Friday, November 22, 2019

A delightful use for e-ink.



E-ink or e-paper was just rising to popularity when the i-pad came out and pretty much killed it. Turns out that people like color over greyscale. Who would have thunk it? Said in the most sarcastic way. But e-paper keeps trying and this is a clever use.

Music Sheet paper. You don't expect color there anyway.

You turn the e-pages with a device on the floor and I find the whole thing delightful even though I'm not musical. I can see this being a product.











9 comments:

  1. Capital of Texas RefugeeFriday, November 22, 2019 9:22:00 PM

    This also would work great for large-format construction blueprint previews, just as long as you have a way to fit the e-ink displays seamlessly, BTW.

    I don't know whether anyone has made an ANSI E+ or ISO A0+ e-ink graphic previewing table yet that can withstand the abuse of construction foremen, but I considered doing it a few years ago as a side project and as a way of doing demos for really big design projects.

    Something that you could fold up and stuff in the back of a van with lots of room to spare would have been the general idea.

    I can also see this as a display thing for big industrial operations where they just want to show the system's elements at a glance -- it'd be great to show in meeting rooms at the kinds of industrial operations where you really don't want the Big Cheezez to set foot out on the floor.

    This easel thing is nice, but it's far too delicate compared to the stuff I normally do. There's no way there'd be a touch screen on any of this, and there's be a well-shielded set of rubberized buttons to do the zooming, page flipping, etc.

    Even those would be shielded by something so we could get the full IP-whatever soak-it-down-with-a-fire-hose rating.

    I've also been more used to someone calling up our service people to say that some asshat just set off a blasting cap (or something like it) near some of our stuff, and that would we be so kind as to arrange a replacement as soon as possible, preferably if it could arrive that same afternoon ...

    I can already imagine this e-ink construction blueprint table sheathed in so much armored glass and structural aviation-grade aluminum that you could drive the van over it. :-)

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  2. Ok, thats pretty awesome. And not just for instrumental music. The bane of my collage singing career was the choir director who'd inevitably decide that she wanted 3 pieces of music out of the huge book of songs, to go with our other music. And you'd have to stand there, for the entire performance with that huge book and all your sheet music in your folder being held in one hand. (why she didn't just photocopy out the pages as needed I have no idea, it would have technically been legal since the school already owned the same number of books and it wasn't for resale or anything).

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  3. That's a really interesting comment Ruth. I'm not sure how you upload your stuff to this thing because it was just a concept, but it seemed like music people could really find something like that helpful. It's so rare these days that companies try to help people rather than just trap them.

    Texas Refugee - I think I've seen something like you are talking about - but not in table form. And not ruggedized. I have seen it as large blackboard type installations. But it has been boring me for a while and unless it has some compelling use I don't pay that much attention other to notice they are still plugging away.

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  4. Capital of Texas RefugeeSunday, November 24, 2019 7:52:00 PM

    "I think I've seen something like you are talking about - but not in table form. And not ruggedized."

    Same here, and that's why this is both boring me and bugging me.

    The form factor of one of those cheap office fold-up tables would do, but because of the weight of the supports, the legs, and especially all of the armored glass, that's why I'd build it out of a lot of aviation-grade aluminum.

    I also don't know if there's a convincing case for some of these bigger contractors to get away from their traditions of carrying huge numbers of tubes filled with blueprints.

    It's like they actually enjoy that as a form of showing off.

    LOOK AT MY EDIFICE COMPLEX I'M BUILDING
    LOOK AT IT
    EEET'S YUUUUUGE
    JUST LOOK AT ALL OF THESE TUBES OF PLANS WE HAVE FOR IT
    DO YOU NOT MARVEL AT OUR INGENUITY?

    Yeah, they see you marveling too. :-)

    So until then we'll get easels and stuff like this music sheet viewer.

    How to upload to the easel thing: if it doesn't have a hidden micro USB 2.0 port on the bottom, which is so small it may not show up in your photos, it probably has a Bluetooth chipset so you can transfer stuff to it via Bluetooth file exchange.

    If it's the latter and it's an insecure Bluetooth chipset, I'd like to pull a Bart Simpson and replace their sheet music with In-a-gadda-da-vida. :-)

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  5. But huge tubes of blueprints are light.

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  6. I have a really, really tall stairwell where we can put that claim to the test!

    It's in London.

    Just in case you missed the warning.

    Oh, here's a version that your camera would like!

    Elf and Safe Tea is all over that shit.

    On the plus side, you will only have to carry two tubes up the 193 steps: meet the Alvin Zoom 6 telescoping blueprint tube.

    In these there will be as many blueprints as will fit after strategic rolling, unrolling, and re-rolling, of course, which probably means about twenty to thirty each. :-)

    Afterwards, if you (and Mister S) haven't required medical attention, there are regularly scheduled Punch and Judy performances nearby, in addition to Recovery Pints of Ale.

    Yeah, I know, this is totally you now. :-)

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  7. "On the plus side, you will only have to carry two tubes up the 193 steps"

    They don't have elevators in London?

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  8. "They don't have elevators in London?"

    California residents have to take the stairs.

    Didn't they tell you that you have to bring your own power? :-)

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