Over the last few months, e-paper has been inching out of the sci-fi realm and into reality. And now... it's here. E-Ink is selling prototype developer kits for creating your own 6-inch e-paper display. This is the same "microencapsulated electrophoretic" TFT active matrix display used in the Sony LIBRI reader. The kit comes with a Gumstix single-board CPU running an Intel XScale PXA255 processor pre-installed with Linux. The board offers multiple input-output options including Bluetooth, USB and serial. An MMC Card reader and a 256 MB card is included, along with a rechargeable Li-Ion battery and power adapter. Dev software, source code and documentation are in there too, of course.
The E-Ink kits are available on a first come first serve basis, and begin shipping November 1. The price: $3,000. A bargain considering the multitude of cool and strange devices you can make with this kit. Post ideas about what you would build in comments. And don't forget to send us photos of the finished product.
Update:Don't miss the 400x300 full color display.
Product Page [E-Ink]