March 07, 2006
E-paper in Japan: will it complement RFID?
Nikkei Electronics Asia has a nice in-depth article titled E-Paper Enters Practical Use (in English).
In my mind, e-paper is a kind of a sister technology of RFID. Epson demoed an e-paper RFID tag in September. Also, it's used for e-pop displays and price cards (for example, Mitsukoshi's recent RFID trial at a Jeans shop used e-paper price cards that show information based on the status of RFID-enabled smart shelf.). Human eyes can't see the information stored in RFID tags. e-paper can show it. If RFID tags will be ubiquitous computing dots, e-paper will potentially be ubiquitous computing surfaces.
The nikkei article has pictures of new e-paper products that will be released in Japan this year: Hiachi's general-purpose display, Tianjin Jinke Electronics' Reading terminal, Seiko's wrist watch, Citizen Watch's equipment clock, Ishida's price tags, and Asahi Glass' public display terminals.