I’ve had this idea in mind for a while, an E-paper display that is connected to the internet.

In this blog post, I want to freeze the high-level idea and the project execution plan. Hacker/maker Extraordinaire Sprite_TM has done something before on similar lines. I’m planning to build my own version from scratch while adding some new features

I use a combination of physical sticky notes, along with the reminders and notes app on my Apple devices for improving my productivity at work and at home. I feel that it would be a great idea if could somehow combine these three tools into one device, and this is the first step towards it. Here’s a block diagram of my Idea.

Here are the major components of the project

1. the cloud app running on Digital Ocean VPS
2. the Wifi to low power 2.4ghz radio bridge (Something like the Canny)
3. The Epaper module(Hardware+Firmware)

The cloud app should be able to authenticate me and be able to get data securely via the API, I’m thinking of starting with OneNote web API as it seems to be easier to get started with. The output of this app would be a text file with some additional info (like date and some unique id for the target E-Paper display)

The bridge should be able to query the server and be able to translate the query from the display to a cURL call or something.

The Epaper module should have some intelligence and have the ability to query the bridge and display the text (or images). Also, I would like this module to have like a Name tag mode, would make for a cool conversation starter at Events/Meetups.

I’ll post detailed blog posts on each of the components as I finish them. This project has lots of components and involves putting together a lot of components. Also, secure communication between the three components would be an important part of the design.