E Ink is turning the laptop touchpad into an e-reader for AI apps

E Ink’s caller ePaper touchpad could gully little powerfulness than LCD oregon OLED alternatives. | Image: E Ink

E Ink has developed a caller touchpad for laptops featuring the aforesaid physics insubstantial exertion recovered successful e-readers. It’s not the archetypal institution to look astatine the ever-growing size of laptop touchpads and spot the imaginable of further functionality, but alternatively of serving arsenic a 2nd smaller surface for the computer’s OS, E Ink is positioning its touchpad arsenic a dedicated location for AI applications and assistants.

A mockup representation shared by the institution features a laptop with a touchpad upgraded with a colour E Ink surface akin to what’s successful usage by devices similar the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft. Instead of it being an hold of a laptop’s main screen, E Ink envisions its caller touchpad arsenic being a abstracted spot wherever AI-generated substance summaries could look nether your hands portion moving connected a document, oregon you could support a changeless speech with an AI chatbot without having to juggle desktop windows.

The thought is reminiscent of laptops that companies similar Asus person already released featuring upgraded touchpads that treble arsenic secondary displays, but they typically feature  smartphone-sized LCD screens that are often excessively tiny to effectively usage applications designed for larger machine screens. A afloat colour surface nether your hands tin besides beryllium a distraction and perchance trim a laptop’s artillery life. The usage of E Ink screens has expanded extracurricular e-readers to see colorful signage and digital notepads, but the exertion is inactive champion suited to displaying text.

Similar to Apple’s present discontinued Touch Bar, E Ink besides says the touchpad show could supply speedy entree to often utilized shortcuts, show notifications oregon the weather, oregon supply impermanent playback controls without having to sacrifice a laptop keyboard’s enactment of relation keys. It would besides assistance trim artillery anxiety, due to the fact that dissimilar LCD oregon OLED panels, E Ink’s show exertion lone consumes powerfulness erstwhile it’s being updated. That’s a large payment fixed the higher demands of AI tools connected a laptop’s artillery life.

What’s not presently known are much in-depth method specifications. Aside from the touchpad perchance utilizing colour e-paper displays, E Ink hasn’t revealed if it volition accommodate 1 of its existent panels, oregon if it’s developed an wholly caller 1 with accrued resolutions. Today’s announcement specifically references compatibility with Intel-based AI PCs, but E Ink didn’t spell into details astir whether the touchpad show would beryllium powered by a laptop’s superior OS, oregon if it would diagnostic its own. The institution besides didn’t supply a timeline for erstwhile these touchpads mightiness commencement showing up successful laptops oregon which hardware makers whitethorn beryllium interested.