New E-Paper Display is Write-able

After reviewing the iRex iLiad e-book reader, I have been really excited about the possibilities of combining the e-ink / e-paper display with touch and inking capabilities. InfoWorld is reporting from the Display 2008 exhibition in Tokyo on a new display “developed by E-Ink, Taiwan’s Prime View International, and Japan’s Seiko Epson. It combines a conventional electronic paper display with a touch panel and a newly developed control chip.” E-Ink makes most of the e-paper displays with which we are familiar, including the displays for the iLiad and the Amazon Kindle.

The new control chip developed by Seiko Epson appears to be the key element of the new display. The chip can refresh the screen up to 50 times per second and can control a screen with four times the resolution of current displays, up to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. This refresh speed increase should dramatically improve the writing experience, potentially eliminating the pen lag I saw on the iLiad.

The new display and chip are slated to release in August, so maybe we’ll see devices built around this technology in the near future.