New E Ink gives drab walls a facelift with programmable colors and patterns

Soon, interior designers will be doing far to spruce drab the interiors of schools and office buildings than simply rearranging furniture and sprinkling kitschy 90’s-looking artwork. Electronic ink maker, E Ink Holdings, has just announced what is effectively an electronic, programmable wallpaper whose color and pattern can be subtly altered on the spot. 
 
The new material, called Prism, is not an animated wallpaper, but rather a low-power color-changing film that’s based on the company’s electronic ink used in e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes’ and Nobles’ Nook. 

 
Prism is fully programmable, allowing users to create almost any combination of color and design (we’re not certain if this includes images), and can even be set to respond to inputs such as movement. The material is even fully reflective – like certain types of paint – and can be integrated onto furniture somehow to give your favorite chair the color that matches your mood. Logically, the furniture would have to be made of a harder material such as paint.
 
E Ink Holdings has deliberating avoided stating whether or not the Prism material will be integrated into mobile devices, possibly because the additional harder needed to facilitate the color change cannot be scaled down for smaller devices. Nevertheless, the entire concept is a nifty advancement for a technology that would otherwise become obsolete.

However, there’s one caveat: Prism is not commercially available for everyone. E Ink intends to sell the material in large made-to-order installations target toward building owners and shop keeps, not small do-it-yourself installations. Hopefully this will change someday, or at least find a middle ground that provides a mini-solution destined for the living room or hallway. Unless of course quantum dot technology beats Prism to the bunch with panel lighting.

Source: E Ink