Introduction

Imagine that your school, college, or university is hosting an event—like a science fair or expo. This time, the organizers want to do something different: instead of the usual cardboard or plastic name tags, they want participants to use electronic badges that can display information clearly and can be updated at any moment.

Since you’re known for being a curious maker with some tech skills, they come to you with the challenge and share a list of requirements for the project:

The moment you read the first requirement, your first thought is: "That’s impossible!" Every electronic component needs some form of power—especially displays, whether they’re LCD, OLED, or any other type!

Still, you keep reading: Good visibility in different lighting conditions and decent resolution? Maybe an OLED display would work, with its bright colors. Or maybe an EPD could do the job, since it can show vibrant colors even in bright light… Wait, what was that thing about EPDs being bistable?

Could an EPD work without batteries? Yes! Once you load an image onto the screen, the EPD doesn’t need any power to keep it visible.

Can it be reused? Absolutely! You can change the image and use the badge again with any new info you want. 

So, the conclusion is clear: this project is perfectly possible using EPD screens.

Commercial Epaper Badges

These kinds of devices already exist commercially under different names, like smart badge, work badge, or ePaper badge. If you look them up online, you’ll find plenty of options available.

Compared to traditional cardboard or plastic name tags, ePaper badges have several key advantages: you can easily update the information, reuse the same device as many times as you want, and even display extra details—like the wearer’s photo, a QR code, or any other relevant info.