E- Ink turns the back of your iPhone 5 into a second screen

An innovative device called “PopSLATE” was launched recently via Indiegogo couple of days ago. PopSLATE is a case for iPhone 5 with an e-ink screen on the back.

The screens that are used are something that is used in Amazon’s Kindle. PopSLATE lets you personalize the screen. It also includes maps, to-do lists, speaking notes and more features.

The importance is that- and compared to normal displays which turns itself off when not in use to save power and also lights up the panel for few few seconds whenever you get a new notification. PopSLATE is always on when you set it that way so that you can look at the display whenever you want to even without interaction. This is great when you are reading a long content while doing any activities.

The device interacts with the phone via the lightning connector and it borrows power only when you change the e-ink screen. Note- this is an interactive panel- it detects taps and uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to display the panel according to the movement. Since E-Ink works on a cheap case (prototype was designed with $2 transparent cases and laser printed mock-ups), its as rugged as the casing itself.

As of now, their goal is to raise $150,000 out of which $74,000 is raised. As of now, the current version of popSLATE supports black and white images but they hope to add colour screens in early 2014. They’re also welcoming developers who are interested in using their APIs.

Source: Wired