E Ink looking at applications beyond eReaders

Taiwan-based EPD (electrophoretic display) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH), in view of Samsung Electronics' adoption of EPD for use as keypads of handsets, will tap markets for EPD applications other than e-book readers, including keyboards, tags, watches and advertising display, according to the company.

Scott Liu, chairman of EIH, noted that EPD can be adopted for handset keypads and notebook keyboards. The bi-stability characteristic of electrophoretic enables low power consumption, and keyboards made using EPD are like ones with printed signs on them, but these signs can be changed at any time according to different needs, he said.