This video appeared in Electronic Design and has been published here with permission.
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E Ink has provided low-power, grey-scale, and color e-paper displays for some time now. The latter started with a few colors and now the latest version provides improved color depth. Color e-paper films have been used on BMW's color-changing car. However, the films targeting applications like e-readers provide small, individually controlled pixels for rendering text and images. Like the grey-scale version, these require power to change state but not to maintain a display, allowing for long-term operation using minute amounts of power.
I talked with E Ink's Associate VP of Operations, Timothy O'Malley, about the company's Gallery color displays (see video above). He also demonstrated now the displays can be folded (Fig. 1).
The current crop of displays provide more colors and can change the display more quickly. They can work for some gaming, but you will want to use a tablet or smartphone to watch videos.
E Ink also has very-low-power displays for applications like store shelf product pricing (Fig. 2). These are available in four- and seven-color versions.
