I've been interested in eInk for some time now but the technology is not pushed the way other new stuff is. I get the impression those who own the rights aren't interested in developing the applications and only want to license the technology to others. These companies try to find custom display customers rather than provide a wide spectrum of displays the market can easily use in products.
Like the 2x16 LCD display that is sold everywhere. There's no ePaper equivalent that is easy to integrate into a product. Instead there was nearly nothing until the last few years when a few units have appeared, but they nearly all are a two board solution. Rather than give a specification for interfacing the display to your design using whatever technology you care to use, they want to sell you a board, so you end up with two boards, one with the display and one with the controller. Goofy.
Then there are many types of displays with different details of capabilities. Some provide partial refresh, others don't. It is a confusing mess to anyone looking to use these devices.
Then there is the power issue. The display holds the last image drawn indefinitely. But how much power does it take to draw images? I've never gotten an answer on that. The boards don't seem to provide that info. Again, goofy.
Am I wrong about this? Is this info easily available and I'm just too slow to pick up on it? I'm also confused by the different manufactures not making it clear which display is which technology so it is hard to compare between brands.
It feels like the time is right for ePaper to start showing up in products, but they are still few and far between. I'd like to have one for my thermostat as the LCD thing is very hard to read. I've never liked LCDs much. The contrast is just too low.