The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

[paxys]

Products like these make me realize that a standard e-reader has the perfect general purpose e-ink display. The Kindle for example is about the same size as this but much sleeker, is backlit, multi-tone, has a battery, wifi, bluetooth, all for less than half the price. I wish there were more mainstream jailbreaking projects and alternative operating systems to really unlock their potential.

[konschubert]

Yea, when you make like a million of these you have different economies of scale, plus an ability to negotiate with suppliers.

This is the power of making a product at huge scale.

The amount of technology I can buy in a $90 Android phone is mind boggling.

[Rebelgecko]

I dont have the link handy, but there's a company that sells 6-8 inch eink screens that are just recycled kindle parts with a more hobbyist-friendly interface attached

[chrisco255]

The main reason there isn't is because e-ink tech is controlled by a company with a strict and expensive licensing arrangement. Until the patent expires, we're unlikely to realize the technology's full potential.

[gklitt]

I bought one of these for my house recently and it’s been great. We wrote custom software for our own info display, straightforward since you just serve images over an HTTP endpoint. I’m sure there are cheaper ways to achieve this result but it’s nice to have a prebuilt package like this. My only complaint is that the custom software requires using a proxy server managed by the device creator which is bad for longevity, hope that changes eventually.

[rubatuga]

Why wouldn't you just buy a used kindle touch? Once rooted, it runs python3, curl, and imagemagick, I use it to query the Canadian weather API and display the forecast. No proxies needed! Plus it only costs $40 used... Essentially a local-device version of my earlier attempt at an e-paper weather display: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oel08SDFyIY

If there's enough interest I can release a new video.

[lostmsu]

> custom software requires using a proxy server managed by the device creator

Ugh, otherwise sounded attractive.

[esperent]

While I love the idea of this, I can't justify the effort and time required to get it to work versus just using a tablet, or even a normal display connected to a home server. If you want a less shiny display you can get matte screen covers, or even just de-saturate the colors in the settings.

[declan_roberts]

I can’t believe the price on e-Ink displays still. Unbelievable that they’re more expensive than IPS OLED screens of similar size.

[konschubert]

Small market dominated by a monopoly.

[simonebrunozzi]

I love e-ink displays, and I wish there would be more options out there for creartive use, like this one by Invisible Screen (hello Konschubert, thanks for creating this!)

What I'd love is a large, high-res, perhaps color, e-ink display that I can use either as a second screen, or as an indipendent computer. I read hours every day on an LCD screen, and most of that reading would be much better on an e-ink.

[bloopernova]

I'd like a version of Firefox's Reader Mode where it instead sends the text to an e-ink display. Remotely to a Kindle could work, or locally to an attached e-ink monitor.

[infinityio]

They're very expensive, but I've heard good things about Dasung's e-ink monitors for this purpose

[dcreater]

It sounds like you're looking for the reMarkable 2

[m-p-3]

What I'm wondering is how open the device is for being operated entirely locally. I want to make sure I can still operate it myself so that I don't have to generate e-waste when it becomes "obsolete" by the maker.

Otherwise the form factor is really good-looking and I'd put this in my kitchen.

[hau]

Apparently it could be configured to use self-hosted local visionect server.

https://hub.docker.com/r/visionect/visionect-server-v3/

[Animats]

Invisible? Looks very visible in the pictures.

E-Ink prices for large displays are still too far high. Not much improvement in the last year. Little watch-sized ones are only a few dollars, though. Ought to be good for something. Auto gauges? Status displays on low-power devices?

[dredmorbius]

Gauges are one instance where e-ink's principle characteristic, persistence, might actually be a strong drawback.

For an instrument dashboard, you're better with an active display whose failure mode is to not display any information (or some nominal low/nil response) rather than continue to show the last updated value through all eternity.

That last would be particularly bad for speed, fuel, or battery-status displays, say.

[0ct4via]

From the creator:

"It’s not open source and you need the backend for it to work."

They alluded to open sourcing the software/API if the business ever goes under, but obviously that'd not guaranteed.

Such a shame, I'd be willing to pay more for a product that was actually open.

[drdaeman]

Thank you, this is exactly the information I was looking for.

If it would be a nicely built frame with a display and a microcontroller (flashable with a custom firmware, or with a simple and sane local API where I can upload a full bitmap via USB and/or WiFi, with no cloud requirements) I'd buy this in an instant.

I have a Waveshare 7.5" display for some Grafana dashboards, but I'm all thumbs when it comes to building a physical case for it, so the circuit board just dangles on a wire in an ugly cardboard box.

A shame, indeed. I have no use for a display that can't even show what I want (or needs a third-party service and Internet connectivity for this). I guess, it's most likely hackable if the case can be opened, but I'm not exactly willing to fight it for $150.

[azinman2]

I love eink. It’s so underused, especially in the home setting, where it can be a real asset as a calm technology. I think it could be a good passive screen for young kids as it’s not a traditional “screen” yet can still communicate information.

[Zetobal]

Have done the same with a rooted kindle... and you can get them for 20$ on the bay. The price really seems a bit high for a novelty item.

[newshackr]

How do you serve your calendar on it?

[octobus2021]

Nice job, creator. I was working on starting up something similar, went through 3 prototypes but never finished it :(

A few ideas for your consideration:

- 7 inch is waaaay too small, should be at least 10/11 inch.

- Touchscreen is a must. To switch between views, scroll to next/previous day/week, and even insert/update events.

- Voice control is really nice to have, eg to read back events for today/this week etc. Maybe to wake up so that the screen does not stay on all the time.

- Would be cool to have it running off internal power source. I used LCDs which are power-hungry, but with e-paper you are constrained only by the controller which I think is much less draining (voice control would not be an option in this case I think).

- Consider offline mode. Yes it does introduce difficulties but allows people to own the data instead of renting it and sharing with others.

Again, great job!

[passive]

The lack of a battery kills this for me. Minimal power usage is one of the benefits of these kinds of displays, so it seems a very strange omission. We have too many cords running along walls as it is, and it makes the placement a lot harder.

Neat idea though.

[hinkley]

I got into arduino when they first come out because I wanted to build information radiators. Every five years since I look at whether or when it will be possible to hang a picture frame on the wall that has no wires and updates. I’m just about overdue to look again. It seems like we are close, but charging it wirelessly or off of solar hidden in the frame is a while yet.

The desktop model really stands out here. The foot needs to be heavy, and there’s plenty of space for batteries in there.

[hiddencost]

I have a home made one running on a battery for 8 months. 10Ah, but it only updates every 8 hours.

[chomp]

I really want to do this with a pi zero w, but with a larger screen. 7.5” is barely larger than a door placard.

[ta988]

You can find waveshare panels that are bigger, 13.3" for around the price of that thing. They are not that hard to drive.

[hmottestad]

The best displays seem to be reserved for ebook vendors. I’m using a boox device with a PWA (webpage that works as an app).

[rattus_rattus]

I have a similar thing running using a Zero WH and Inkycal. The screen I have is the same size (7.5 inches) but you can use bigger ones too. I didn’t want to shell out more money initially for a larger screen, but I may upgrade it later.

[mushufasa]

Seems like this is/was meant to be a door placard for meeting room availability.

[speps]

Pictures are deceitful, screen is only 7.5", fair price I'm not sure, no details on SDK.

[omoikane]

> no details on SDK.

The "develop your own content" link on the top page links to:

https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image...

I guess being able to display custom images is a plus, but I am not sure I would call that a SDK.

[throwaway8877]

It certainly appears like 15".

[999900000999]

This seems like a fair price. I couldn't an Eink display to work with a Pi Zero. It's seriously difficult to get working.

I don't have an exact need for it now, but once I have a project worthwhile I might pick it up.

[IshKebab]

It's definitely a fair price. Just a shame it is closed source and not battery powered. The Inkplate series of displays are better on both fronts (open source and support batteries). The downside is you'd need to make a nice wooden case, and do some programming.

[WalterBright]

I'd buy it if it would display the front page of today's paper.

Oh, I wish the Kindle would use, as it's "off" screen, the last page I was reading.

[dredmorbius]

Using the most-recently-active application (or book) as the sleep / poweroff screen is a feature of many e-book readers. If not Kindle, then Onyx's BOOX line, and from what I've seen elsewhere, others.

Front page of a paper: any e-ink tablet with a PDF viewer or web browser will get you there.

[ta988]

So only usable with their own app that may disappear with the company in a year? That sound like potential e-waste in a short amount of time.

[downrightmike]

They've been around for at least sine the pandemic started

[CPLX]

I bought one of these the last time it was on HN and I’m happy with it.

I have been trying to eliminate reasons to use my phone when at home, and have totally stopped picking it up in the morning.

The problem then is I can get blindsided not knowing what my schedule is or if I have an early call.

So now I have one of these things by my sink and it shows me just the calendar for the current day.

[User23]

I would pay good money for a tabloid eink reader, so 17x11 inches. Ideally it would fold. A folding pair of 8.5x11 screens designed to work together would fit my use case too. So far as I know, nobody makes such a thing. Ideally it would be color but I’d settle for monochrome.

[mwagstaff]

I bought one of these a few months back. Excellent product, can definitely recommend.

Very simple, but very effective.