There are a couple of things you need to do: - Protect the screen against UV (there are protective foils and glass with integrated protection you can use). Failing to do so will cause permanent damage to the screen. This is a solved problem with loads of companies using EPD for external usage. - Make sure you respect the maximum temperature limits - the driving board should be aware of extreme (>50C temperatures) and prevent updates in those cases. There are special waveforms that extend the operating range to beyond that, but you will get only black and white updates.
Realistically EPD robustness is a solved problem. About 6/7 years ago we've launched a product based on epaper that was water tight and was intended to be used outside (permanent mounting on desks). We did not see any problems with display. And the parking signs have been running 4 years non stop any failures in the field.
The art would need to be tailored to the medium. You could use a museum/gallery partnership to commission pieces exclusive to the service and optimized for the display. Pieces would rotate out. Perhaps have a gimmick where each piece is displayed on only one device at a time, and once it rotates away from your device it never comes back unless you pay extra for it. Call the whole thing a study in semi-permanence or something.
You’d have to get some high brow endorsements to make this work.
Then, convince other 4-5 prestigious museums elsewhere to do the same. Boom, you have 50k display, which means you have a niche, rich market to start from.
Not too impossible, IMHO.
I think it's just a good use-case away. Perhaps we'll see the screens break out in the education space first and then the rest of industry as well, but we're looking at various applications with color and we might be first.
I'm probably an outlier, but I'm an all digital person and my walls are bare due to the size, backlighting and power cables of the recent art frame fad products. I've been waiting with bated breath for consumer ACeP screens. I have a lot of artwork that I don't think needs smooth gradients, even just a bit of color would be wonderful.
Anyways I just wanted to drop in and say I'd definitely buy something (and probably for a multiple of what current digital art frames go for).
On that note though, all I've seen of ACeP are promo photos and I don't quite trust promo photos. If you've any experience with them, is there anything you can say regarding how they actually perform visually?
Pricey, small and really not the best design, but it's a start. I say it's a start but at the same time I'm afraid this is the best we're likely to get, given that the e-ink market is not growing and the technology isn't competing with cheap LCD screens and tablets.
A shame; I wouldn't mind a modern, affordable take on the typewriter with an E-ink screen (13 or 15 inch) and mechanical keyboard. I could probably build one if I have a lot more expendable income and time.
We tested 8fps video on our devices a while back and in the end you're getting a B&W display with 8 FPS updates... Why wouldn't you go for something like LCD or OLED instead? I don't believe you can beat LCD at being LCD.
There are other technolgies that promise fast update times, that offer similar characteristics (look into ClearInk), but they are nowhere near where E Ink is in terms of maturity.
The best way to fix optical characteristics is to play with the substrate and layers in front. Like adding a very good frontlight really helps with contrast even in non-dark conditions.
Properly protected screen will last for ever - we have units in the office running for at least 5 years without stopping.
For the applications that have mass apeal we saw that the price goes down to a comparable level of an LCD (eg in ebook readers and shelf labels).
There is also a bunch of innovation happening in the market - competitors like ClearInk are trying to build a better version of E paper, but it's always hard to scale some new technology and it will take some time before anything substantial comes along. E Ink was lucky that they found the killer app in ebook readers and that really helped them get to volumes that allow them to build these screens in commercial volumes.
Kind of mimicking CMYK from print, and LED TV:s locally adjusting LED backlight to improve contrast ratios, and some high HDR screens. Except a very low energy use variant.
I do see a lot of comments regarding the price, so it's best if I do the general disclaimer. E Ink screens are very pricy (compared to LCD). The driving is even pricier. And since this is not a mass-mass produced product (at least not in a sense of your 75" OLED TV) you get to the price that you have. We've worked for years on getting the price down for the E Ink screens (trust me on this), but there is a question of critical mass. E Ink in the non-reader, non-shelf label applications is still a very niche solution, that will command very high price. I hate to say it, but the only way we could have brought the price down with current quantities is if we built an inferior product as the price right now is the function of Bill-of-Materials.
We tried a lot of applications, some covered previously here on HN, we currently see that there are just two other avenues where E Ink is being used and has the potential for mass depoyments in the near future.
1. In offices it can be used as interactive signage - we've built a very successful solution for meeting room booking around it (see http://getjoan.com).
2. The market for outdoor displays - especialy smart bus stops that run on solar - is starting to ramp up. Check out what our partners are doing in this space (a recent live deployment https://www.visionect.com/blog/coimbra-the-city-of-the-stude...).
If anyone would like to get more information about E Ink, please shoot - we've tried every E Ink display out there, played with color display and probably seen every E Ink application out there. You can also shoot me a direct mail to luka.birsa AT visionect.com.