When you talk about Kindle, what do you think of immediately? Maybe not reading, but pressing noodles and eating ashes. p>
Although the global demand for e-book readers is still growing, the sales of physical books have begun to pick up, and smartphones and tablets have become new choices for many people to read digitally. On the other hand, the life cycle of the e-book reader is too long, and the e-paper technology has not been significantly updated, which has also reduced the user’s power to change to a certain extent. p>
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Under this background, E Ink, which produces electronic paper for Kindle, today launched Print-Color ePaper. This new type of color electronic paper has both refresh rate and color display. There are many improvements that can be used in e-book readers. p>
This also means that the color Kindle may not be far from us. p>
▲ Let’s take a look at what electronic paper looks like on the spot. p>
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The color version of Kindle is now available. What is the new color e-paper experience? h3>
E Ink has released two new technologies for color e-paper: printed color e-paper and ACeP (Advanced Color ePaper). Among them, printed color electronic paper is more relevant to ordinary consumers, because this color electronic paper can finally be used in e-book readers. p>
Color e-paper has not been used in e-book readers in the past. Low refresh rates, poor color display effects, and high costs are some of the major obstacles. E Ink’s just-released color e-paper has already achieved refresh rates comparable to black and white ink screens. p>
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E Ink’s on-site printed color e-paper was 10.3 inches and 6 inches, respectively, with a resolution of 226 DPI. It can be seen that the page turning speed in reading mode is not significantly different from that of the Kindle in daily use. The display color is soft and warm. Although in some scenes it is necessary to add a low-light front light source, it still maintains black and white electronic paper without hurting eyes Features can display 4096 colors. p>
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In terms of handwriting, the printed color electronic paper also supports the color handwriting function. From the experience of Ai Faner at the scene, handwritten handwriting stickersOn the pen end, the fluency is high, and the delay is hardly felt. p>
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This color electronic paper allows users to read children’s picture books, art albums, books with illustrations and more in e-book readers. It is also suitable for reading annotations, classroom education, teacher corrections, etc. Scenes. p>
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▲ Image from: Reader ’s Digest p>
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In addition, this color electronic paper can also broadcast color videos and animations. Although the on-site prototype has not been optimized by software, it seems that the color display effect is not as good as screens of mobile phones and tablets, but the picture is already relatively smooth. p>
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The product manager of Yuantai Technology told Aifaner that the printed color electronic paper adopts new color filter technology. Compared with the previous glass color filter, it is thinner and lighter, and the color texture will be richer. p>
The color filter is a solution to realize the color electronic paper. After adding the color filter, after the sun is incident, it will pass through the filter during the reflection process, so that the human eye can perceive the color. p>
The printed color electronic paper can improve the refresh rate to the level of an e-book reader while presenting 4096 colors. In terms of battery life, in addition to the low brightness front light source, the power consumption is slightly increased, and the overall black and white ink screen The difference is small, which makes the color version of the e-book readingCommercialization of the reader is possible. p>
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As for the price issues that consumers are more concerned about, Li Zhenghao, chairman of Yuantai Technology, said that the cost of this technology will be higher than that of black and white electronic paper in the early stage, but the cost will gradually decrease as the market scale expands. Black and white electronic paper or even lower price p>
So when will color e-book readers be available? Yuantai Technology said that it will see the launch of color e-book readers equipped with this technology as soon as next year, but did not disclose what brand it is, so we still have reason to look forward to the color Kindle may come next year. p>
From black and white to color, why have e-readers waited so long? h3>
In the past ten years, despite the emergence of e-book readers with different functions on the market, for consumers, the e-ink screen has not changed much. It is still a black and white display and a low refresh rate. Mobile phones, tablets and other devices have more and more colorful screens today, which has also become the reason why many people give up electronic paper devices. p>
Speaking of which, the electronic ink screen technology was born as early as 1996, so why is it so difficult to want a color version of e-book reader today more than 20 years later? p>
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In fact, the color electronic paper has been born for a long time. In 2010, the second year that Yuantai Technology acquired the American E Ink company, it first launched the color electronic paper Triton, which can display 4096 colors, but the color The degree of reduction is not enough, and the refresh rate is also low, which is difficult to apply to e-book readers. p>
In 2013, E Ink launched the second-generation color electronic paper Triton 2 and applied it to some e-book readers of Ectaco and Pocketbook, but the problems of color and refresh rate still could not meet user needs, so this technology has no Popular in e-book readers. p>
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Yuan Tai Technology told Ai Faner, this is related to the color display technology of color electronic paper. The e-paper screen consists of capsules with a film backplane on top and bottom. There are many black and white pigment particles in the capsule. After different electric fields are applied to the film backsheet, the arrangement of the pigment particles changes, and there will be different top layers pattern. p>
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But the general ink screen has only black and white particles, but it is not the same if you want to show rich colors. Knowing that the diameter of these pigment particle capsules is comparable to that of human hair, it is not difficult to manage more color pigment particles at the same time, so a compromise method is usually used-adding a color filter. p>
However, this kind of color electronic paper is more dependent on the intensity of sunlight. The color will be more vivid in the strong outdoor environment, and the color will be darker in the indoor environment. Most people read more indoors. Not very suitable for e-book readers, but more used for outdoor electronic display boards such as subway advertisements, bus dynamic signage and so on. p>
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However, the advanced color electronic paper ACeP (Advanced Color ePaper) of Yuantai Technology has been able to present colors directly with colored ink particles without the need for color filters. The voltage applied by the TFT backplane can be used to control the electrophoretic liquid. Particles run to display different display colors, achieving a full color gamut display effect including eight primary colors. p>
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In this way, you can avoid the effect of lighting on the color display, and the color texture is closer to the print. At the same time maintain the characteristics of ultra-low power consumption, no backlight and no eye damage, such as black and white ink screen. Moreover, the refresh rate of ACeP is also constantly accelerating, from more than 20 seconds to 10 to 15 seconds in 2018, and the refresh rate has been shortened to less than 3 seconds this year. p>
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▲ The display effect of ACeP. p>
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But such a refresh rate still cannot meet the demand of consumer products such as e-book readers. ACeP screens are currently mainly targeted at B-end users and are used in advertising boards, product prices / promotion labels, and information display boards in business and public environments. Scenes. p>
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At present, there are not many companies developing color e-paper technology. Except for Yuantai Technology, ClearInk and Guangzhou Aoyi have both displayed prototypes of color e-paper, but neither has mature commercial products in the consumer electronics market. p>
In addition to technical reasons, Li Zhenghao, chairman of Yuantai Technology, said in an interview with Ai Faner that this is related to the industry’s insufficient investment in this area. Compared with more popular products such as smart phones, the market size of ink screens is relatively small, so the entire industry’s investment in color electronic paper is relatively limited. p>
It is reported that Yuantai Technology has invested more than 10 billion R & D in color electronic paper technology. In addition to printed color electronic paper that will soon be applied to electronic readers, Yuantai Technology’s various color electronic papers have been applied to retail, transportation, In the fields of logistics, medical care and the Internet of Things (IoT), as Li Zhenghao, chairman of Yuantai Technology, said, 2019 can be regarded as the first year of color electronic paper. p>