I’ve always been intrigued by the Aqara Cube T1 Pro as something to keep on my desk as a fun way to switch between different work modes or switching out of work mode, or for different scenes in the living room etc.
The thing that’s always held me off of it is labelling.
Whilst it has dots on the side (like a die), that would involve everyone remembering which settings each number refers to. The alternatives would be to draw on it in whiteboard marker (which would get messy) or printing and applying stickers (which would quickly look worn and falling apart).
But now that you can buy small B&W Eink displays for less than £3 (and that’s retail prices so bulk purchase for production would be significantly cheaper), I feel there’s no reason this couldn’t have an e-ink display on each side where you can set either text or an icon to represent what that side does.
Being e-Ink it wouldn’t require any energy to maintain the image (maybe once a week doing a single refresh to keep good contrast), and it would mean you could easily change them whenever you wanted to reflect a different mode.
Even better, you could have them display the status of certain things in the smart home eco system.
With 6 screens at £2.50 each being £15 (retail price), I’d be happy to pay another £10-20 for a cube with that added functionality.
Hello.nice idea but there could be some issues with damaging the displays as in order to make an cube like you propose.needs to have E-ink display on each side to show the number of that side and also an good idea would be to show what is controlling each side but as I mention having display on an device like this could be an issue because the display could break or damage during the use of the cube.but it is still an good idea.
I think it’s a nice idea. If the eInk screen is retracted/behind clear plastic then it might work well. The whole cube is not so much “throwable”, because every time I throw it with more force (like a standard die) then I’m afraid it will break. So it’s just a cool looking 6-button controller.
As they wouldn’t need to be touch screen I feel there shouldn’t be any reason they couldn’t be housed beneath a 1-2mm thick clear perspex for protection.
Yeah I’ve never thought of actually rolling them/throwing them like dice, simply picking up, rotating to the appropriate side, and putting back down again (Possibly with actions like double tap or shake triggering different things based on orientation)