E Ink is well known for their dual-particle black and white ink platforms, supporting applications from eReaders to transportation signage. In 2013, E Ink launched a three-particle system enabling color – either red or yellow – in black and white ESL tags.
These tags were widely adopted by retailers, and today, millions of E Ink Spectra ESL tags have been sold worldwide. The new four-particle electronic ink, E Ink Spectra TM 3100, is a major step forward in the technology, and incorporates retailer’s requests for additional color functionality, by utilizing black, white, red and yellow particles to offer vibrant color rich content. Unlike earlier generations, Spectra 3100 has an improved update time, and an expanded temperature range for red and yellow states, to satisfy retailers’ needs to operate ESL tags in various environments within their stores. In addition, Spectra 3100 will be offered in panels with an updated all-in-one driver IC that supports premium ESLs with higher resolution across various sizes.
“E Ink is excited to work closely with our ESL and module partners as we create the next generation four-color E Ink platform”, said Johnson Lee, CEO of E Ink. “E Ink believes in strong relationships with our ecosystem partners so we can bring the best electronic shelf labels and signage solutions to retail markets. Our next generation E Ink Spectra provides a significant improvement by incorporating four (4) of the most commonly used colors in the retail industry and by bringing higher resolution to these tags and other signage. In addition, Spectra 3100 has the capability of incorporating sparkling flashing mode when changing images and this offers more flexibility to retailers during promotion campaigns.”
ESL adoption has increased exponentially across the world, providing retailers with the benefits of system-wide pricing, labor-free updates, and clear price messaging to customers for an enhanced shopping experience. As retail moves towards more automation, and towards click and collect shopping models, ESL tags provide valuable communication with shoppers, where in store staff may be more productive by reallocating their time to engage with shoppers and to optimize service quality. E Ink works with a number of best-in-class system integrators who take the E Ink display, combine it with driving and communication electronics, housing and software and provide an end-to-end solution for retailers. Typical ESL using E Ink’s displays have lifetimes of several years on a single coin cell battery, and ESLs can be deployed throughout supermarkets and retail stores, with some models supporting freezer and refrigeration deployments. E Ink’s ESLs offer a wide viewing angle, for improved visibility across the store.
“We are very excited to have jointly developed with our partner, E Ink, this new four-particle electronic ink platform,” said Andreas Rössl, Group CTO of SES-imagotag. “Spectra 3100 offers opportunities for retailers and brands to deploy in the future higher resolution ESLs with vibrant color and rich content, and for them to leverage our VUSION Retail IoT Cloud platform to seamlessly synchronize marketing campaigns across channels. We are currently conducting pilot testing with customers in Europe and Asia, and can already see the benefits of this premium ESL range in attracting shoppers’ attention, and in conveying clear product and marketing messaging to boost sales.”
“Pricer is very pleased to be working with E Ink to develop a new class of premium shelf labels and displays for those retailers who require additional color options and more complex images,” said Nils Hulth, Chief Product Officer, Pricer AB. “As the market for ESLs continues to develop, we see a growing demand for retailers to improve the in-store shopping experience and the Spectra 3100 ESL display technology, along with our advanced in-store communication and management system, will offer retailers additional consumer engagement opportunities with rich color content and clear, consistent messaging.”
About E Ink Holdings
E Ink Holdings Inc. (8069.TWO), based on technology from MIT’s Media Lab, has transformed and defined the eReader market, enabling a new multi-billion dollar market in less than 10 years. E Ink’s low power products are ideal for IoT applications ranging from retail, home, hospital, transportation and more, enabling customers to put displays in locations previously impossible. The Company’s corporate philosophy aims to deliver revolutionary products, user experiences and environmental benefits through advanced technology development. This vision has led to its continuous investments in the field of ePaper displays as well as expanding the use of its technologies into a number of other markets and applications including smart packaging and fashion. Its Electrophoretic Display products make it the worldwide leader for ePaper. Its Fringe Field Switching (FFS) technologies are a standard for high-end LCD displays and have been licensed to all major liquid crystal display makers in the world. Listed in Taiwan’s Taipei Exchange (TPEx) and the Luxembourg market, E Ink Holdings is now the world’s largest supplier of ePaper displays.
