£12m backing for next-gen e-paper

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 2 Oct 2008 at 11:05

A Cambridge-based company has launched a three-year research project to develop the next generation of e-paper, capable of displaying colour and video.

Liquavista utilises a process called electrowetting, which manipulates a layer of liquid with varying degrees of electrical charge to display different colours. The company claims this can be done quickly enough to display video, and at a far lower power consumption than LCD screens.

The research project has won £12 million worth of backing from the Government-funded Technology Strategy Board and US-firm Plastic Logic, which recently demonstrated its own A4-sized, flexible eBook reader.

"Colour and video capability will broaden the application of electronic paper displays to all types of content and device," says Mark Gostick, Liquavista's CEO.

"We are aiming to realise the full potential of electronic paper displays as the best way to show any content on the move."

The company intends to display the technology at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair being held 13 October, with the first applications appearing in two to three years.

Click here to read why Matthew Sparkes thinks that electrowetting could be the future for eBook readers