Light-powered ePaper display adds art to your wall without a charger

A new gadget we just found might be the best piece of decor you’ll add to your home this year. It is arguably the first ePaper display that can display art and photographs using only the power of the sun.

This is essentially a photo frame on steroids. While there are many similar products that can do the same thing, they generally need to be powered by a charger and require an unsightly cord that snakes down the wall when you mount them. The Inkanva eliminates all that for a clean look in any room.

This frame comes in three sizes and its screen does not use backlighting: it simply displays full-color images using 48 base colors and reflects ambient light. The team behind it say this results in a paper-like appearance for your chosen art, and you can expect to see “rich colors, sharp details and exceptional clarity.”

The company says it uses a custom display algorithm designed for photography, so the ePaper display delivers accurate colors and sharp details in the photos you upload.

The flexible perovskite panel can be charged by indoor lights or the sun, so you can easily place it in any room in your house. In case it’s not bright enough for solar power, or you don’t want to power it that way, the frame’s built-in 5000mAh rechargeable battery lasts up to 4 months on a single charge, while displaying one image per day.

It also supports multiple styles of outer frame that you can place on top of the aluminum frame without tools.

You have many options for image sources. In local mode, you can upload up to 4000 images and display them in a slideshow; Everything can be managed through your browser and you don’t need internet access to run it.

You can also select classic public domain artwork from Inkanva’s gallery in the cloud and, of course, upload any images you’ve taken or stored on your phone using a companion app.

Now, if you’re up to speed on all things AI, there are even more features to unlock here. You can instruct AI agents to create screens with any type of content you want, such as the day’s events, weather, and more. Your agent can connect to an Inkanva API and stream photos from your cloud storage, and even present AI-generated images there, if you choose.

Inkanva says that once you have everything set up, you can issue commands like “Show something quiet in the living room tonight” and have your AI agent send an appropriate image to your frame. You can even change images based on the time of day or on a recurring schedule.

Personally, I prefer to keep my own collection of images, art and photography from the masters that are freely available. I appreciate that you can run Inkanva solely on your home network, without having to opt for a subscription or AI tools, unless you want to.

The mobile app allows you to share access to your Inkanva with multiple users, and you can even control multiple frames in your home from a single device.

You can choose between three sizes. The 7.09 and 13.3-inch models support a resolution of 1200 x 1600 px, while the large 28.5-inch has 2160 x 3060 px, with IGZO display technology for a sharp image at that size. The largest one is not solar powered, so you will have to plug it into an outlet.

Inkanva is crowdfunding these displays on Kickstarter, where you can get them at the following discounted prices:

• 13.3 inches: $349 (below expected MSRP of $499)
• 7.09 inches: $159 (was $239)
• 28.5 inches: $1,599 (was $2,399)

All crowdfunding campaigns carry an element of risk, and this is the first time Inkanva has appeared on Kickstarter, so you’ll want to keep that in mind if you decide to back this campaign. For what it’s worth, the campaign has raised nearly $250,000 from more than 570 backers and has detailed the development and testing of Inkanva on its campaign page.

If all goes as planned, orders are scheduled to ship to select countries (listed on the campaign page) in December, and shipping costs will be calculated once the campaign ends (flat shipping rates per unit and by size, $25 and up for US orders).

Source: Kickstarter

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