E Ink’s 300ppi 9.7-inch panel — touting “laser print quality” and a daft 2400 x 1650 screen resolution — was just the end of the e-paper iceberg here at SID 2011 . The aforesaid display isn’t shipping in any commercial products just yet, but since OEMs are already accepting ‘em, we were told to expect ultra-fine print devices within the not-too-distant future. The screen, which was jointly developed by Epson, truly did look astonishing up close, forcing us to get awkwardly with regards to see the pixels behind the photographs. Outside of that guy, though, the outfit’s booth was splattered with concepts — everything from an E Ink -infused snowboard (shown above) to a rugged radio. There has been even a prototype sheet music reader (dreamed up by Lenart Studios) that looked downright outstanding, let alone a thermostat that may have any Home Depot junkie swooning. Have a gander on the galleries below, and peek past the break for a quick video tour. Oh, and Burton — you wish to seriously get in this.
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5 E Ink and Epson Achieve World-Leading ePaper Resolution- TOKYO, Japan, and HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 17, 2011 -
E Ink Holdings Inc. and Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today announced the joint development of a 300-dpi electronic paper device with razor-sharp text and photographs for ePaper Document Readers. Combining E Ink’s high-resolution ePaper display and Epson’s high-speed display controller platform, the recent device will enable the world’s highest resolution ePaper tablets. With sharply improved readability and straightforwardness-of-use the ePaper Document Reader is predicted to catch on in business and education settings where huge amounts of information need to be processed, in addition to in countries that use character-based text, including Japan and China.
Thin, lightweight, energy-efficient eReaders with easy-to-read, paper-like displays have won over consumers, who’re snapping up ePaper devices in unprecedented numbers, causing the market to surge. Demand has also been at the rise in business and education, market segments that require exactly what ePaper provides: the short and accurate display of large amounts of knowledge. Applications in these segments demand higher resolution than that offered by today’s 160-dpi displays as a result of ought to crisply render, with smooth gradations, engineering diagrams, illustrations, Asian characters, and other fine or intricate content. These market segments also demand faster page navigation and complex user interfaces to permit instant viewing of vast amounts of information.
“Because the adoption of eReaders continues to rise worldwide, the opportunities for our EPD technology are expanding in new market segments including business and education,” said Scott Liu, chairman of E Ink. “We continue to enhance E Ink’s technology to fulfill the demands of our customers and the desires of shoppers, and this new EPD delivers the low power, sunlight readability and skinny, lightweight form factor users have come to expect from E Ink at a fair higher resolution.”
“We developed this device specifically to fulfill the high data demands of commercial and academia,” said Torao Yajima, managing director at Epson. “Our IC controller and processing power enables the display to address large files while maintaining the wonderful display control and operability present in today’s EPDs, including fast page navigation and a complicated user interface.”
Epson’s high speed controller platform is a perfect choice for developers who want to develop high resolution eTablets readily and within a particularly short period.
The respective roles of E Ink and Epson and the goods they provide are described below.
E InkE Ink will manufacture, sell and support the newly developed 300-dpi ePaper displays, which measure 9.68 inches at the diagonal and feature 2,400 x 1,650 pixels. These paper-like, high-resolution displays demonstrate in full the best features of ePaper: crisp and clear text and pictures on a simple-on-the-eyes screen, a skinny and light-weight form factor, and ultra-low power consumption.
EpsonEpson will manufacture, sell and support a high-resolution, high-speed display controller platform optimized for controlling E Ink’s high-resolution display. Leveraging Epson’s experience with image processing technology developed for photo-quality printers, the display controller platform combines a display controller IC, applications processor, system power management IC, and firmware to supply excellent display control and improved operability.
Moving forward, E Ink and Epson plan to continue collaborating to advertise the popularization of ePaper based devices inside the business and education markets by developing technology, expanding and upgrading the product lineup, and providing customer service.
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