It seems that the Amazon Kindle might finally get a splash of color soon. E Ink, which provides technology for Amazon's popular e-reader, has announced that it has developed a display that can show up to 32,000 colors, Endgadget has reported.
Their newest innovation in E Ink technology, called Advanced Color ePaper or ACeP, for short, is a big improvement from E Ink's Triton which could only display up to 4,000 colors. This could be great news for magazines and other colored publications.
Slashgear got a first-hand experience with the ACeP during SID's Display Week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. They reported that the AceP is able to produce all eight primary colors using colored pigments only, creating a full color spectrum. This spectrum can be controlled with voltages, similar to already-in-play commercial TFT backplanes.
"We expect ACeP to become the basis upon which another generation of EPD display products can be developed," said Frank Ko, Chairman of E Ink Holdings has told Slashgear in an interview. They also observed that the colors have less saturation and also have a refresh delay everytime it changes into a different set of colors.
The AceP looks perfect for store signages and that might be the first step for this ePaper technology. Techcrunch said that the current version, while great for signage, would not stand up to close inspection with 150 pixels per inch, hence not making it viable for e-readers.
Gizmodo agrees and also points out that the old version of Kindle had the same specs and it might not be long before AceP develops further, just as the current Kindle technology has.
There is no set date yet as to when the new color AceP technology will be available to consumers, although Slashgear reports that E Ink predicts this to go into commercial production in the next two years.
