Lexar has announced that it will add a storage capacity meter to its Lexar JumpDrive Mercury USB flash drives. The meter will use electronic paper display technology from E Ink Corporation. The E Ink display is a paper-thin, shatter proof, easy to read meter that does not rely on power to show the capacity information when disconnected from the computer.
The E Ink display is made entirely of plastic and is less than 0.7mm thick. It does not require a battery to maintain the display and is able to determine available capacity without any host software.
The new USB drives will be on display at CES 2006.