Aura is introducing its newest model, the $499 Ink frame, which brings a 13-inch color e-paper display to the company’s otherwise LCD-based lineup. The technology, similar to that found in the Kindle Colorsoft e-reader, uses a six-color ink system to create the illusion of millions of tones. More importantly, using e-ink technology allows the frame to finally go cordless.
That makes it ideal for hanging in your home in places where a corded display may look bad, like a living room wall, stairwell, or anywhere else a cord would ruin the aesthetic.
The company, founded by early Twitter employees, has wanted to work with e-ink technology for some time, but it wasn’t yet up to the task of sharing colorful photos taken on your smartphone. But as e-ink systems have advanced, Aura has changed its mind.
The new frame uses Spectra 6 technology that delivers six primary colors — white, black, red, yellow, green, and blue — with better saturation and contrast, making it more adept at displaying photos.
Image Credits:Aura
In addition, Aura added a front light to the frame, taking a cue from the Kindle Paperwhite. This helps improve the contrast, notes Eric Jensen, Aura co-founder and CTO.
“It’s a very subtle light compared to an LCD. It’s maybe a sixth of the brightness of an LCD,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. “People often don’t even notice it has a light until they’re in a dark room and it turns off,” Jensen adds.
On top of the Spectra 6 technology, Aura built its own proprietary dithering algorithm, which uses error diffusion.
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