Startup Modos Tech has announced on the Crowd Supply platform the open source Modos Paper Monitor E-ink display and development kit, designed for users who want to use their own E-ink display with a Modos controller.

This project was initiated by Oleksandr Soto, who started its development in February 2021, aiming to overcome eye fatigue from long-term use of conventional displays.

During the creation process, he interacted with various professionals, including writers, programmers, students, doctors and engineers, as well as people with health problems, and found that many of them faced the same problem.

Supported image modes

• B&W binary – full 60Hz refresh rate, sharpest image and best response time, but no grayscale
• Bayer Dithering Mode – allows you to add more middle gray tones, but makes the text a bit jagged
• Blue Noise Reduction – improves grayscale even more but makes text even sharper, best for video playback
• 4-level grayscale mode – considered the perfect compromise between the extremes of black and white and 16-level grayscale
• 16-level grayscale mode is effectively a “hybrid mode” that automatically switches between 16-level grayscale mode and binary mode depending on the image

Soto, along with Dave Crosland and Winting Zhang, successfully developed a monitor that meets these requirements. The software and hardware for this project is open source and available on GitHub, allowing enthusiasts to build similar displays themselves.

An important aspect of Modos Paper Monitor is its low latency of less than 120ms, which is significantly lower than the competition, which has a latency of 270ms. This makes the device relatively fast.

Main features of Modos Paper Monitor

• Panel type – monochrome E-ink (color panel also available)
• Refresh rate – 60 Hz
• The size of the screen is 13.3″
• Resolution is 1600 x 1200
• Display inputs – DVI via Micro HDMI, USB Type-C Alt-Mode DisplayPort

The release date and price of Modos Paper Monitor are not yet known. By comparison, E-Ink monitors can be quite expensive, such as Dasung’s 25.3-inch Paperlike 253U at $1,699.