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How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

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71–80 of 208 posts

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#71
post #35

For most reading and writing tasks I think I’d rather have a a monochrome display with much higher DPI with extremely crisp high contrast edges. I hope that keeps improving too. Colour is something I’m willing to go without for this type of device. Maybe a single highlight colour would be nice to have as long as the red or yellow pigment occupies the same cell as black, not an adjacent one. A 600 dpi A4 sized tablet…

I want color, to read code, I can't give up on syntax highlighting

A few years back, I started a new theme that I call “bland”. I kept it at just pure black on pure white, keywords bold, comments italic for a week. After that, I agreed that some colour was useful, so I made strings red, numbers blue and comments green. All nice and high contrast. Since then I’ve added a little more from time to time, e.g. lifetimes in Rust are italic red, and attributes and macros in Rust code were orange for a few months but are now just italic black (though I still use orange for macro_rules $variables), but I’ve kept it all deliberately minimal and ultra-high contrast. I use the same styling (except for the background colour) on my website. I made a bland-dark somewhere along the way that I very occasionally use, also used on my website.

I should probably try something radically different again in another different direction soon. There are generally somewhat better options available for semantic highlighting now than there were five or ten years ago.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#72
post #20

Every time an E Ink article is posted the patent defeatism is inevitable. I’m curious if there are other techniques to implement reflective(?) displays being explored that wouldn’t fall within the scope of E Ink’s defensible moat, or, if their parents are simply so broad as to stifle most hopes of accessible solutions and broader consumer/professional adoption. Frankly, I’m quite sick of straining my eyes and circadi…

To paraphrase Planck: technology advances with the funeral of each patent.

Maybe not originaly, but as of today it very much seems like it. Related: maybe we will be done with covid, by the time the vaccines patents run out.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#73
post #65
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and then NOT sold in jurisdictions where the patent is recognized.

This does not seem like a difficult problem to solve, compared to the actual engineering, production, and scaling challenges.

The problem would require turning the entire global IP & supporting legal systems on their head. WTO, nation-specific laws, etc.

Technology seems to move a lot faster than paradigm shifts in government.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#74
post #20

Every time an E Ink article is posted the patent defeatism is inevitable. I’m curious if there are other techniques to implement reflective(?) displays being explored that wouldn’t fall within the scope of E Ink’s defensible moat, or, if their parents are simply so broad as to stifle most hopes of accessible solutions and broader consumer/professional adoption. Frankly, I’m quite sick of straining my eyes and circadi…

Sharp Memory LCDs are close. They are active, but so close to being zero power you could keep them running with a stern glare. They have absurd contrast, can be updated at tens of hertz or faster, and are high resolution. They’re never made in large sizes, but you will see them on things like the Play Date.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#75

E-ink is the coolest tech with the worst business practices. The availability of affordable e-ink tech is just not there. I understand the research-intensive nature of these displays, but the company itself has been holding back the e-ink market by just operating poorly in so many ways. My biggest worry is that they'll fold at some point, leaving all the e-ink patents in the hand of a troll that will hold tech back f…

For real, I just want e ink to flourish (I want a high powered, super fast kindle) instead of rent seek. I'd even pay way more for it.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#76
post #20

Every time an E Ink article is posted the patent defeatism is inevitable. I’m curious if there are other techniques to implement reflective(?) displays being explored that wouldn’t fall within the scope of E Ink’s defensible moat, or, if their parents are simply so broad as to stifle most hopes of accessible solutions and broader consumer/professional adoption. Frankly, I’m quite sick of straining my eyes and circadi…

Qualcomm are sitting on a reflective display technology "mirasol" that: 1. Doesn't hit E-ink's patents 2. Is colour 3. Has fast lcd-like refresh rates The reviews of the few devices that were made were excellent. The main problem seemed to be the quality of other aspects of the devices that featured them. I find it incredibly frustrating that this hasn't made it into the mainstream.

Mirasol is very dead tech at this point. https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/the-rise-and...

I think they tried to ramp things up before it was ready, and nobody was interested by the time they got it to work.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#77
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically impossible. They could be great niche monitors, for reading text or viewing mostly static content. At best maybe for kind of general web browsing, but even that is asking a _lot_ of the tech.

Or eInk body for your car

Talk to BMW

“BMW’s color-changing concept vehicle” https://news.yahoo.com/bmw-color-changing-concept-vehicle-16...

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualcomm are sitting on a reflective display technology "mirasol" that: 1. Doesn't hit E-ink's patents 2. Is colour 3. Has fast lcd-like refresh rates The reviews of the few devices that were made were excellent. The main problem seemed to be the quality of other aspects of the devices that featured them. I find it incredibly frustrating that this hasn't made it into the mainstream.

From wikipedia: "As of 2015, the IMOD Mirasol display laboratory in Longtan, Taiwan, formerly run by Qualcomm, is now apparently run by Apple." So even if something comes out of it - it would be probably just locked into apples garden.

Ah for fucks sake

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualcomm are sitting on a reflective display technology "mirasol" that: 1. Doesn't hit E-ink's patents 2. Is colour 3. Has fast lcd-like refresh rates The reviews of the few devices that were made were excellent. The main problem seemed to be the quality of other aspects of the devices that featured them. I find it incredibly frustrating that this hasn't made it into the mainstream.

From wikipedia: "As of 2015, the IMOD Mirasol display laboratory in Longtan, Taiwan, formerly run by Qualcomm, is now apparently run by Apple." So even if something comes out of it - it would be probably just locked into apples garden.

That’s just Apple reusing the physical factory not the tech. Qualcomm completely abandoned the technology and couldn’t find anyone to license it.

Re: How E Ink developed full-color e-paper

#80

For most reading and writing tasks I think I’d rather have a a monochrome display with much higher DPI with extremely crisp high contrast edges. I hope that keeps improving too. Colour is something I’m willing to go without for this type of device. Maybe a single highlight colour would be nice to have as long as the red or yellow pigment occupies the same cell as black, not an adjacent one. A 600 dpi A4 sized tablet…

Or just a refresh rate that isn't what feels like several seconds.
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