Epson and E Ink, two mainstays in the electronic paper realm, have pooled their resources in order to develop an all new display controller IC set to enable "faster navigation, multitasking and real-time pen / keyboard input." The S1D13521 chip is slated to be used in E Ink's Vizplex-enabled electronic paper displays (EPDs), and it'll also be making an appearance in said company's forthcoming AM300 Broadsheet prototype kit (pictured). In layman's terms, this device should speed up the user interface considerably, as it will enable the display to "perform up to 16 tasks in parallel and support smooth and responsive pen input devices for annotations and sketches." As for availability, we're seeing that samples ($18 apiece) should make their way out next month, while production quantities won't be able to scamper free until August.

[Thanks, Jack]

Those fortunate enough to traverse the halls of Embedded Technology 2007 could've seen Seiko Epson's latest wonder up close and in person, but for the rest of us, we'll have to settle for the above picture and a drool-worthy description. The prototype e-paper terminal measures in at just 3-millimeters thick and weighs only 57-grams, and it's even equipped with a USB port. Furthermore, it features a 6.7-inch display with a luscious 1,600 x 1,200 resolution, but the unit on display could only handle grayscale imagery. Also of note, the entire unit was powered by a single button cell battery, which enabled the screen to be redrawn upwards of 1,400 times (at 0.7-seconds per redraw) before running out of juice. Details surrounding its eventual commercialization were pretty much par for the course, meaning your guess is as good as ours at this point. Two more snapshots after the jump.

[Via Technabob]

Just last year Bridgestone was feelin' pretty good about itself for unveiling the "world's thinnest" sheet of two-color e-paper. These days, the outfit is busy showing off a new version that measures in at just 0.29-millimeters thick and is capable of displaying 4,096 colors on an eight-inch display. In case that wasn't enough, the company is also touting what it calls the "world's largest full color e-paper that is A3 size, which is equivalent to a 21.4-inch screen." As you'd expect, the latter is expected to be used solely for advertising and could hit the market as early as next year, while the former technology is set to be commercially available in 2009. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

[Via Japan Today, image courtesy of NewLaunches]

While cranking out a couple of new e-readers may be big doings for some companies, it's just what we've come to expect from Fujitsu. Adding to its collection of e-ink-related niceties, the FLEPia "portable information terminals" will reportedly be available in an A5 size (weighing 480 grams) and an A4 flavor (320 grams), and both are just 12-millimeters thick. While details are admittedly scarce, you can reportedly read "up to two year's worth of magazines" on a single 4GB SD flash card, but you'll be recharging the battery every 50 hours or so along the way. Additionally, users will enjoy the convenience of WiFi connectivity built right in, and the six control buttons (plus a scroll key) should keep your pages aligned. The device is slated to land in white pearl, silver, and the obligatory pink pearl motifs, but considering the presumably lofty pricetags attached to each of these desirable units, we can't imagine too many early adopters diving in just yet.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Phillips spin-off Polymer Vision looks to be making fast work on its most recent promise to commercialize its foldable display this year, with the company set to officially unveil the first product to use the would-be paper killer at next week's 3GSM conference in Spain. Somewhat awkwardly dubbed the "Cellular-Book," the device will initially be offered by Telecom Italia (in Italy, naturally) although it appears to be more book than cellular. The main bit of kit is, of course, that rollable, foldable display, which can extend to a full five inches yet still wrap up into a device "smaller than the typical mobile phone." The cellular part of the equation comes in the form of a combination of EDGE, UMTS, and DVB-H capabilities, which will give you access to an array of different services viewable in 16 levels of gray, including e-mail. RSS feeds and, of course, e-books, which you'll be able to purchase through Telecom Italia's mobile network. Though they won't make as heavy use of that display, you'll also be able to load up the device with music and podcasts, with a relatively hefty 4GB of storage provided to satisfy your media appetite. Unfortunately, there's no word on price or a launch date just yet, though that would seem to be likely detail to be revealed at the big unveiling next week.

[Via TeleRead, thanks Richard]

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology looks to be making a big play in the rapidly growing electronic paper/ink industry, announcing that its 5-inch monochrome VGA display has gone into mass production. While less flexible than some alternatives, Toshiba Matsushita's display looks like it should be relatively easy on the eyes, with a 12:1 contrast ratio, 20 ms response time, and 16 levels of gray, with some internal and external reflective mojo eliminating the need for a backlight. Obviously not enough to cut it in a PMP, but more than adequate for some paperless page-turning. Just as importantly, the display keeps power consumption down to a minimum, consuming just 4mW of power in 2-level greyscale mode and 20mW in full 16-level mode. Unfortunately, the company hasn't yet provided any firm production numbers, nor has it given any indication when the displays might actually find their way into some products.

[Via MobileRead]

U.K.-based Plastic Logic has announced that it has secured some $100 million in funding to build the world's first factory dedicated to manufacturing plastic electronics on a commercial scale. More specifically, the factory's set to produce flexible active matrix display modules, aimed at making various electronic reading devices a little more portable and a little less hard on the eyes. According to the company, the plant will be built in Dresden, Germany, with production set to ramp up sometime in 2008 at an initial capacity of more than a million display modules per year.

[Via Slashdot]

Now that monochrome e-paper is a pretty standard affair, those at the forefront of e-ink technology have moved on to perfecting the real killer app, which is full-color displays. We've already seen a tiny color model from Fujitsu, and a larger, but only two-color offering from Bridgestone, and now Hitachi -- maker of the black-and-white Albirey e-paper -- is showing off a 13.1-inch version of this product will an impressive 4,096-color palette. Apparently the power-saving "RGBW" filter enables the device to display bright whites as well as deep blacks, but the trade-off is the unit's rather underwhelming resolution of just 512 x 384 pixels. Therefore, we probably won't be seeing color eBooks anytime soon, but the low res should be adequate enough for certain types of signage that would benefit from the paper's ability to hold a picture in the absence of power; we think they would look great advertising all the quality products found at Engadget's retail location.

[Via MobileRead]

Seiko Epson, consistently at the forefront of new flexible display technology, has once again announced a breakthrough in plastic-substrate-based electronic paper manufacturing. Using its proprietary SUFTLA (surface-free technology by laser annealing) technique, combined with electrophoretic technology from US-based E-Ink, the company has managed to produce a 0.47-millimeter-thick, A6-size (7.1-inch) sheet of e-paper that sports an impressive 2,048 x 1,536 pixels (QXGA) and a maximum drive voltage of six volts. The new display, which also features a 10:1 contrast ratio and almost border-less design, was announced at the Society for Information Display's (SID) recent international symposium in San Francisco.

[Via Akihabara News]

Everyone and their cat is working on flexible e-ink displays these days, so it takes a pretty special bit of e-paper to stand out from the crowd, and Bridgestone thinks its new quarter-millimeter-thick, two-color model will do just that. Being billed as the world's thinnest sheet of electronic paper (for its size) (and sparsity of colors), the so-called Quick Response Liquid Powder Display (QR-LPD) performs all the same neat tricks as devices shown off by other companies, including the ability to maintain an image when bent or powered down. And because its from Bridgestone, there's a good chance that you'll soon be able to score a set of customizable tires to match your classy PimpStar rims.

[Via Akihabara News]