means that there is zero power consumption while displaying and only while changing the display.
All technologies are a trade-off, and E Ink currently seems to have the best power consumption vs. display cost in the industry.
Other technologies may soon come to do even better, but E Ink seems closest to becoming a mature product.
See also http://www.eink.com/products/index.html

[marke @ Apr 21st 2006 10:24AM]

Josh- for the most part- yeah..

one caveat, LCD's don't _require_ a backlight for perception.. reflective can work- it's a bitch..

try an LCD monitor with a blown backlight, in good light, still useable in an emergency..

[James Edwards @ Apr 25th 2006 10:09AM]

Imagine having one physical book that plugs into your computer and literally re-writes the pages to become a different literary book, it would save a fortune in paper! Or technical documents and datasheets the are 400 pages but you're only going to need to use a hard copy once....

A newspaper version would literally save millions as you just pick up the same one off your desk in the morning, with the latest news, although i can imagine a fair few printing unions getting very angry at me for suggesting it :)

And for executives between meetings it could update (using a PDA or the like) so that the next dossier is instant at your fingertips when you get there (without having to carry multiple copies)

[Gene @ Apr 25th 2006 2:08PM]

>I imagine that the color version uses color particles and clustered RGB globes to present a color image,

RGB are the additive primary colors: red, green, and blue added together make white light.

For an application like this you would need to use the subtractive primary colors, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta, which mixed together theoretically make black. These are the primaries used in the printing business.

In reality however, it is impossible to make the pigments pure enough to make actual black, they make a ugly brown instead which gives poor color reproduction, so printers supplement them with pure black. Adding the right amount of black (abbreviated "K" giving us "CYMK") in the right places is something of an art.

I would conjecture that the poor color reproduction we see is due to either not using black at all or poor implementation of it (more likely the former), possibly aggravated by poor flash lighting as mentioned above.

[DarkAardvark @ Sep 6th 2007 3:31PM]

combine this with that paper battery that rennasaler (sp) and that other school have, and it'll be awesome