E Ink shows off next-gen displays: high contrast, fast refresh, and rugged

E Ink Vice President of Marketing Sriram Peruvemba was caught on camera demonstrating the next-generation e-paper displays from his employer. One such prototype, seen in the first video, will nearly double the current grayscale panel’s contrast ratio. It is also capable of faster refresh rates, which may not be good enough for full-blown video playback, but is good enough for animations, as shown.

The second video shows a rugged display that can be bent or crushed without any noticeable ill effects. This will be targeted at school textbooks, which are more likely to be accidentally damaged than adult-oriented readers.

E Ink’s displays are most notably used in Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-readers. The next-generation E Ink displays will begin shipping to OEMs in the second half of 2010, though it remains unknown when they will be integrated into actual devices, as no one has yet confirmed them.

The rugged display is due a little later, towards the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011. Peruvemba again touched upon color E Ink displays, which are on track for a late 2010 release as well.