e-ink What if we covered our walls with E-Paper displays

[Maxwell_Edison]

Look look hear me out, why don't we use E-Paper displays as wallpaper?

For those who don't know, E-Paper is a reflective display that doesn't emit any light, as it uses physical particles rather than light to display, and also use very little power.

It isn't a new technology, but it's still pretty primitive in some ways and has some limitations.  But it could probably be integrated almost indistinguishably into a wall as it makes no light..

 

So think about it like this

Pros:

-If you aren't updating it, it isn't taking power

-Reflective, not emitting light, would look just like regular wallpaper (but can change! !!)
-Can be used to represent pretty much any mostyl-static image ANYWHERE (Like a calendar?  
-Infinite wallpaper designs.  If you somehow managed to do this with RGB E-Paper, infinite wall paint as well!

 

Cons: 

-Low FPS, so likely no "tv anywhere" vibe

-Very expensive

-Would likely compromise with low-quality/Resolution panels if not absolutely stonkin rich

-How do you even run something like that?   Lots of pixels, even if not a lot of fps

-oogh my brain

 

 

 

What are your thoughts?
I bet Linus would be insane enough to go for something like that, lord knows he  can afford it (god I wish I could hhg)

[xeteor]

linus maybe gonna use this for a content but for a normal people, it just waste..why dont try to use monitor lcd as a wallpaper though? same expensive but atleast higher frame and useful for jumscare

[mariushm]

A quick google search shows panels available at 32" and 42" 

examples : 

42" 2880x2160 16 grayscale  : https://www.eink.com/product.html?type=productdetail&id=32

32" 2560x1440 16 grayscale :   https://www.good-display.com/product/Parallel-largest-e-ink-screen-panel-32-inch-e-paper-display,-GDEP312TT2-D-253.html

 

The marketing blurb on the 42" one says it takes ~2.5s to fully update the panel which is not unexpected.. looks like they're using a bunch of controllers in parallel, basically each controller doing strips of the panel, so it takes time to push the pixels into each controller to update the whole panel.

 

You could easily do the math to see how many panels you need, the pixel size is 0.27 mm so 2560 pixels results in around 692mm, add 8mm for border and you know the panel would be 700mm or 70 cm wide.. so do the math. 

No idea about the price... wouldn't be surprised if they're around 400-600$ if you buy 100 of them.. could be even more.

[WereCat]

19 minutes ago, mariushm said:

A quick google search shows panels available at 32" and 42" 

examples : 

42" 2880x2160 16 grayscale  : https://www.eink.com/product.html?type=productdetail&id=32

32" 2560x1440 16 grayscale :   https://www.good-display.com/product/Parallel-largest-e-ink-screen-panel-32-inch-e-paper-display,-GDEP312TT2-D-253.html

 

The marketing blurb on the 42" one says it takes ~2.5s to fully update the panel which is not unexpected.. looks like they're using a bunch of controllers in parallel, basically each controller doing strips of the panel, so it takes time to push the pixels into each controller to update the whole panel.

 

You could easily do the math to see how many panels you need, the pixel size is 0.27 mm so 2560 pixels results in around 692mm, add 8mm for border and you know the panel would be 700mm or 70 cm wide.. so do the math. 

No idea about the price... wouldn't be surprised if they're around 400-600$ if you buy 100 of them.. could be even more.

Well then. I hope it supports G-Sync or Free-Sync a this sub 1Hz refresh rate because I don't want any tearing on my ePaperInk display.

[Kilrah]

Would be very cool and obviously technically possible, you're just going to be looking at a few tens of thousands of $ for a room, with a couple million in initial investment for custom made panels since what's on the market is either small and cheap but then you need ridiculous amounts of them or larger but WAY more expensive because high resolution. And you'd want them without a huge bezel like commercial ones...

[leclod]

It might be fragile. What happens when the paper gets a hole, a bump ?

[mariushm]

5 minutes ago, leclod said:

It might be fragile. What happens when the paper gets a hole, a bump ?

You replace the panel. And hope it's still manufactured , and the controller chips are still manufactured ... a lot of pain in the ... 

[leclod]

4 minutes ago, mariushm said:

You replace the panel. And hope it's still manufactured , and the controller chips are still manufactured ... a lot of pain in the ... 

Well, I pictured a whole wall, but I guess it could be done user friendly

[Kilrah]

14 minutes ago, leclod said:

Well, I pictured a whole wall, but I guess it could be done user friendly

Whole wall is the idea, but you're probably never going to get that with a single panel cut to just the right shape so there will still be separate ones you can change individually...