eInk Everywhere?

25 places to find eInk in the near future and 10 places that you won’t.

Driving back from a commencement address I had just given I was intrigued by how long it would take for eInk to become so ubiquitous that we will no longer think about.

How long until we start seeing eInk everywhere?

1. Bumper stickers on vehicles.
2. Road signs, especially freeway signs and construction signs.
3. Credit cards and debit cards showing your balance.
4. Telephone handsets and cell phones.
5. Store rewards cards.
   1. Virgin Megastores already have a system similar to this with a rewards card that offers a re-writable surface to display your rewards points and what you will get next.
6. NASCAR race vehicles.
7. Computer keyboards.
8. Bus stop bench advertising.
9. Restaurant menus.
10. Vehicle dashboards for speed, RPM, oil temperature, etc.
11. Directly attached to exercise equipment to monitor your progress.
    1. A simple RFID embedded in an ID badge you wear whilst at the gym could be picked up by a localized sensor in the exercise machine that will then add your repetitions and weights used to your workout total score, and show the score on an eInk display attached to the exercise machine.
12. Apartment complex signs indicating apartments for rent.
13. Apartment & office directory listings in the lobby showing who occupies which office or apartment.
14. Magnetic swipe cards for office buildings.
    1. It can show your picture, security clearance, room access numbers.
15. Though these are adequately serviced by custom printed swipe cards as used by most big businesses.
16. Alkaline & NiCad and whatever other technology batteries may use, fuel cells and other types of power sources showing capacity remaining.
17. Vehicle tyres showing air pressure and tread wear and the next time you need to have them rotated and serviced.
18. Fan run convention ribbons.
19. Price tags on items in stores.
    1. Especially clothing garments or anything not generally displayed on shelving.
20. Tattoos.
21. Hotels.
    1. Changing the display of programme items at a conference or convention, changing the names of rooms and the panel listing of what takes place in the room and when.
    2. Hotel room key cards which can show your name, room number and a map to the room. Though there is a security concern here, but after it is swiped through the door for the first time it can erase the display.
22. Gas station pump prices at the large overhead billboards and prices of motel rooms along the freeways.
23. Furniture upholstery, drapes and wall paper.
    1. Furniture can make use of a similar technology to eInk to change colour, patterns, etc.
24. The surface of CD-Rs & DVD-Rs to describe the contents.
25. Clothing.
    1. Every day wear could well adopt an eInk style technology to change a logo on a t-shirt or the colour of a clothing item.

Some things that it wouldn’t be worth using eInk for:

1. Cheques.
2. Restaurant bills and receipts.
3. Business cards.
4. Regular street signs.
5. Vehicle license plates
   1. Unless you want to commit a crime or really hide your identity.
6. Identity cards or drivers licenses.
   1. Unless they happen to offer temporary security clearance or other benefits.
7. Concert/cinema/event tickets.
8. UPC/ISBN/Bar codes on general items.
   1. Though you may well find them in inventory tracking systems to present human readable version of an RFID tag tied to a database with a display that can be reprogrammed and change as the the item moves from warehouse/storage to final assembly, testing, and then in to stores.
9. Government forms or client contracts.
   1. But having dealt with some companies and clients I swear the contracts change on a minute by minute basis.
10. The Constitution of the United States of America.
    1. Though this point is debatable.