E Ink New Technologies - Part 2

Quick preview of some of the E Ink upcoming technologies we'll see in the next year to 18 months. More information at www.redferret.net.

Android e-ink e-reader platform enabled by Freescale i.MX51e and i.MX508

Skip to 4:00 for info on the i.MX51e Android e-ink UI development kit and for some infos on the i.MX508 platform.

Freescale is the leader in powering the e-ink based e-readers. In 2008 that market was below 1 Million units, in 2009 it was 4-5 million units and in 2010 it is expected to sell perhaps as much as 15 million units.

Freescale's next generation of processors for e-readers integrates the e-ink controller directly into the ARM Cortex A8 based processor, which increases performance, lowers power consumption and lowers cost even further.

It is expected that this lowering of cost and complexity in the e-ink e-readers may help reach $99 e-ink e-readers sooner, which may also mean content providers like Amazon, Google or Newspapers may soon decide to give away the connected e-ink readers in exchange for a content subscription plan.

I am a big fan of the e-reader market, it helps people read again, as TV and the Internet has taken over more and more of people's time, the e-readers makes it possible to read any book, any article and any time with a quality up close near to paper quality.

I filmed an early Android e-ink prototype at CeBIT that was showcased by Gigabyte:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv71yX... now Freescale is pushing further the use of Android as the software stack for e-ink e-readers with the i.MX51e development board demonstrated in this video. This could mean awesome use of feed readers, where articles, blog posts could also be beamed from the Chrome browser extension directly to your Android based e-reader. The feature of adding text contents from your laptop to your e-reader could become really really powerful.

E Ink Demo

E Ink product director Lawrence Schwartz walks us through new features of E Ink display technology, at the Society for Information Display Symposium in Seattle, May 27.

E Ink shows off its new product

CFA910

The CFA-910 is an ARM based single board Linux computer with a 6 inch diagonal E Ink Vizplex display.

Despite a very thin profile, it is built with a powerful Atmel AT91SAM9G45 ARM9 processor, 128MB of memory, large capacity SD card storage, plus Ethernet, USB and serial interfaces. One of the best features of e-paper is that it uses zero power to keep an image on screen, so your image can be shown even after the device is turned off.

Since the module runs embedded Linux, many high-level applications such as networking tools, browsers, PDF readers, even spreadsheets, are instantly available. Developers writing their own software will find ready to use toolchains, cross-compilers, package managers and broad support from the mobile Linux community. Additionally, the module is designed to abstract the Broadsheet EPD controller, which means you can write to a more generic display driver, making your code more portable and versatile.

The CFA910 can be ordered with an optional touchscreen and expansion/development board. The capabilities and customizability of this prototype kit are unequaled by any other e-paper development platform.

This model is a development platform. It is intended for those familiar with using and developing for the Linux operating system. Linux developer support is available though our forums for CFA910 embedded Linux development.

Linux-based development kit

Linux-based development kit

E Ink's development kit includes "everything needed" to prototype electronic book readers and other mobile devices, the company claims.

Electronic paper development kit

The EPD module included in E Ink's AM-100 kit is based on a piece of imaging film laminated to a glass-based TFT (thin-film transistor). The module is manufactured by Prime View International (PVI) of Taiwan, which will handle any high-volume purchases, E Ink says.

In addition to an EPD, the AM-100 kit includes a Gumstix module. Gumstix modules are tiny SBCs (single-board computer) based on an Intel XScale PXA255 SoC (system-on-chip) processor, with on-board power supplies enabling them to be powered by batteries. I/O interfaces include BlueTooth, MMC, and USB.

The kit's SBC module comes preloaded with Linux and a variety of open source drivers and applications, E Ink says.

E-Ink senior electrical engineer Holly Gates said, "Most of our customers want to make working prototypes that are portable. So we put the control electronics onto a tiny board."

Tinta-E: Velocidad de e-ink en los nuevos kits

Ayer comenté los experimentos de Jaya Kumar con un kit de desarrollo de e-ink. Bastante impresionante ver cómo funcionaba un navegador con una pantalla de e-ink. Hoy quería enseñaros otro de los videos que ha colgado este desarrollador.

Los dueños de un iliad conocéis la velocidad de respuesta al lápiz: siendo aceptable, no alcanza a la que ofrece este kit.

En línea de lo que comentaba ayer de aumentar las posibilidades de un lector de ebooks para hacerlo más polivalente y facilitar su compra, la visión de esta velocidad me intriga sobremanera: ¿Será aceptable la velocidad de refresco si se introduce texto mediante un teclado?

Si fuera así, imaginaos: un netbook con el que editar texto como las antiguas máquinas de escribir: en vez de cansarnos la vista con una pantalla retroiluminada, "escribir" en un papel gris.

Lo malo del mercado informático es que es, paradójicamente, extremadamente conservador. Esto explica, por ejemplo, el éxito de los netbooks: un formato conocido y un precio reducido. Si alguien diera con el chiste de cómo vender un netbook basado en e-ink, sería un cambio completamente revolucionario