E Ink Next-Gen Displays Get Video Demos

E Ink have carved quite a niche for themselves providing displays for the majority of big name ereaders – they supply Amazon and Barnes & Noble, among others – and have been showing off some of the tech they reckon will hold off rival panels like LCD, Pixel Qi and mirasol.  The Red Ferret Journal grabbed some eyes-on time with the new prototypes, including a monochrome panel with twice the contrast of current-gen e-ink screens.

Video demo after the cut

As well as being more readable than current panels, the next-gen screen also supports faster refresh rates.  That's not enough for smooth video, at least not currently, but it's good enough for the animated content you can see in the first video below.

E Ink also have a new, toughened display which they reckon is almost indestructible.  That's being targeted at textbooks for academic environments, where users are expected to be slightly less cautious with how they treat their ereader.  No word on when we can expect these panels to show up in production hardware, nor what they might add to the price of your average Kindle, nook or Alex.

Next-gen E Ink panel:

Near-indestructable E Ink display: