In my visit to NRF’s Big Show reported in last week’s LDM/MDM, I missed (at least) one Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) vendor on the NRF show floor, Opticon. Like three of the ESL vendors I visited (subscription required), LG Innotek, Displaydata and Pricer, Opticon makes a line of e-paper based ESLs. In addition, they make a variety of other products of interest to both the retail community and LDM/MDM readers, including small, full-color LCD displays for retail applications such as endless-aisle, barcode scanners and mobile computers.
The three other e-paper ESL manufacturers all use incompatible systems to update their ESLs in the store. Opticon uses a fourth incompatible system, based on the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol and using the 2.4GHz RF band (2405-2480 MHz). This IEEE protocol also defines ZigBee, used by LG Innotek, but Zigbee works in the <1GHz RF band. Opticon’s use of the 2.4GHz band raises the possibility of interference from Wi-Fi. This incompatibility among four major ESL makers may be good for the ESL makers but bad for the retailers because it commits retailers to a single vendor when adding additional ESLs or upgrading older ESLs, for example when replacing black and white ESLs with three-color units.
Opticon EE150R ESL (Credit: Opticon)
Opticon makes both black/white and black/white/red ESLs. The 1.54″ diagonal EE150R label, as shown in the image, has a resolution of 152 x 152 pixels and a pixel density of 140ppi. Other sizes they make include 2.9” unit with 296 x 128 resolution, a 2” unit with 200 x 96 resolution and a 4.4” unit with 400 x 300 resolution.
Three 30cm JDI ESLs in the Opticon booth at NRF (Credit: D. Mead, JDI)
JDI had announced during NRF a new 30 cm long ESL, the company’s first venture into the e-paper ESL market. The announcement also discussed a 7.5cm diagonal display without providing any details. The 30cm unit is 287.6mm x 43.0mm (11.45” diagonal) with 2242 x 335 pixels and 198ppi resolution. Three of the JDI 30cm ESLs were being demonstrated end-to-end in the Opticon NRF booth but the 7.5cm unit was not shown. After NRF, I had a chance to talk on the phone with Dan Mead at JDI about this display. He said this was a demonstration unit and was being displayed in the Opticon booth because of the long relationship between JDI and Opticon. The JDI demonstration units were hard-wired to the display and did not use the Opticon RF protocol for updates.
Mead told me one reason JDI was showing a demonstration unit at NRF was to get feedback on the product design. The unit is designed to replace multiple smaller ESL units. Some booth visitors liked the idea but were concerned about updating an ESL device that contains information on multiple products. According to Mead, it is necessary to update the entire e-paper display even when only one price changes. He said the company was considering a backplane redesign that would allow updating the large display in sections. He said another concern was for the fragility of the display, considering it uses glass substrates. This concern was especially strong in booth visitors who thought that JDI should make a longer version of it, perhaps 1 metre long, rather than just 30 cm. He told me that JDI is considering the design of a flexible backplane for the unit, greatly reducing the breakage possibility. One potential customer asked if it was possible to get it in orange, rather than the yellow or red currently available. While Mead believes this is technically feasible, he said it would require working with E-Ink to develop the orange/black/white film. He also said that JDI was not currently interested in customized units for individual retail customers.
Mead told me the JDI business plan for ESLs was not to sell directly to retailers. Instead, they intended to sell their products to companies with integrated ESL product lines, such as Opticon, and the other e-paper ESL vendors at NRF. This would require, of course, customized update interfaces for each of the four e-paper ESL vendors at NRF.
While JDI and E-Ink have formed a “Strategic Alliance,” Mead told me it is basically a supplier/customer relationship. E-Ink supplies the electrophoretic film to JDI (and multiple other manufacturers) and then JDI adds a back-plane, frontplane, electronics and housing to turn the film into an ESL. Opticon will be exhibiting its products at Embedded World, February 27 – March 1, 2018 in Nuremberg, Germany. He believes the JDI ESL demonstration will be in the Opticon booth there as well. –Matthew Brennesholtz
