What They Say
Disappointingly, although AUO did a good job with providing information on what it was showing at Touch Taiwan Innolux didn’t, with just a simple text description of the company and its history.
E Ink did a bit better. It was showing it (Advanced Color ePaper) ACeP electrophoretic display in a 13.3″ display with 1600 x 1200 resolution and eight colours (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white). Evaluation kits are available now under the name “Atelier” at $799.
The ET011TT3 module is a 1.1″ circular display with 240 x 240 on a plastic substrate and with a central hole.
The VB3200-RBA is the firm’s 42″ 2160 x 2880 monochrome display (3:4 aspect ratio). The display is aimed at signage and is not new.
The company also showed the four colour ESLs that it recently announced (E Ink ESLs Now 4 Colour) and said that evaluation kits would be available in Q3 2021. It also had the Kaleido Plus technology (E Ink Launches Kaleido Plus: Significantly Improved Color eReader Display).
BenQ Materials showcased its CS OLED film which improves the colour accuracy when viewing OLEDs from off axis. It also included a corporate video from 2018 that was on YouTube.
Corning had more in the materials area and was highlighting its Guardiant additive powder that can be used to give anitmicrobial properties to a range of materials including paints, plastics and coatings. It highlighted its automotive glass, laser systems for glass cutting, Eagle XG glass (vailable in 0.25 mm up to Gen 5.5, 0.3 mm up to Gen 6, 0.4 mm up to Gen 8.5, and 0.5 mm up to Gen 10.5) for displays and, of course, Gorilla Glass Victus.
Macroblock, a key company in LED drivers, would have been on our list at a real show, but was the same as Innolux.
What We Think
I started out with good intentions to spend some time on the virtual Touch Taiwan. But whereas it took me several days to get around the show floor in Taipei last time I visited, I lost the will to live on the virtual expo very quickly. Organisers need to realise that if they don’t ensure that exhibitors take online events seriously, visitors certainly won’t. It’s slightly bizarre that there was lots of talk of getting more interest from abroad for the event last time, but given the chance to reach an audience around the world, they have not provided enough content to make it ‘vaut le detour’, as the Michelin guides say. (BR)
