Battery-free e-ink screen grabs screenshots from smartphones University boffins from Washington and Massachusetts joined forces with those at Intel to create an e-ink screen which can catch a smartphone screenshot – without needing a battery. The screen catches energy over the NFC standard, the pay-by-bonk technology built into the latest models of smartphone. That power usually drives …
Want the ability to transmit your RememberTheMilk shopping list to the eink panel on your fridge?
Need to leave a visible message for the spouse on the back of the front door?
Want to put a map of where you're going on the top of your motorcycle tank bag? Transmit it using the flexible eink panel that's been printed to the top of your tank.
When this tech goes colour and waterproof, it will open up a whole load of interesting ideas!
Excited stuff :)
The fridge thing was the first one I thought of - smartphone app gathers to-do lists, calendar appointments, weather, sports results, my-latest-doodle, whatever, and dumps them on the fridge when you walk past - if the thing could be printed onto a (slightly) flexible sheet with a magnetic backing (that didn't interfere with its operation) cheaply enough then it would be a winner for me.
The typical refrigerator magnet often uses what is called a Halbach array to effectively create a one sided magnet so it shouldn't take much to prevent interference.
So, did anyone see where we queue up?
Interesting as the prototype is, there remains the question of why one would want such a thing.
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Shops need to updated price labels on shelf, at the moment it requires someone walking around changing the paper tickets.
A system like this would allow a member of staff to change the label just by holding a NFC device next to the label.
In fact I can think of an even better workflow allowing head office to dictact far more directly what goes on each and every shelve.
Since it's a NFC device is must have a unique identifier, so when a member of staff holds their handheld device to a shelf it knows exactly which shelf the staff member is looking at. The device can then update the price if needed but it could also change the label to an entirely different product indicating that the shelf needs to have all the jars of tomato sauce removed and restocked with tins of Christmas Pudding.
I've just removed all the shop floor managers need to organise stuff, their only role now is for staff 'motivation'
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I see uses where there is need for a display that can be changed but infrequently and either doesn't have local power or it is not economic to provide power, such as you observed with respect to shop shelves pricing information. Hence I suspect it's main use will be for advertising spaces. Obviously this will probably really take off when e-ink (or equivalent low power technology) supports colour and A4~A3 size displays become very cheap.
I can't think of any use cases where a user would want use this to lift details from a display as this is already catered for through camera's and QR codes.
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I could see a potential use for this in retail. I know some stores that rely on electronic price displays on their shelves. Right now, they employ LCD numeric displays and button batteries, but a changeover to a programmable e-Ink display could simplify things, increase versatility (now you can change the description as well as the price) and reduce maintenance costs (no more button batteries).
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By making a replacement back cover or building it into a protective case, we could have apps updating information we can glance at without unlocking the phone, wasting the battery and suffering glare from the sun. This can be sold as an add-on without needing to tap into the phone innards.
I do use my Android for a shopping list (among other uses) by using a note-widget on the lock screen. This would save me the trouble of having to turn it on then off again every time my short term memory failed me (often). You could also use it for a map (if high enough resolution) for quick reference during a car journey.
Nowadays you can check in with your company online and get your boarding pass on your phone, which is kinda cool but also a bit of a bummer when the battery dies on you at scan time or when the scanning handset fails to read the phone's screen (which I have witnessed quite often).
A screen grab on a e-ink device is both less likely to fail at a crucial time and easier to scan.
Similarly, a lot of venues sent you e-tickets; screen-grab with this and voila, no battery worries...
Are you kidding?!? This means FINALLY an end to the collection of stupid and wasteful business cards or the sweaty fisted 'bump'-ing ten times because it just didn't work right the first time.
I'm interested to make a smooth metal-backed business card storage that is kept in the pocket with good old trouser heat used to power up the screen so you can exchange digits with boffins at conventions and not need to whip out the Phablet! Give it a nice lil capacitor and solar coating, yer covered for when you haven't got sufficient calories in your pants.
In the states, more and more stores provide a handheld scanner or phone App to tally the cart, so why not offer price drops on a per-person basis 'at the tag'. I can even see stadium-like animations across the shelving guiding you to your favorite products when the aisles are otherwise bereft of passers-by.
Anyone hiring a biz-dev pro? Gimmie a shout!
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