E-ink monitor / display panel?

Question

Is there a PC monitor (HDMI or DVI or VGA or USB) which has e-ink matrix?

My main goal is to get e-paper as standard display for work. For work with text, it is sufficient and it poses less stress on an eyesight.

Somebody can also expect from it to reduce CVS (Computer vision syndrome) and/or eyestrain.

Answer 1

I created e-ink display from Kindle DX device. Steps can be found on the internet, but due to their length I'm not going to reproduce them here. The point was to jailbreak Kindle DX, put a VNC viewer there and start a session.

• advantage: used Kindle DX is relatively cheap to buy

• disadvantage: 9.7" Kindle screen often is too small for use as PC display; display always works in 16 shades mode so there is significant lag

  Still good as a starter device or for testing by someone who is not sure whether e-ink display will help him or not.

             >> youtube search (reality check)

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My friend just received Dasung PaperLike 13.3" e-ink USB display, from Chinese startup, also promoted in their Indiegogo campaign. Interesting and useful feature are 3 modes of display (16 shades, 5 shades, 2 shades) which differ by screen update speed.

• advantage: first really usable device around; good screen size and sufficient resolution (1600×1200); offers 2-color mode to eliminate problem with lagging
• disadvantage: price and limited availability (they are currently producing them in batches, you need to send the money and wait for next batch)

13.3" panel seems to be currently the largest available e-ink panel on the market, no one seems to manufacture larger one at the moment (also see this e-ink form factor limitation Q/A)

              >> youtube search (reality check)

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Similar 13.3" e-ink monitor is announced by SOL Computer, but details were not disclosed and obviously it is not available for sale yet (UPDATE 2016-05: it seems they are just distributing the above PaperLike monitor (re-branded)). Also they currently offer

• e-ink notebook
• e-ink tablets (with Windows and Android)
• e-ink display with controller board (to build into custom devices)

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2016-10-13 update:

These displays are expensive so before buying I borrowed the PaperLike from the friend I mentioned above. And to my surprise I found out that its e-ink panel did not relieve my computer vision issues (although for the friend it did) but it worsened it. (White background of e-ink panel was too bright on long run.) I found out, that in my case, the actual problems are caused by blue light, intense bright image (of any color) and LCD display flickering (especially when display brightness is set low). After research I solved them using BenQ EW2775ZH available at 200€:

• reducing blue light – display switched to Low Blue Light Plus mode
• reducing brightness – used low brightness and low contrast levels
• eliminating flicker – the display is designed flicker-free

So for those reaching for e-ink due to vision problems: It is possible that pricy e-ink display won't necessarily solve them. So when trying to mitigate your problems, you might want to check the above 3 points before buying expensive e-ink display. You can try reducing blue light (initially even without purchasing anything) and you can eliminate screen flicker by keeping panel brightness set at 100% (see PWM explanation to understand why this helps). For me, BenQ EW2775ZH eliminated the need of the e-ink display.

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2017-11-15 update:

PaperLike Pro e-ink panel 2nd generation of PaperLike. It supports HDMI interface.

Manufacturer: Dasung (see English site)

This can be currently purchased also via SOL Computer, see the Dasung or SOL Computer site.

                >> youtube search (reality check)