E Ink, What else you got?
When people think of E Ink the first thing that comes to mind is the Amazon Kindle. Now you may see that we also have Signage, Shelf label and products for architecture. Long before any of these advancements were our Segmented display products.
In the earliest days of E Ink we were trying to figure out what should we make to showcase this new technology? Through many meetings with both good and bad ideas, we arrived at signage. These signs would contain mosaic characters capable of making any possible Alpha or Numeric characters. While each Character was made of many of individual segments, squares, rectangle, oblique’s, and many more all these shapes were defined as permanent Segments.
Ok maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. All E Ink products use our primary technology, ink and are supported by a base substrate we refer to as a backplane. In our Active Matrix products this backplane contains thousands of transistors capable of display any image. In our Segmented products the backplane contains predefined characters focused on a given application or product.
These Segmented displays have been used in products like Glucose meters, Watches, Memory sticks, WiFi hubs, Locks and more. These products have sold in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions.
What do these displays have in common? Actually very little. Each display was custom designed for the intended application. Whether based on shape, size or ability to meet a specific customers design, the design drove the display, not the other way around.
Why would I want a display with Limited capability? These displays are not actually limited, they are more specific to a given use or need. While not capable of graphics the displays contain the same qualities present in all E Ink displays, while offering capabilities not found in other displays. You want a displays shaped like a sharks fin, we can do that. Want a clear window in the middle? What size? You want features built in to allow for easier alignment in an enclosure? Let us know. Only have 1mm to fit the display, we’ll fit this. All other features, sunlight readable, high contrast, bistable are there. Let’s also add in capable of a static curve and virtually any shape.
While a Segmented display may not be able to do everything, it will allow you to do just what you need in a unique form factor.