It's unlikely Amazon will release another large - screen E Ink ereader again, especially now that they've invested in color
electrowetting display technology.
Electrofluidic displays are a variant
of electrowetting displays - which do require power to hold an image.
If it is a device featuring an Amazon Liquavista
electrowetting screen (which I hope it does), what kind of impact do you see it having on the e-reader market?
Based
on electrowetting technology, it can deliver monochrome reading experience having high brightness while at the same time, the screen can also deliver a vivid hi - fidelity video display having rich colors.
Another advantage
with electrowetting displays is they are visible in bright sunlight like E Ink because no polarizing filters are required.
Although they have not released any products yet, the fact they claim to be
using Electrowetting technology is interesting.
Samsung had acquired the Netherlands based digital publishing company that specializes
in electrowetting display technology in early 2011, though we have yet to see any product based on it entering large scale production.
Researchers from the University of Cincinnati have demonstrated that regular paper can be a flexible host material
for Electrowetting displays.
Samsung recently acquired Liquavista earlier this year and this is why we have not seen their
new Electrowetting technology in any products to date.
Perhaps a new screen technology
like electrowetting displays can bridge the gap to combine the best of E Ink ebook readers and tablets together in a single device.
Here it is the other way round,» says Frieder Mugele, an expert in
electrowetting from the University of Twente, the Netherlands, who was not involved with the work.
Liquid micro-lens array activated by
selective electrowetting on lithium niobate substrates S. Grilli, L. Miccio, V. Vespini, A. Finizio, S. De Nicola, and P. Ferraro Optics Express 16, 8084 - 8093 (2008)
Well, Liquavista has been into developing cutting edge display technology such
as electrowetting that leads to displays that are just as readable indoors as it would be out in bright sunlight.
Offering more than twice the transmittance of LCD technology and able to operate at low frequencies, displays
utilizing electrowetting consume just 10 percent of the battery power of existing display technologies.
Other companies are also trying to
turn electrowetting display technology into a viable business, so it seems that, like the development of the LCD display, which began in the US but was not perfected until the technology was acquired by Korean companies like Samsung and LG, this is the sort of technology that could take a long time to develop and will eventually give rise to an ecosystem of competing manufacturers.
Liquavista announced a new dynamic frame rate capability down to frequencies as low as 1Hz, resulting in ultra-low
power electrowetting display driving.
Here's a video from an earlier article
about electrowetting that shows the display technology in action:
Electrowetting enables low - power non-volatile color e-paper displays, but the technology has not been commercialized yet.
The essence
of Electrowetting technology is that it is highly scalable as the e-reader and tablet market has gravitated from small screens to displays exceeding 10 inches.
Krupenkin's inspiration is a technique
called electrowetting, in which a conductive liquid droplet, placed on an electrode, is physically deformed by an applied electric charge.
«If [Samsung] feels that it can be done within a year or two, there will be an enormous push
for electrowetting.
The ease with which both platforms can be combined
with electrowetting displays is another testimony for the compatibility of our displays with existing supply chain.
There hasn't been any official announcement yet, but it appears that Samsung has acquired Liquavista, a company developing displays that
use electrowetting to allow for full color visibility both indoors and out.
There are also some other e-paper technologies apart from E-Ink
like electrowetting that can produce fairly deep colors, but the displays are expensive and consume more power, Gasman said.
The technology is based
on electrowetting, the same type of technology that Liquavista developed.
However, after Samsung's takeover, the first time we are getting to see the
Liquavista electrowetting display is at the SID 2011.
Touting a «simplified LCD - like manufacturing process,» Liquavista specializes
in Electrowetting technology, which the Netherlands - based company explained on its website is more ideal for video content.
LiquaVista are working on
Electrowetting displays - here's an interview we published with their CTO back in March 2010, describing their technology and upcoming products.
This behavior, called
electrowetting, allowed the researchers to manipulate the liquid, expanding and contracting the dark ring to let in more or less light through the clear liquid at the center.
A process called
electrowetting could provide 10 watts of juice to smartphones and other gadgets as you walk
«Usually in
electrowetting we apply voltage to move things.
According to Professor Alex Henzen, the core member of the SCNU team and technical leader on e-paper, outdoor billboards made of such
an electrowetting based reflective e-paper technology would take up less than 1 % of the power consumption of LED and TFT - LCD displays of a similar size, making the new technology very attractive for the digital signage market.
In fact, LCD displays too makes use of
the electrowetting technology.
Freescale is the leading supplier of e-reader processors with the majority of e-readers currently doing the rounds in the market having a Freescale processor at its core while Liquavista is a pioneer of color e-reader display and has
the electrowetting LiquavistaColor display technology to its credit.
Phrases with «electrowetting»