7 ms·

All the years e-ink displays have been available in consumer products and we're still only talking about 5 bit greyscale? I gave up my Kindle as soon as 5 inch

• userbinator 9y ago
  I thought the market would have made more progress by now. I believe the reason is that there are a lot of patents/IP around the core technology, and it's owned by very few companies who essentially have a monopoly on the market. This also explains the secrecy surrounding the "low-level" details. As this article shows, you can definitely get more gray levels by driving the display directly.
  • fapjacks 9y ago
    Yes and it's also been somewhat notoriously difficult to actually procure the damned things.
    • dbuder 9y ago
      Yeah you go to all the manufacturers websites and they promise everything but offer nothing. Yeh yeh I know about your technology that's why I came to your website. I'm going to develop with Memory LCD instead, I prefer a company like Sharp anyway.
  • gatmne 9y ago
    It's a shame. From past examples, we will likely not see any real innovation in this space until these patents expire. It's especially disheartening to me since I'll probably be too old to get in on the action by then. I hope societies reevaluate the role of patents in the advancement of human technology. From my perspective, patents do more harm then good. They encourage rent-seeking. They're impractical to use legally unless you have enough money. They hold back technology for a couple of generations each time a new breakthrough is discovered (as has happened with capacitive touch screens, 3D printers, and is happening now with e-ink displays). To me, patents are achieving the opposite of their intended purpose.