Wearables

Flexible OTFT E Ink display designer and producer Plastic Logic announced a "significant investment" in its business from China-based e-paper display maker DKE Displays.

DKE currently produced specialized ePaper displays for applications such as electronic shelf labels (ESLs), smart cards, internet of things and smart clothing. Access to Plastic Logic's OTFT based displays will enable the company to integrate rugged, lightweight and flexible products for its target markets (mostly wearables).

E Ink Holdings announced that it developed e-paper displays driven by OTFT backplanes - aimed for wearable and smart clothing applications. EIH is developing the OFTF backplanes in collaboration with AU Optronics.

EIH says that OTFT can reduce production costs as it can be produced at low temperatures and perhaps even using printing technologies. OTFT can also enable highly flexible displays. EIH will demonstrate OTFT EPD displays late this week at Touch Taiwan 2019.

Sony started shipping its FES Watch U in Japan - with prices randing from 46,000 Yen (around $415) to 60,000 yen (around $550). The FES Watch U is an E Ink watch that also has E Ink on the wrist-band, so you can change the design at will. There are 12 basic designs, but this is software based and will increase as Sony makes available an iOS companion application.

The FES Watch U was first launched in October 2016 via Sony's First Flight crowdfunding site.

Sony's FES Watch (and the 2nd-Gen FES Watch U) is covered with a flexible E Ink display so you can change the design of the watch and the write-band at will. At CES 2017 Sony is showing a next-generation FES Watch prototype that uses a color E Ink display as you can see below

Sony's new FES color Watch is just a prototype at this stage, the company did not reveal any commercialization plans yet...

E-paper developer CLEARink Displays announced that it has established a joint venture in China with Suzhou Jinfu to commercialize Clearink's breakthrough reflective display technology for various ePaper applications in China.

The new JV will target several applications - including mobile phones, wearable devices, tablets, eReaders and electronic shelf labels. Clearink aims to launch the first monochrome display early in 2017, and color displays in 2018.

E Ink had a very interesting booth at SID 2016, showcasing its new color e-paper displays, and also other new and existing displays and prototypes.

First up, we have E Ink's new Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP), which is a high-quality full-color E Ink display. ACeP enables rich-color displays, which is enabled by colored pigments and not color-filters like in E Ink's older color displays.

E Ink and Canatu announced a new partnership, to develop a line of flexible touch displays for the wearable markets. The first product will be ready next month (July 2016) - a bendable ultra-thin (0.162 mm) 6.3" touch-enabled E Ink display.

The new display will have a resolution of 200x1040 (169 PPI) with 16 gray levels. It's short and long and suitable for applications such as bracelets and other wrist worn devices. The two companies will hopefully offer other display sizes in the future too.

China-based Jiangxi Holitech expects to ship 6-8 million electronic labels and 10-12 million electronic label modules in 2016. I'm not sure what is the difference between these two terms, but both will use E Ink displays. The company is in talks with 10 leading supermarket chains interested in adopting the new e-labels.

In October 2015, E Ink Holdings announced a strategic partnership with Jiangxi Holitech Technology to on EPD displays to mobile phones, wearable devices, retail electronic labels and digital price-tags.

In August 2015 Polyera, a US-based OTFT backplane developer, announced their first product, the Wove Band flexible E Ink smart band, to be released in the second half of 2016. We wanted to learn more about Polyera's technology and business, and the company's Special Projects VP, Brendan Florez, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had.

Brendan has been with Polyera since 2008. Prior to joining Polyera, Brendan was an early employee at Rosetta, a digital marketing agency. Brendan holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

E Ink Holdings announced a strategic partnership with Chinese LCD panel maker Jiangxi Holitech Technology. E Ink will collaborate with JiangXi to expand the use of EPD displays to mobile phones, wearable devices, retail electronic labels and digital price-tags.

E Ink hopes that this new agreement will allow them to boost their market share in China's e-paper display market. E Ink will supply displays and modules to Jiangxi - and will also provide advanced technologies to help Jiangxi develop E Ink based devices.