Date: 01/11/2010

Display controller platform from Epson for electronic reading devices

Seiko Epson Corporation has developed a display controller platform for electronic reading devices and other electronic paper products. The display controller platform is built around core semiconductor chips and firmware used to control the driving of e-paper displays.

The display control platform allows fast display refresh times and has the ability to display images as produced by a laser printer. The platform is suggested for the development of products for business and education applications. The display controller platform employs a e-paper display driving scheme. The new driving scheme utilizes the image processing technology originally developed for Epson's photo-quality printers to enable e-paper displays with resolutions of 300 dpi.

E-paper devices outfitted with the display controller platform and a high-resolution e-paper display will render content, such as "kanji" characters, mathematical formulas and engineering drawings, illustrations, photographs and other images that require smooth gradations. These devices can be connected with sensors to enable handwriting recognition. Epson expects the product to be popular amongst e-paper products in Japan, China, and other regions where Chinese characters are used, as well as in business and education applications where huge amounts of data have to be processed.

Availability: April 2011