Ask the Expert is a monthly blog series where we answer everything you ever wanted to know about technology, software, smart cities, retail trends, and of course, Digital Smart Labels™. For this month’s blog, we are thrilled to have our Systems Engineer, Igor Spasojevic, answer a frequently asked question: “How does the display on a Digital Smart Label™ work?”
To understand how our Digital Smart Labels™ display content, it’s important to know how the technology works. Electronic shelf labels are static devices that—when provided with a high resolution e-paper display—can render almost any bitmap to form the content, such as pricing or product information, seen on the display.
To put it simply, a bitmap is a grid full of pixels that form a clear image when arranged closely together. Each pixel contains its own colour information, and the quality of the image can be enhanced in two ways: varying the colour intensity of each pixel, or increasing the size of the grid used to create the image.
Generally speaking, the more complex the components, the more power is required to render a new display. In order to ensure our Digital Smart Labels™ are energy efficient and do not draw any power unless they are in the process of rendering a new image, the colour options for the display are set at white, black, red, and yellow. This means that the individual pixels on a Digital Smart Label™ can only be solid white, black, or coloured, and will not display any colours in between, such as grey. However, the result is high contrast and vibrant colour display, but with a battery life of up to ten years (based on an estimate of 1 update per day usage).
Along with these several colour options, the software that packages the content into the bitmap is capable of working with any kind of shape, image, font, language, barcode, or QR code you can imagine. This allows users to create endless, customizable designs and to display any price or product information in real time. Once the content is chosen, it is up to the software to ensure that the final bitmap sent to the Digital Smart Label™ is in the correct resolution and colour. And the best part? Electronic shelf labels can be updated in a matter of seconds – allowing businesses to implement dynamic pricing and amplify their marketing strategies.
And there you have it, folks. Have any more questions for our experts? Send them to us at hello@danavation.com or through any of our social media channels today.
Our Digital Smart Labels™ come in a variety of sizes and can be customized to display pricing, logos, images, and other important product information in different fonts and colours.
Need an idea for seasonal marketing? Our pricing labels can be used as a tactic to help boost sales and spice up your signage during holidays.
Electronic shelf labels aren’t just for retailers; they can also be used to modernize indoor signage and create a greener office space.
