IBM is bringing e-paper to the retail shelves as part of their Smarter Planet strategy. This strategy is meant to create a more earth friendly and green way of operating in our current world, without decreasing any of the current luxuries we have. E Ink is being used as part of their greener retail strategy, and they are using it to replace the traditional paper/sticker based shelf labels. Shelf labels are a notorious source of waste in the retail sector–every day the stickers for each price must be replaced or adjusted, especially if an item is on sale, or the SKU code changes.
Environmentally Friendly
The main benefits to this technology will be the lack of waste and the low wattage e-paper uses. Since the prices won’t change more than once a day, the actual cost of updating and keeping the store up to date is minimal. Since most E Ink usually has 7,500 updates before needing to recharge it’s batteries, a single label would be able to last close to two years without needing to recharge.
That’s if it uses the same battery that the Kindle, Nook and Sony E-Reader uses. It probably won’t due to size restrictions, so we’ll need to find out more information before we see how long they will last without needing to recharge.
Some people out in the wide world of the internet aren’t quite sure if this will really cut down on waste (due to accidents and mishaps creating electronic waste, which is worse than the current waste of just paper and glue), but it is an improvement over some other companies attempt to use LCD screens for displaying price and labels. LCD screens would eat up battery life, have a shorter life span and create even more toxic electronic waste than their e-paper based rivals.
Behind the Scenes
The main branch of IBM behind this and some other of their Smart Planet tools is the Hursley Software Development lab in Winchester. To make this a reality, they are partnering with the Finnish company MariSense, who is supplying the E Ink and e-paper technology.
IBM is pairing this with traditional scan guns, which are currently in use at most retail stores to keep track of inventory and pricing. By tying this into a central pricing system, they can allow the e-paper labels to update dynamically and without the need for companies to purchase a whole slew of new equipment. The fact that it is environmentally efficient as well as cost efficient should appeal to the retail chains, allowing them to become more eco-friendly without a large up front investment.
ibm
The picture does not only show MariSense ESL.