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E-ink Unveils the Prism Wall (video)

e-ink prism

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The hot epaper news this morning came from an E-ink press release and from my own two eyes. Leading epaper maker E-ink chose to feature a new wall hanging as its focalpoint at CES 2015.

The Prism is a new twist on E-ink’s existing segmented displays. E-ink has long been making segmented panels to display simple info like clocks and epaper signage, but with Prism E-ink eschewed the practical black and white and instead went for an abstract colored design.

To put it in the simplest terms, a Prism wall is made up of multiple 12″ panels, each segmented with the same pattern. This enables E-ink to assemble the panels to fit any space required with little effort.

I saw it in person, and TBH it didn’t look all that impressive. It just looked like a wall with randomly flashing pattern of red, pink and white tiles. Yes, I suppose that was the point of the design, but I just didn’t find it appealing.

Edit: What’s more, I also find it redundant and less impressive than past projects. A reader reminded me of a similar installation which was installed a UN lounge in 2013. That used multiple 7.4″ E-ink screens to create a 19-foot display with a resolution of 26,400 x 3,360 (I’m not kidding).

What do you think?

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Comments


Scott_Tx January 6, 2015 um 9:04 pm

Looks like a test for colorblindness


puzzled January 7, 2015 um 4:13 am

Looks like a background piece of art from a scifi movie.


Hrafn January 7, 2015 um 5:06 am

If it were green and/or brown instead of red, it would look like camouflage. As it is, a not particularly attractive or interesting random pattern. Meh.


Gary January 7, 2015 um 10:15 am

I think it is good advertising.

First, see how you reported on it, we all read it, and now some of us are commenting about it. This is free publicity.

Second, this is a case where "The medium [really] is the message". The message here is that: 1) We can make a large panel by joining segments together, edge to edge, so display size is no longer an issue. 2) The "pixels" do not have to be squares, or triangles, or hexagons. We can make these regions any size or shape you want. 3) We can do any colour you want. It doesn’t have to be white, grey, and black. So, 4) If you have a requirement to display something unusual, come and talk to us, we can probably find an e-ink type solution to your problem.

Now it is up to customers and e-ink, working together to see if this technology will be useful in meeting specialized display requirements.

Nate Hoffelder January 10, 2015 um 2:48 pm

Actually, we already knew that they could combine multiple panels into one wall display; it was shown off in 2013:
https://the-digital-reader.com/2013/09/29/e-ink-unveils-19-foot-e-ink-screen/


David January 7, 2015 um 4:29 pm

Put it on a roll, make it programmable and you have wallpaper which you can change without having to remove the old and put on new. Make a clock appear when you want to know the time, play games on your wallpaper, read the news on your wallpaper. Or have I misunderstood this?

hob January 7, 2015 um 9:39 pm

The refresh-rate probably isn’t that fast for playing video games and watching movies yet!


hob January 7, 2015 um 8:40 pm

Those red colors look much better than any Color E-Ink displays I’ve ever seen. Hope somebody starts producing products based on them; but meh, we probably won’t see these on consumer for at least the next 20 years! :/


Toppan, MPico, and Why E-ink's New Prizm Wall Hangings Aren't All That New ⋆ The Digital Reader January 11, 2015 um 8:13 am

[…] I reported last week on the new E-ink Prism wall hangings, I said that I wasn't terribly impressed but I forgot to explain […]


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