The idea for this project came to me after reading an article about creating a miniature eBook reader with a 1.54-inch screen based on the ESP32. There's something incredibly appealing about these tiny devices. However, the device described in the article seemed somewhat impractical. That got me thinking—what would be the smallest practical eBook reader?

Then I remembered a reading technique that a Boston-based startup called Spritz tried to popularize back in 2014. The core idea of this technique is to display words sequentially on a screen, one at a time, at a rapid pace. This approach minimizes the need for eye movement across the text, saving time. An added benefit of this technique is that it doesn’t require a large screen to display the text—just one that can fit any single word from the text. And that’s exactly what you need for a miniature eBook reader.

Next, I needed to find a suitable screen for my device. I decided to look for an off-the-shelf electronic module with a small screen, preferably an OLED display to save energy. My search led me to the LILYGO T-Display S3 AMOLED module. It has everything I need to bring this device to life: a 1.91-inch color AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 240 x 536 pixels, an ESP32-S3R8 microcontroller, dual GPIO pin headers, battery support, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

This module covers nearly all the hardware requirements for my project, allowing me to focus on software development. I decided to make this project my entry point into the world of ESP32 development. The only potential hardware modification I might consider is adding physical buttons for device control, which should be easy to implement thanks to the available GPIO pins.

Specifications

I reached out to LILYGO and shared my project idea with them. To my delight, they provided me with the T-Display S3 module for free! It was really encouraging to receive such support from the developer of the module. A big thanks to LILYGO for making this project possible!