5 ms·

E-ink is a real missed opportunity for smart homes. This is just a hunch but I suspect there is a niche in the smart home market for people that want their home

E-ink is a real missed opportunity for smart homes. This is just a hunch but I suspect there is a niche in the smart home market for people that want their homes to be "informative" but not "smart". An example: A voice-enabled tablet (ala Echo Show) is intrusive and disrupts the aesthetics of the home. An e-ink display that has low/no interactivity but provides useful information blends into the home a lot better. Unfortunately the smart-device market isn't interested and building your own seems to be difficult. Does anybody know if there are useful libraries for displaying e-ink? It should be simple to use a low cost RPi board like a pico and connect it to an e-ink display fitted into a frame.

temppppp 3y ago
Check out adafruit on youtube and their store. They have some nice diy eink options that sound exactly like what you are suggesting. I agree it would be nice for this to also be available for non diy people too.
- HuwFulcher 3y ago
  I’ve heard of adafruit before but haven’t looked at their stuff. Will check it out
octobus2021 3y ago
Check out "The Invisible Screen" recently profiled here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38773669 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38773669). I've seen quite a few people playing with e-ink, the problem is these things are still way too expensive...
- HuwFulcher 3y ago
  Thanks will take a look! At the risk of sounding ignorant, I can’t understand why such seemingly simple peripherals are so expensive
  - orbital-decay 3y ago
    Low volumes mainly, also EPD displays are hard to tame.
  - octobus2021 3y ago
    Seeing this way too late, apologies. Apparently the company which invented and patented the technology is trying to get as much revenue from it as possible. I think this is starting to change as people finding alternative approaches or at least something meaningfully different so as to not be covered by the patent, but it has not translated into more competition as of yet.

temppppp 3y ago

Check out adafruit on youtube and their store. They have some nice diy eink options that sound exactly like what you are suggesting. I agree it would be nice for this to also be available for non diy people too.

HuwFulcher 3y ago
I’ve heard of adafruit before but haven’t looked at their stuff. Will check it out

octobus2021 3y ago

Check out "The Invisible Screen" recently profiled here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38773669 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38773669). I've seen quite a few people playing with e-ink, the problem is these things are still way too expensive...

HuwFulcher 3y ago
Thanks will take a look! At the risk of sounding ignorant, I can’t understand why such seemingly simple peripherals are so expensive
- orbital-decay 3y ago
  Low volumes mainly, also EPD displays are hard to tame.
- octobus2021 3y ago
  Seeing this way too late, apologies. Apparently the company which invented and patented the technology is trying to get as much revenue from it as possible. I think this is starting to change as people finding alternative approaches or at least something meaningfully different so as to not be covered by the patent, but it has not translated into more competition as of yet.