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The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

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Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#61

Post by avtolik »

n8cpdx wrote: post #7

I don’t really understand how it is still trendy to pretend that everyone uses Google for email and calendar. I get that the SF crowd was all about it, but if the last few years have taught us anything it is that there’s more to the techie world than VC free money startups. I reckon there are far more people who need this and who might buy this who are using Outlook/Office 365 either alone or in some combination than…

Office 365 has an API, but good luck convincing your organization to approve your app that works with this API.

I tried with 2-2 different companies that I worked with, but to no avail. I just wanted a simple app that syncs some events from the work calendar to my personal one...

Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#63

Post by hau »

m-p-3 wrote: post #5

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.

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

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

Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#64

Post by cendyne »

throwoutway wrote: post #59
konschubert wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small market dominated by a monopoly.

Wasnt this suppose to end (the patents expire) in 2022/ 2023?

It might take a few years to refine the manufacturing process in other factories under different management. There is certainly a lot of knowledge and equipment to replicate.

Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#66

Post by 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.

Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#67

Post by blagie »

stavros wrote: post #49
blagie wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creator: If you decide to move this to a full-fledged startup, it should: 1) Have a touch screen 2) Integrate with Outlook calendar and multiple Google calendars 3) Integrate with smart home features (e.g. lights, temperature, etc) 4) Integrate with other data sources (e.g. news) At $150, be open-source and open-hardware (at a lower price point, I'd do without). I'm looking for something like that. Until then, neat p…

No offense to you, but this comment sounds like one of those customers that are never going to use your thing, even if you implement all that. Find the people who want to use a product despite all the lacking features, because the one thing it does is exactly what they need, and build on that.

It depends on how it's implemented. Take a look at:

https://www.home-assistant.io/

They have customizable dashboards. What I'm really looking for is something I can use as a sort of command center in a few places in my house. It allows me to control the things I care about, shows my upcoming schedule, and whatever else is relevant. By my work desk, the #1 thing I care about is upcoming meetings. Other places, I care about other things.

Critically, though, I don't want it to glow. I want it either e-ink or purely reflective LCD.

This is probably a few devices. Ideally, there'd be small / cheap ones with mechanical switches and a tiny screen to replace my light switches, and big ones for my living room, work room, etc.

I think the trick would be to start with something, so one doesn't have an infinite engineering task, and so there are ready frameworks for modularity. Either Home Assistant or dash would be decent starting points, depending on which direction this took.

But yeah, now that I mention it, I have a vision in my head for what I want (which I would buy). Retrokludged features without the same vision would probably not get us there.

So I'll cut this back to what everyone else is saying: Calendar flexibility. This needs to sync with home, work, and other calendars, so at the very least, Outlook.

Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#68

Post by ghostly_s »

paxys wrote: post #66

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.

You're comparing a product from one of the largest companies on earth with an upstart. and even the cheapest ad-supported Kindle is only 2/3 the price of this in US?

Re: The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display

#70

Post by stavros »

blagie wrote: post #67
stavros wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense to you, but this comment sounds like one of those customers that are never going to use your thing, even if you implement all that. Find the people who want to use a product despite all the lacking features, because the one thing it does is exactly what they need, and build on that.

It depends on how it's implemented. Take a look at: https://www.home-assistant.io/ They have customizable dashboards. What I'm really looking for is something I can use as a sort of command center in a few places in my house. It allows me to control the things I care about, shows my upcoming schedule, and whatever else is relevant. By my work desk, the #1 thing I care about is upcoming meetings. Other places, I care…

Yes, but, as you say, reimplementing Home Assistant wouldn't really be that valuable. What you might want is a (very dumb) e-ink display with a touch panel, which can maybe display an image and register touches. Then, that can interface with Home Assistant to make touch panels. That would be much more manageable as a project, and very useful. Bonus points for physical buttons.

I might do this myself, hmm.

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