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ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

framelabs.eu

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Re: ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

#32
post #21

I was moderately excited when I saw the photos, but wow those prices! 900 € for a 13 inch screen? For comparison, you can get a 55" Samsung Frame TV for cheaper than that. Digital photo frames are under $100. I like e-ink, but not that much.

Eink is just really expensive right now. I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the panels.

> Eink is just really expensive

I am curious what volumes you are buying and which panels and how you're judging whether something is expensive or not.

> I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the panels.

I would ask that these repeated claims would come with some evidence. The previous times I asked the respondents just did patents.google.com/search?eink and treated that as evidence.

For an analogy, if I said something like: Coca cola is just really expensive right now. I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the syrup.

or

Windows is just really expensive right now. I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the operating system.

would you feel my claim was accurate?

Re: ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eink is just really expensive right now. I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the panels.

> Eink is just really expensive I am curious what volumes you are buying and which panels and how you're judging whether something is expensive or not. > I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the panels. I would ask that these repeated claims would come with some evidence. The previous times I asked the respondents just did patents.google.com/search?eink and treated that as evidence…

difference between cola and eink might be that one was able to find market from get go and built business to industrialized scale, whereas, eink struggles to find a market at this price but won't also be generous with patent to make ROI work for other 3rd parties to make big investments.

Re: ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

#36
post #13

Very much on the DIY end, but I made a similar e-ink art piece that shows off the currently playing song on Spotify. I used a 3 colour display to add some flair :) It’s not the easiest to set up yourself - need to generate Spotify API keys and build the unnecessary separate binary for dithering, but here’s the project if anyone is interested! https://github.com/CampbellOwen/NowPlaying

The prices on rapsperry pis that can drive eink are so low the make ArtFrame's prices look way beyond what i could justify.

Re: ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

#37
post #13

Very much on the DIY end, but I made a similar e-ink art piece that shows off the currently playing song on Spotify. I used a 3 colour display to add some flair :) It’s not the easiest to set up yourself - need to generate Spotify API keys and build the unnecessary separate binary for dithering, but here’s the project if anyone is interested! https://github.com/CampbellOwen/NowPlaying

How much did the hardware cost? Is e-ink still super expensive?

It’s not bad! This is the display I’m using: https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/5.83inch-...

You can use any raspberry pi to drive it (or any microcontroller really) which is pretty cheap too.

Re: ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

#38
post #21

I was moderately excited when I saw the photos, but wow those prices! 900 € for a 13 inch screen? For comparison, you can get a 55" Samsung Frame TV for cheaper than that. Digital photo frames are under $100. I like e-ink, but not that much.

That's the problem. This is an obvious product. You've been able to buy digital picture frames at WalMart for a decade. But the price point for E-Ink displays is insane.

There's another persistent display technology, cholesteric displays. These seem to have disappeared. Sparkfun used to sell small ones.[1]

[1]https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/LCD/LCD-09560-25075g_240...

Re: ArtFrame: E-paper wireless artwork for your living room

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Eink is just really expensive I am curious what volumes you are buying and which panels and how you're judging whether something is expensive or not. > I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the panels. I would ask that these repeated claims would come with some evidence. The previous times I asked the respondents just did patents.google.com/search?eink and treated that as evidence…

difference between cola and eink might be that one was able to find market from get go and built business to industrialized scale, whereas, eink struggles to find a market at this price but won't also be generous with patent to make ROI work for other 3rd parties to make big investments.

> won't also be generous with patent to make ROI work for other 3rd parties to make big investments.

Which patent? Please help me understand by being specific. Which patent needs to expire or get canceled to enable something (which I also don't understand what that thing would be). See my past comments about the physics of electrophoretics being the limitation. I work in the display industry and to be blunt, I don't really have any idea what your comment means.

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