Kent Displays is shipping an LCD-based e-paper tablet, compatible with computer software for enhanced usability.
The tablet, based on bistable cholesteric e-paper technology developed at Kent Display, in Ohio, the US, is shipping worldwide. Using special software, users of the Boogie Board Rip tablet can save their notes on a computer, and share files via email.
The tablet is the latest addition to e-writeable products that use Kent Display's e-paper technology. These are sold through the company's subsidiary Improv Electronics.
The firm introduced the first Boogie Board eWriter in January 2010 as a paperless alternative to memo pads and sticky notes. These are now sold in 25 countries.
Kent Displays has responded to demand with products that have enhanced capability, and are aimed at replacing notebooks and legal pads. Target markets include business and education users.
Note-taking
Improv is the first company to commercialise an e-paper product designed purely for writing and note-taking. E-readers and signage are the biggest markets for e-paper technology.
Albert Green, Kent Displays/Improv Electronics CEO, says: 'The benefits compared to paper are obvious: they are less costly than an equivalent amount of paper and offer expanded functionality.'
The product has an internal memory for 200 typical images. The high-resolution, 9.5-inch writing surface is thin, durable and lightweight.
Recently Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), developed a flexible e-paper, based on a unique LCD display technology, which is rewritable and reusable, and does not require electricity to retain the screen image. ChangChun Plastics will pilot produce the product in 2012, and there are plans to commercialise the technology in the office supplies and consumables market.
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Kent Displays
Kent Displays was founded in 1993 to commercialise ChLCD technology developed at the Liquid Crystal Institute of Kent State
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