LAS VEGAS -- Electronic ink technology has some amazing properties. It's ultra-low power, uses no backlighting, can illustrate both images and black-and-white text, and can produce a display that closely resembles paper. All of this has made "e-ink," also known as electronic paper, the perfect medium for e-readers from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Now, those same properties are helping e-ink move off the page and into a new class of products like ClockOne.
ClockOne from Twelve24 is a wall clock based on e-ink. At about 1 meter wide and roughly 4 millimeters thick, the lightweight clock hangs on the wall with one screw and a special wall mount. Hanging it is easy; just tip the clock into the holder and balance it until it hangs level.
The clock's interface is comprised of four large digits that flash when the time changes. Until then, it's hard to think you're not looking at a picture.
Perhaps the best part of ClockOne is that it can run for a full year on one small watch battery. The only downside is the $499 price tag, but perhaps that's a small price to pay for cutting-edge time technology.
At this year's International CES, E Ink executives showed off e-ink travel tags powered by RFID (radio-frequency identification), currently undergoing a trial run with British Airways. The tags, which are larger than standard luggage tags but not much thicker, have e-ink interfaces that can be refreshed and updated via a Bluetooth-connected smartphone or tablet.
The luggage tag's screen displays the same travel information that would be printed on a tag: your airline, departure city and destination. It also includes a bar code; because e-ink can mimic paper, the barcodes are still readable using airlines' standard luggage-handling equipment. The RFID technology helps airlines find your lost luggage.
Pricing and availability has not been set yet.
Image: Mashable