Electronic books, newspapers and notepads (e-readers) based on E Ink's paperlike display technology are slated to get smarter soon, by virtue of a more intelligent controller microchip code-named ISIS (the god of magic).
ISIS turns the pages of e-readers more smoothly, matches the contrast ratio to the environment and offers new features such as picture-in-picture. The smarter controller chip also reduces the parts count and thus the cost of e-readers. The new chip was co-designed by E Ink (Cambridge, Mass.) and Epson Semiconductor (Tokyo), the microchip division of Seiko Epson Corp.
"Epson and E Ink worked closely to enhance the e-reader user experience, as well as to add some asked-for features," said Sri Peruvemba, vice president of marketing for E Ink. "All our customers building e-readers with our Vizplex Imaging Film will benefit when using our new controller chip."
So far, E Ink's most successful customer for its Vizplex Imaging Film has been Amazon's Kindle, which now has both paperback- and hardback-book-sized displays (and just lowered prices this week). Sony's Reader is probably its second most successful customer, with its paperback-book-sized display. There are also e-newspapers coming soon from Brother Industries (Nagoya, Japan) and iRex Technology (Eindhoven, Netherlands), as well as an e-notebook you can write on with a stylus called Papryus, which Samsung has shown at trade shows but has not yet brought to market.
E Ink's Vizplex Imaging Film is a flexible polymer sandwich containing white and black microcapsules floating in a fluid. By applying a positive or negative electrical field to regions behind the film, either the white or black microcapsules are forced to the surface, presenting the appearance of black type on white paper. To turn a page, the user merely presses a button, which alerts the controller chip to update the display with the data for the next page.
The new controller chip allows an e-reader to pop up menus, icons and other picture-in-picture overlays with full control over their transparency. The cursor, which users can define to be any size, can also have transparency associated with it so that you can see what's beneath an oversized cursor. And a user-requested feature added to the new controller enables users to switch from portrait to landscape views by merely rotating the device.
The new controller chip also reduces the parts count on e-readers—by integrating on the controller chip its RAM, flash memory, thermal sensor and pen-input controller, each of which required a separate chip before—thus lowering its overall cost.
Next year, E Ink promises "roll up" displays using a flexible plastic substrate for its film, instead of the rigid glass substrates used by e-readers devices today. Flexible displays will prompt a market for add-on auxiliary displays for laptop computers that can be stored for travel while rolled up. Tablet PC makers, according to E Ink, are waiting until the color version is available, which E Ink has working in the lab now and plans to release to consumer-device manufacturers next year.
