Ask HN: How would I go about replacing my Macbook LCD with one that uses e-ink?
I've haven't worked very much, but I really want to dive in. I'm not necessarily aiming to literally swap out my LCD for a 13" e-ink screen, but I was wondering how I might take apart my computer and hook up to one. How might I go about learning how to reduce the graphics quality permitted to be sent to that new screen?
2 comments
Can e-ink handle the kind of graphics a MacBook would generate? I mostly mean the speed, not colors or resolution. Turning a page on Kindle appears to be an expensive operation -- what would dragging a window be?
It would be easier -- and a way to play quickly -- to emulate e-ink in software on your Macbook. Then you can "learn about reducing graphics quality" and "see what it looks like and how it feels"
For graphics quality, you want to look at thresholding algorithms. They can be quite complex (or simple).
1. Global threshold. Pick a brightness, brighter than that is white, darker is black
2. Same as #1, but pick the threshold by looking at the average brightness of the screen
3. For each pixel do the algorithm for #2 on a NxN window around the pixel (avg neighbor brightness), then threshold based on that.
and so on.
Also look at dithering. Threshold will work great on text, lines, shapes -- but dithering is good for photos and blocks of color. The trick might be to analyze the image and come up with areas that should be dithered and others that should be thresholded.
It would be easier -- and a way to play quickly -- to emulate e-ink in software on your Macbook. Then you can "learn about reducing graphics quality" and "see what it looks like and how it feels"
For graphics quality, you want to look at thresholding algorithms. They can be quite complex (or simple).
1. Global threshold. Pick a brightness, brighter than that is white, darker is black
2. Same as #1, but pick the threshold by looking at the average brightness of the screen
3. For each pixel do the algorithm for #2 on a NxN window around the pixel (avg neighbor brightness), then threshold based on that.
and so on.
Also look at dithering. Threshold will work great on text, lines, shapes -- but dithering is good for photos and blocks of color. The trick might be to analyze the image and come up with areas that should be dithered and others that should be thresholded.