Late in May, Epson Canada Ltd. held a product showcase, showing off a brand-new series of inkjet printers (under embargo until today), as well as a number of less-well-known products, some of them right on the leading edge of today's technology. Here are just a few of the high points.
Printers
Epson's new inkjet printers are based on an entirely new nozzle technology, dubbed PrecisionCore. The new print heads are created using what Epson refers to as MEMS Fabrication (Micro-Electrical-Mechanical System). They're mechanical devices, built up microscopically on a substrate, much like electronic chips. Currently, they can incorporate up to 600 nozzles per inch.
Nozzle ‘chips' can be combined to enable the creation of print heads that deliver ink across the full width of a page in a single pass. So far, that approach is reserved for larger-scale ‘digital press' devices, but the potential is there.
Epson's new business printers are divided into three series:
The WorkForce series includes two new all-in-ones, the WF3620 ($169) and WF3640 ($199).
The WorkForcePro series includes four larger models, with increased duty cycle ratings: the WF 4630 ($299), WF-4640 ($399), WF-5190 ($279) and WF-5690 ($399).
The WorkForceWide series includes two larger-format models, the WF-7610 ($249) and WF-7620 ($299).
In demos, Epson's new inkjets showed first-page-out times considerably faster than competing inkjets and lasers. Print quality looked excellent, and pages emerged notably drier than from other inkjets.
According to Epson, it's new printers offer 50% lower cost per page than color laser, and 70% lower energy consumption. Cartridges obviously generate much less waste, and ink-based printing emits no hazardous particles.
These figures look really good, but it was a bit surprising to hear Epson's strong pitch for inkjet in the office. The company's slogan for the new PrecisionCore line-up is "Performance Beyond Laser," which seems more than anything to reaffirm the dominance of laser technology.
We've been hearing about the superiority of inkjet for a decade or so, from every inkjet manufacturer. Inkjet, we are told, is not only competitive with laser, it beats laser on just about every benchmark: image quality, speed, cost and eco-friendliness.
If the case is this strong, why does it still need making? Why hasn't inkjet taken over long ago? Epson suggested that businesses are so hooked on laser that they're simply not seeing the reality. If so, perhaps PrecicionCore will finally persuade them. The technology looks good.
Scanners
Epson also showed off its latest range of scanners. The company claims to dominate this market, which would hardly be surprising, considering its continuing strong focus on this category over the years.
The WorkForce scanner line includes numerous models, but these are representative of the low, middle and higher-end:
Epson's WorkForce DS-40 ($179 MSRP) is a 1.1-lb wireless portable color scanner that runs on 4 AA batteris and can fit in a briefcase. The WorkForce DS-30 ($149) is even smaller, and USB-powered.
The WorkForce DS-860 ($1,099) is an ‘ultra fast' business model. It feeds pages vertically, like a fax machine, and is capable of handling 65 pages per minute from its 80-sheet feeder.
At the high end, there's the two-year-old DS-70000 (about $4,000), an 11x17" model that can handle 70 pages per minute.
All of Epson's scanners come with its Document Capture Pro software, which includes most of the capabilities a user could ask for: capture to JPG, TIF or PDF; OCR; scan to email, or to various cloud services; and so forth. Higher-end scanners enable software features such as intelligent forms recognition.
Point of Sale
Epson's point-of-sale devices are slightly less glamorous than the color printers or scanners, but the product range is evolving in some very interesting directions.
For example, Epson showed a wireless receipt printer that's being rolled out to stadiums. Using a cell phone app, attendees can order food from their seats. The receipt prints at a central location and the order is delivered by runners.
Epson's POS devices are also being cloud-enabled, allowing retailers, or their partners, to pull all sorts of statistics that can show what's selling in realtime.
Another recent innovation is a line of terminals that combine printer and PC in a tiny box, saving space and greatly simplifying cabling at the checkout location.
Future Tech
The most interesting demo was of Epson's ‘second generation' Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses ($799, from Epson.ca).
Moverio glasses incorporate prismatic lenses that can project a video image to a small rectangular area in the middle of each lens. There, a half-silvered mirror delivers a translucent image to the eye, in focus as if suspended about five feet in front of the wearer.
An integrated VGA camera captures what the wearer is looking at, allowing the software to react to things in the field of vision, and present appropriate feedback. A small hand-held touch device includes processing and input. It's shaped like a cell phone, but with a blank touch surface instead of an LCD screen.
One demo showed how the glasses could be used to inspect store shelves for proper product arrangement. The glasses capture an image of the shelf and display immediate visual feedback highlighting anything that's incorrect in the layout.
Image quality is excellent, though I was surprised that the entire effect is confined to the tiny virtual screen. I'd envisioned a display capable of ‘annotating' anything in the wearer's field of view. Presumably, that technology still lies in the future.
However, the current Moverio glasses are capable of displaying a virtual-reality 3D image. I tried a game, roughly based on the classic Space Invaders. The projected image acted as a window into a 3D world around me. I had to turn horizontally and vertically to track incoming alien ships, and shoot them by tapping the control pad.
Aside from making me dangerously dizzy, it was great fun. However, it was also far short of the fully immersive VR being aimed at by devices like the Oculus Rift or Sony Project Morpheus. These will fill the users field of vision with an unbroken high-definition image.
Given the limitations of the Moverio technology at this point in time, Epson seems wise in pursuing vertical applications. It's working to get the SDK (software development kit) out to software innovators.
The most compelling Moverio demo showed how a user could be guided through the repair of complex machine. By matching guide lines in the virtual image over the appropriate machine part, the user would be able to call up help specific to that part. The video image could then display live instructions, superimposed on the real equipment, showing how the part is removed and replaced.
There's clearly a huge potential ahead for head-mounted displays like the Moverio. But it's hard to imagine a major consumer uptake any time soon. This will be an interesting technology to watch over the next few years.