The city of Bonn in Germany is testing out PaperCast's e-paper bus stop displays. The project aims to replace paper timetables with dynamic digital displays that show live bus arrivals for customers at the bus stop.
Stadtwerke Bonn Bus und Bahn (SWBV), the Bonn municipal citizen service authority, is field testing several different display technologies during the trial, not just the E Ink displays from Papercast. The bus stop displays are solar powered and offer mobile connectivity
Sony's FES team collaborated with New Balance to develop sneakers with E Ink displays on the side - and interestingly also on the soles.
This is just a prototype, and apparently neither Sony nor New Balance actually aims to commercialize this as a real product.
E Ink Holdings says it plans to start producing its next-generation color e-Paper (Advanced Color ePaper, or ACeP) display panels early in 2019. The first ACeP displays will be 13" in size.
E Ink first-generation Triton color e-Paper displays never really reached commercialization as the performance was not good enough. The company currently produces 3-color displays (Spectra displays), but the ACeP will hopefully be the first commercial full color E Ink displays.
E Ink Holdings reported its Q2 2018 financial results. Operating losses decreased to only $1.73 million (down from $8.5 million in Q1 2018). Royalty income increased almost 80% to $25.8 million - which results in a net profit of almost $28 million.
E Ink says that it expects revenues to grow at a faster rate int he second half of the year, and the company also approved a new plan to streamline its management and improve its operational efficiency.
Six local authorities in the UK has awarded Vix Technology with a new project to deliver and maintain a real-time passenger information (RTPI) systems.
The five-year project will include a system that connects current and new displays - including new solar-powered E Ink displays, that will complement the existing LED and LCD displays.
E Ink Holdings' president, Johnson Lee, says that demand for electronic shelf labels (ESL) displays is high - and in 2018 the company expects ESL displays to surpass e-reader displays in terms of area shipments.
This is very good news for EIH as the e-reader market has stagnated for years - and it is rather surprising for many as we have all been used to consider e-readers to be the main market for e-paper displays.
Japan Display (JDI) demonstrated its latest high-resolution (198 PPI) 30cm-wide e-paper displays for the electronic shelf-label market.
JDI is also developing much higher density e-paper displays (400 PPI and 600 PPI), these were detailed at E Ink's booth at SID but JDI did not demonstrate any of these next-gen e-papers at its own booth.
Here's a short video showing E Ink's booth at SID Displayweek 2018, where the company demonstrated its latest E Ink displays, devices and prototypes. Some of these displays looked very good, especially the new color panels!
E Ink had some very interesting displays in there - including the new medical patch developed with LTS, the high resolution (400 PPI and 600 PPI) E Ink developed together with JDI, a range of new writing pads (from Sony, ReMarkable and Onyx Boox), the GVIDO music stand display, plastic logic's OTFT-powered panels and E Ink's upcoming beautiful color e-paper displays.
E Ink Holdings say that it expects low demand for e-paper displays in the first half of 2018, as the e-reader market is set for a low season as customers are transitioning to new models and are not ordering new displays (but rather use these in their inventories). E-reader displays account for about 70% of E Ink's revenues in 2017.
Displays for e-notebooks and electronics shelf labels are expected to grow in the period, but apparently this won't be enough to offset the low demand for e-reader displays.
Japan's Aizuwakamatsu city is launching a new pilot smart bus stop display project, developed by Papercast in collaboration with E Ink holdings.
The project is administered by Aizu Riding Car Development, a consortium that aims to improve service convenience and reduce ongoing costs by digitally connecting bus stops. The E Ink displays will show real-time passenger information, and these displays will be wireless and solar-powered.