DIY Electronic Paper Display

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com has an article about a development kit for prototyping device displays based on electronic paper technology. The kit includes a 170dpi, 6-inch (diagonal) SVGA (800 x 600) EPD (electronic paper display) module supporting four shades of gray, and a small computer module that runs the display. EPDs provide bright, high-contrast, thin, lightweight displays that remain legible under 'any lighting condition' -- much like newsprint. Once an image has been 'printed,' no power is needed to hold it."

Comments

Would love to throw $3000 to get one of these kits

[tod_miller]

I would love to make a bluetooth screen detach for my PDA... I wonder what the pixel refresh is like, can it scroll text or page it?

I am loving the idea of a simple light weight newspaper that can talk to my PC or PDA (or TV, via PC tv card, capture the captions, and place them on here... or something.. or show tv guide..)

I wonder if it is a cold screen too, something compfortable about that...

So many possibilities, so little time.

bah

Re:Supposed to be good -- but what's that photo?

[BlueTooth]

No comment on the eInk displays looking good or not (although if you have photoshop, you can print some text at 170 dpi 2-bit to simulate the resolution and color depth in the specs) however I think the nano pic you linked has a simulated image on the screen. In fact, if you look at the product shot on the side of an iPod box, you'll see that the display is rendered at the print resoluation (probably 600 dpi) with a disclaimer indicating that the image is in fact "simulated"

Re:It took them long enough

[AKAImBatman]

I hate to break it to you, but in the "real world", an inexpensive dev board can become a product unto itself. Take the Spartan 3 Dev Kit for example. It costs $99. (Which is actually incredibly cheap for a dev board.) Xilinx probably moves thousands of these kits, making the venture actually profitable. While many of their customers may be hobbyists, those hobbyists will remember the inexpensive Xilinx solutions and recommend those for their day job. Even if they do it only as amatuers and never expect to go into the field, they *still* generate buzz about Xilinx products. And buzz == free advertising. Advertising == Product Awareness. Product Awareness == $$$.

Let me put it this way. This kit was just featured on Slashdot, a site with hundreds of thousands of members, and probably MANY more non-members. Were this board affordable (i.e. $300-$500), they'd already be moving hundreds of them from this story alone. At $1000-$1500, they'd probably still move a hundred or so boards. At $3000 everyone is going to say, "The technology is cool, but it's too expensive for the moment." and move on.

Re:It took them long enough

[Russ Nelson]

Your analysis is spot-on. Look at http://www.seetron.com./ They look like hobbyist boards, and they're priced at hobbyist prices. BUT they make a lot more money on the OEM market where presumably they get a discount, but it's not a big discount because the one-off price has a very low margin.

Okay, so they're shipping this eval board in a basically usable condition, but without a case. The lack of a case means that they won't be competing with any of their customers. So they really *could* charge a reasonable price even if it's only a break-even price, and count on the early adopters to drive the product into the hands of OEM makers who will put it into a case, get the volumes up and the cost down.

Basically, yeah, somebody needs to give the eink.com folks a swift kick in the butt. Anybody know somebody at TOPPAN Printing Co (a Japanese company?). They're eink's largest investor.
-russ