When it comes to the future of digital data consumption, we're going to see the LCD display eventually give way to OLED technology, and eventually to holographic technology. But, active displays aren't going anywhere anytime soon. For color, contrast, and response time, you just can't beat an actively powered display.
But, the "future" has reserved a nice, big table for passively-powered E-Ink technology. We've been seeing E-Ink displays make their mark in a nascent niche market that includes the Amazon kindle, a smattering of prototype devices, and in concept devices. E-Ink's strength lies in its passively powered display technology.
NEC e-Paper with 16-step grayscale
Rather than continuously drawing power, E-Ink displays only draw enough power to momentarily apply a charge to micro-electrodes underneath the display. The electrodes maintain the charge and attract positively- and negatively-charged pigment-particles. The oppositely charged white and black pigment-particles differentiate to display a static image (usually text) on the E-Ink display without the need for any additional electrical power. When the "e-Paper" needs to display a new image, voltage is re-applied and the pigments re-align to "rewrite" the text on the screen.
The latest development in e-Ink technology comes from NEC. By creating a new type of e-Paper, in A3 and A4 equivalent sizes, that feature bezels as thin as 1mm thick, NEC has announced the first-ever modular e-Paper display. NEC's new e-Paper displays use E Ink's Vizplex Imaging Film, and the A3-sized displays, with their 1mm thick bezel, can be almost seamlessly tiled together to form a larger E-Ink display. NEC says that up to eight e-Paper modules can be tiled together using their multi-tiling controller.
E-Paper boasts higher reflectivity rates than any actively powered display, allowing to it literally "outshine" its LCD rivals in terms of direct sunlight viewing, viewing angle, and absolutely trumping actively-powered displays when it comes to power-consumption. We welcome e-Paper advances and look forward to the day when e-Paper can handle higher resolutions, color images, and faster refresh rates!
