What Is E-Ink Display?
E-Ink ("electronic ink") is a display technology that aims to replicate the appearance of ink printed on paper. E-Ink was co-founded in 1997at MIT.
The very first device to use an E-Ink display was Sony's Librie, an e-reader released only in Japan in 2004. It never had widespread adoption, due mainly to its expensive price tag and a file format with heavy DRM that made its ebooks expire in 30 days. It wasn't until Amazon released the Kindle in late 2007 that E-Ink really took off. Like the Librie, it had an 800 x 600-pixel display capable of showing four levels of grayscale. The contrast wasn't amazing, but it allowed you to carry an entire library of digital books with you wherever you went, so it caught on.
How Does An E-ink display work?
E-ink displays can be categorized into a few types according to the official website:
1. One Pigment Ink System:
E Ink JustTint™ is a variable transmissive film, which, when adhered to glass or plastic, allows for control of the light through the surface. JustTint utilizes a one-pigment system but drives the ink in new ways versus other ink systems. In JustTint, the black pigments move to the side when a charge is applied to allow a transparent area of the capsule.
2. Two Pigment Ink System:
E Ink’s two pigment electronic ink system is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, each about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains negatively charged white particles and positively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a positive or negative electric field is applied, corresponding particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the viewer. This makes the surface appear white or black at that spot.
3. Three Pigment Ink System:
E Ink’s Spectra product line utilizes a 3-pigment ink system in a micro cup structure. This ink system works similarly to the dual pigment system, in that a charge is applied to the pigments, and to a top and bottom electrode to facilitate movement.
4. Advanced Color E-Paper (ACeP™):
In 2016 E Ink showcased a multi-pigment ink system, Advanced Color ePaper (E Ink ACeP™). ACeP™ achieves a full-color gamut, including all eight primary colors, using only colored pigments. It works like a two or Three pigment system, using different capsules for black, cyan, yellow, and magenta. Color is achieved by having all the colored pigments in every pixel, removing the need for a color filter array.
Benefits of E-ink Display: Primarily there are two benefits of E-ink display:
1. Battery Life
E Ink's technology is commonly referred to as "bistable". This means that the display is consuming power only when something is changing. So technically, E-ink devices can have a battery that lasts for weeks!
2. No Backlighting
The backlighting produced by traditional display can damage our eyes. In an E Ink display, no backlight is used; rather, ambient light from the environment is reflected from the surface of the display back to your eyes. Users of E Ink displays have said that they do not have the same eye fatigue as with LCDs when reading for long periods of time.
Current Technologies Which Use E-ink: The most popular use for E-ink display is in E-readers. But there are phones and smartwatches which use the E-ink.
Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store.
reMarkable
reMarkable is an E Ink writer tablet for reading documents, and textbooks, sketching, and note-taking with the goal of paper-like writing experience.
Fossil Hybrid HR
In the hybrid category, Fossil's Hybrid HR mixes physical watch hands with an always-on display that shows information and notifications. The Hybrid HR isn't Fossil's first smartwatch with physical hands.
Future of E-ink:
E-ink is synonymous with E-readers. But with the development of color displays and faster refresh rates, E-ink panels might just become a power-saving eye-friendly alternative. It will be interesting to see how they shape the kinds of digital signage that we see around us on a daily basis in the future.
Written By- Joshua
Edited By- Vaibhav Sharma
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