[1] https://mjones-foui.no/img/wall_clock_1.png

It automatically shuts off after 30 seconds of inactivity.

I added a $3 webcam, and use openCV to detect motion. If three consecutive frames (sampled 0.5s apart) are each sufficiently difficult from the previous one, it attaches a virtual USB mouse, then moves it one pixel.

This wakes up the display whenever you walk past, then puts it back to sleep again when you stop moving.

The motion-detection pipeline uses less than 0.3% CPU on an intel N100 (6w TDP).

The typical e-ink uses cases boil down to e-readers, dumb-phones, and hobbyists, which is not a huge market. Anything niche or specialized tends to carry a higher cost.

I was weather-status neutral until I bought a house that has flooding challenges. Knowing that enough rain that could trigger flooding helps me avoid surprise cleanups and property damage.

Versus.

Just look at screen.

It beeps, on the other end of the house (or on another floor), where it's inaudible. (And, thankfully, where the loud sounds of it operating are also inaudible.)

> All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.

And when you remove the need to track that in your head, your head gets freed up for other things.

To be explicit, I don't like "smart appliances" that connect to a cloud server. I do like the idea of devices that can connect locally to something like Home Assistant.

I'm glad that works for you. My (and my wife's) ADHD brains put these directly into "the void".

Home Automation is just a hobby like "productivity" tools or going all in your coffee setup. You tell yourself you are saving energy, or freeing up your mind from remembering mundane tasks but in reality it's just like a model train set.

It's fun to set up, play around and maintain it for some people. If you'd do the math of setting up hundreds of dollars worth of smart appliances, bulbs, hubs and thermostats to tweak your heaters slightly while you are not at home...it will probably take decades to break even, if at all.

> It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar).

You have to enter calendar data somewhere, right now I often have the same info or different subset split between my calendar, work ones, my wifes one and the one on the wall. Even the paper version requires having entered the data - more so than the tech based ones because an invitation sent by email now needs to be manually copied over. Or have I misunderstood?

> You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps. All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.

This seems odd to me. First just a couple of things

> You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes

1. It takes different amounts of time depending on the load and settings

2. Knowing how long it takes and when to take it out is something the person who put it on knows, but there are different people in this house who can all do either task

3. It's in a place where the beeping is often not heard

But more interestingly is that we're comparing two different approaches. One is

* A note written in a place that washing needs to be taken out if it's not been done.

You describe this as an unhealthy relationship with technology.

Your better solution is

* Work out when a machine will finish its task, remember this

* Wait for the machine to shout at you

* If you don't hear it shouting then keep checking the time to see if it's finished its task

* Make sure you track all of this in your head on top of anything else

This is more healthy? Than a note on the wall that says "change the washing"?

Imagine you started with the typical thing being that you have a note on the wall that says "washing is done" when it's done and the machine itself is silent. I come along and tell you I've got a much better, healthier way of interacting with it - wait for it to make an annoying noise!

I'm not sure this is true anymore, first you usually do different programs depending on what you put into it, and modern washing machines also automatically adjust the washing time depending on how much you throw into it, at least our ~2 year old one does, I'm sure others do too.

I basically never know how long time it will take, sometimes it takes 1.5 hours and sometimes 3 hours. Our washing machine is further away from where we can hear the melody, so having a notification appear on the phone when it's done is actually quite handy, at least for our situation.

It is hard to stop yourself from treating every minor inconvenience as nail for which you have a handy hammer, and I find myself overcomplicating things in my life as a result.

The goals are noble but the methods bring a lot of the complexity simply repackaged (and potentially amplified).

For me, I think a healthy relationship with technology is technology that is there when I need it, not there when I don't. Added benefit if the technology knows when it's needed (ie alarms and such).

Crucially, a healthy relationship with technology for me is consuming less (reading less "news" and blogs and social media) and creating more (writing, projects, etc). So the concept of using technology to build something that is there when the family needs it and is in the background when not is a healthy relationship imo.

An analogue communication medium for myself and others is indeed something that might be much more impactful and human-cetric than a smart system.

Thanks for the inspiration!

https://trmnl.com/

If we think about paper calendars hung on a wall, and updated sporatically we know what's there is likely good information, only that it might not be up to date.

If a calendar can be calm by default, surface what's changed or newly relevant, and fade when it resolves. The next level could be understanding who's attention something needs, and when, in a personalized way.