First Samsung buys electrowetting display specialist Liquavista NV and then (less than 2 years later) it sells Liquavista to Amazon.

Presumably because Liquavista can’t yet offer a similar high quality, high resolution screen. One industry guru called it “pretty wins over functional” as electrowetting‘s offer is so far low-power and sunlight-visible. 

While Amazon will use Liquavista technology for eReaders and other mobile devices, now Liquavista spin-off Miortech says its electrowetting “can lift the ban on digital billboards.” 

Miortech establishes Etulipa as a subsidiary to bring its electrowetting display technology (EWD) into the digital signage space.

Miortech has been working on color displays that reflect sunlight, just like paper, with environmental benefits such as low power consumption and reduced light pollution that would overcom the disadvantages of LED billboards. 

Like the name suggests, Miortech has been mainly working in automotive on “auto-dimming rearview mirrors.” Mirror tech, get it?

CEO Hans Feil states: “We can now demonstrate full color reflective displays with the same approach as in digital printing: the so-called CMY-technology. The positive feedback on our demos, which performed under different light conditions including bright sunlight, pointed us into the direction of the digital billboard applications. We found that advertisers and billboard owners are extremely keen to enable more digital boards. This technology allows for instantaneous creative updates and the ability to respond in real-time to current events and market conditions”. 

The company acknowledges the next step is to build a demo-digital billboard to prove their claims to advertisers and billboard owners. 

Watch A Reflective CMY Color Demo in the Sunshine (no backlight) and made with 2nd generation electrowetting display technology 

Go Miortech BV (founded in 2006 as a spin-off of Liquavista which was founded as a spin-off of the Philips Research Labs)