4 ms·

Ask HN: Will there ever be a E Ink Photo Frame?

9 points by laktak 5y ago

The Kindle is 14 years old and yet there are still no color displays generally available. What is holding this technology back?

Ragnarokk 5y ago
You can already find things like this : https://zh-tw.buyepaper.com/products/good-display-312-inch-large-e-ink-display-parallel-7-color-e-ink-panel-with-16-gray-level-gdep312tt2-c https://zh-tw.buyepaper.com/products/good-display-312-inch-l... It's a bit pricy though for the moment but It may just be a matter of investment.
- laktak 5y ago
  This looks the most promising even though it's not a finished product until you look at the $2000 price tag.
  - Ragnarokk 5y ago
    Yes. But I imagine that if someone comes up with a branded final product and works with the manufactuer to have maybe smaller screen sizes and bigger batchs, it would be able to reach a reasonable price
IshKebab 5y ago
The fact that the Kindle is a greyscale display means you can't use it to make colour photo frames. If you mean "why are there no colour e-ink displays" then a) there are, and b) if you look into how e-ink works it's pretty obvious why it is so difficult to do colour.
fsflover 5y ago
https://www.theverge.com/21507390/pocketbook-color-review-e-ink-kaleido-e-reader https://www.theverge.com/21507390/pocketbook-color-review-e-...
- laktak 5y ago
  Neat but it's so tiny and my eyes are too old for this.
thih9 5y ago
Related question: are there any black and white E Ink Photo Frames available for purchase? It seems that every now and then a product like this starts a Kickstarter campaign, or there is a blog about a DIY project; but so far I haven't seen anything consumer friendly and available for purchase. The closest thing I could find was https://framelabs.eu/en/artframes/ https://framelabs.eu/en/artframes/ , for which I could not find any reviews, plus it says: > The device is delivered as a kit and can be assembled in just a few simple steps. No tools are necessary for the assembly except a screwdriver.
- drodil 5y ago
  I really enjoy working with Inkplate [1]. Besides showing photos, you can show all kinds of information like weather, calendar and whatever. Takes some coding but at least you can customize it for your needs. [1] https://inkplate.io/ https://inkplate.io/
cpach 5y ago
I’m only guessing here, but within 5-15 years I think there will be! At reasonable prices. Time will tell :)
achow 5y ago
> What is holding this technology back? E-ink patents and monopoly due to those. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25538218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25538218
- laktak 5y ago
  Thanks for the links!
  - robinsoh 5y ago
    FYI, I questioned the veracity of those comments and never got a reply from the throwaway accounts that were used to post them. Check out my comment history trying to get to the bottom of those claims of evil EInk corporation holding back all of electrophoretic display tech. My opinion is that they're false. What is actually holding back the tech is rheology physics and simple lack of investment. Find me a VC who'll invest billions in a new display tech versus internet services/ML/AI/etc.
abhishektomer 5y ago
Waveshare.com has a black and white photo frame available that I bought and was moderately happy with. Their app was a little clunky, but worked. I wasn't able to find a color photo frame on their website, but I thought I had seen it in the past.
- laktak 5y ago
  A finished product or just the components?
alfyboy 5y ago
Not exactly what you are asking for. But I have this project in my todo list. The Very Slow Movie Player: https://debugger.medium.com/how-to-build-a-very-slow-movie-player-in-2020-c5745052e4e4 https://debugger.medium.com/how-to-build-a-very-slow-movie-p... It needs to be built/assembled yourself, however there aren't that many parts involved
Keloran 5y ago
By no means is this perfect, but you can make one “easily” https://thepihut.com/products/inky-impression-7-colour-epaper-eink-epd https://thepihut.com/products/inky-impression-7-colour-epape...

9 points by laktak 5y ago

The Kindle is 14 years old and yet there are still no color displays generally available. What is holding this technology back?

Ragnarokk 5y ago

You can already find things like this : https://zh-tw.buyepaper.com/products/good-display-312-inch-large-e-ink-display-parallel-7-color-e-ink-panel-with-16-gray-level-gdep312tt2-c https://zh-tw.buyepaper.com/products/good-display-312-inch-l... It's a bit pricy though for the moment but It may just be a matter of investment.

laktak 5y ago
This looks the most promising even though it's not a finished product until you look at the $2000 price tag.
- Ragnarokk 5y ago
  Yes. But I imagine that if someone comes up with a branded final product and works with the manufactuer to have maybe smaller screen sizes and bigger batchs, it would be able to reach a reasonable price

IshKebab 5y ago

The fact that the Kindle is a greyscale display means you can't use it to make colour photo frames. If you mean "why are there no colour e-ink displays" then a) there are, and b) if you look into how e-ink works it's pretty obvious why it is so difficult to do colour.

fsflover 5y ago

https://www.theverge.com/21507390/pocketbook-color-review-e-ink-kaleido-e-reader https://www.theverge.com/21507390/pocketbook-color-review-e-...

laktak 5y ago
Neat but it's so tiny and my eyes are too old for this.

thih9 5y ago

Related question: are there any black and white E Ink Photo Frames available for purchase? It seems that every now and then a product like this starts a Kickstarter campaign, or there is a blog about a DIY project; but so far I haven't seen anything consumer friendly and available for purchase. The closest thing I could find was https://framelabs.eu/en/artframes/ https://framelabs.eu/en/artframes/ , for which I could not find any reviews, plus it says: > The device is delivered as a kit and can be assembled in just a few simple steps. No tools are necessary for the assembly except a screwdriver.

drodil 5y ago
I really enjoy working with Inkplate [1]. Besides showing photos, you can show all kinds of information like weather, calendar and whatever. Takes some coding but at least you can customize it for your needs. [1] https://inkplate.io/ https://inkplate.io/

cpach 5y ago

I’m only guessing here, but within 5-15 years I think there will be! At reasonable prices. Time will tell :)

achow 5y ago

> What is holding this technology back? E-ink patents and monopoly due to those. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25538218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25538218

laktak 5y ago
Thanks for the links!
- robinsoh 5y ago
  FYI, I questioned the veracity of those comments and never got a reply from the throwaway accounts that were used to post them. Check out my comment history trying to get to the bottom of those claims of evil EInk corporation holding back all of electrophoretic display tech. My opinion is that they're false. What is actually holding back the tech is rheology physics and simple lack of investment. Find me a VC who'll invest billions in a new display tech versus internet services/ML/AI/etc.

abhishektomer 5y ago

Waveshare.com has a black and white photo frame available that I bought and was moderately happy with. Their app was a little clunky, but worked. I wasn't able to find a color photo frame on their website, but I thought I had seen it in the past.

laktak 5y ago
A finished product or just the components?

alfyboy 5y ago

Not exactly what you are asking for. But I have this project in my todo list. The Very Slow Movie Player: https://debugger.medium.com/how-to-build-a-very-slow-movie-player-in-2020-c5745052e4e4 https://debugger.medium.com/how-to-build-a-very-slow-movie-p... It needs to be built/assembled yourself, however there aren't that many parts involved

Keloran 5y ago

By no means is this perfect, but you can make one “easily” https://thepihut.com/products/inky-impression-7-colour-epaper-eink-epd https://thepihut.com/products/inky-impression-7-colour-epape...