Kent Displays, Inc.

Manning, William; Bowser, Matthew; Davis, Allan; DeMiglio, Andrew; Domino, Joel; Ernst, Todd; Ferrel, Mark; Golovin, Oleksiy; Green, Seth; Khan, Asad; Leonti, Anthony; Lightfoot, Mark; Montbach, Erica; Nguyen, Michael; Osborne, Joe; Schneider, Tod; and J. William Doane

The eTablet is developing into a major product of Kent Displays, Inc.  Based upon the bistable cholesteric technology, the tablet is a writing surface in which an image can be drawn with the touch or light pressure of an untethered stylus such as pointed object or even the finger or finger nail.  The unique feature of the eTablet is that the written image is instantly erased with the push of  a button and a new image written.  Kent Displays, Inc.  has issued patents (US Patents 6,104,448, 6,061,107, 5,453,863 and 5,437,811) and patent applications (US Patent Applications 11/762,174 and 12/217,158) on file basic to the eTablet for two different modes of operation.

1.      Blackboard Mode:  In this mode, a planar textured image of the bistable cholesteric material is written on a focal conic textured background.  With a black absorbing back coating, a colored image is written on a black background.  With an RGB stack, a white image is written on a back background.

2.      Whiteboard Mode:  In this mode, a focal conic texture is written on a planar background.  With a black background a black image is written on a colored background.  With a stacked RGB cells a black image is on a white background.

Tablets can be made with many different types of operation some of which are as follows.

1.      Single layer full erase in blackboard or whiteboard mode:  KDI’s current product is of this type in the blackboard mode.

2.      Single layer select and full erase:  Possible in either mode, a mistake in writing the image on the tablet can be erased with the same stylus that is used to write  on the display without erasing other portions of the image. Full erase is also possible.

3.      Multiple color eTablet.  A stacked cell configuration, an image can be written in a selected color in the stack and can be erased selectively or in full.  Both blackboard and whiteboard modes can be used as well as a multimode configuration.  Gray scale and color additive mixing to provide full color is possible.

There are anticipated to be many applications for the eTablet some of which are provided below. 

1. Sun visor on an automobile
2. Lunch box for school children
3. Back of a cell phone
4. Conference phone accessory
5. Refrigerator magnet
6. Storage container labels
7. Class room use; i.e., practicing Chinese characters.
8. Binder notebook
9. Scuba diving tablet
10. Color drawing easel for school, children and artists
11. Wall blackboard or whiteboard for school offices etc.
12. Wall board with digital image captured by a digital camera
13. Photo addressable wall board addressable with a digital image from a projector
14. Oversized tabl...