All the years e-ink displays have been available in consumer products and we're still only talking about 5 bit greyscale?
I gave up my Kindle as soon as 5 inch displays were available. I thought the market would have made more progress by now.
I gave up my Kindle as soon as 5 inch displays were available. I thought the market would have made more progress by now.
I believe the reason is that there are a lot of patents/IP around the core technology, and it's owned by very few companies who essentially have a monopoly on the market. This also explains the secrecy surrounding the "low-level" details. As this article shows, you can definitely get more gray levels by driving the display directly.
From past examples, we will likely not see any real innovation in this space until these patents expire. It's especially disheartening to me since I'll probably be too old to get in on the action by then.
I hope societies reevaluate the role of patents in the advancement of human technology. From my perspective, patents do more harm then good. They encourage rent-seeking. They're impractical to use legally unless you have enough money. They hold back technology for a couple of generations each time a new breakthrough is discovered (as has happened with capacitive touch screens, 3D printers, and is happening now with e-ink displays).
To me, patents are achieving the opposite of their intended purpose.