Quantum Photonic Digital-Ink Solution for Large Format Displays

Project Information

Nanodink

Grant agreement ID: 881297

DOI

10.3030/881297

Project closed

EC signature date 29 October 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 31 January 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 2 387 500,00

EU contribution

€ 1 671 250,00

Coordinated by

NANOGA SA
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Nanodink (Quantum Photonic Digital-Ink Solution for Large Format Displays)

Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2021-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

A lot of efforts have been put into digital-learning. However, these efforts have not been successfully translated into shared classroom environments. This is because the required large interactive touchscreen displays (typically > 80”) are prohibitively expensive (EUR 8’500 on average for 85” screen sizes). Infrared and Capacitive touchscreens technologies are quite mature and work well for smartphone, tablets and desktop screens. However, it rapidly becomes cost-prohibitive for screen sizes > 80”. This high-cost issue is amplified by a slow response times when drawing and writing on the screen, in addition to a costly and complex recycling process (in particular capacitive touchscreens due to their high content of Indium).
NANODINK solution aims to equip every classroom with an interactive digital display. This will allow students all over the globe to fully benefit of the digital and interactive learning.
NANODINK technology is an invisible and passive nano-layer that is applied to the surface of the display glass of a large commercial video screen, for instance of 85” size. When combined with an optical pen, it allows the surface to exhibit “touch-like” behavior with unique enhanced features as:
• Reduce considerably the production cost (at least by 50%)
• Write and draw at natural hand-speed (< 5 ms)
• Scalable to any video screen size (up to 120”)
• Eliminate the use of Indium (much easier to recycle)

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Following the surge of Covid-19 pandemic and semiconductor chips shortage, we engaged important changes in our work plan and reorganized our workflow to keep progressing.
WP1/ Stylus & USB Module:
- A test-bench platform was built to properly assess the stylus hardware components (including specs definition & component providers. This task was fully completed.
- A stylus design was elaborated and prototyped, taking in consideration aspects as ergonomic, data transfer, autonomy and readout capability. We managed to achieve very encouraging results with the 1st iteration of the NANODINK stylus formfactor prototype.
Although, targeted performances were not fully achieved, we reached +90% of them. As counter measures, ways to further improve stylus performances at best cost were identified, this during the phase of stylus optimization for mass production in partnership with selected OEM.
Accordingly, we consider this task fully completed.
- A micro-pc was sourced from the market based on a set of performances defined with the help of the test-bench. This task is fully completed.
WP2/ Glass Preparation & Mounting:
- Assessment of the production line unit was performed and a pilot production plant design was elaborated together with a 1st order cost model. This task was fully completed.
- A method of attaching was selected and tested on 55” glasses, leading to excellent results. This task was fully completed.
WP3/ Software:
- As stylus 1sr prototype faced substantial delay, we couldn’t properly design the application software. However, the operating system development is progressing.
We target to complete the task by M32.
WP5/ Commercial Activities:
- A website was built (www.nanodink.eu) with non-exhaustive content to make it accessible to a large audience. Also, a promotional brochure was elaborated for generic introduction (two distinct PowerPoint decks was elaborated to address the audience of investor and customers).
- We plan to attend selection of trades shows after building 1st display prototypes.
WP6/ Project Management:
- Technical, commercial and financial management of project is well in place and the sustained subcontractors monitoring is efficiently working.
- Communication with the EC is properly working, this by informing assigned PO is systematically whenever there is an issue.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

With NANODINK technology, we aim to radically disrupt the market of the interactive video display for the education and corporate world. The quantum-photonic nanotechnology we developed is the unique interactive video display solution that is fully passive. In other term, it doesn’t need electrical power to make it work. We rather use the electromagnetic energy, commonly known as “light”, to activate our solution. We modestly believe that NANODINK technology and its unique set of enhanced features will take the state of art in interactive video display to the next level, this by delivering better performances at much affordable cost than what existing market can offer, while being respectful to the environment.
By enabling NANODINK technology on the market, we will enable the equipment of larger number of schools with large interactive video displays (> 80” diagonal size) at half of the price of the current market price. Our analysis show that prices could further drop up to 70% with increasing production from 50’000 to +500’000 units (taking in consideration that over 30’000’000 of K-12 worldwide classrooms are yet not equipped, the market perspectives look very promising).
Another aspect we keen to claim is the positive impact of NANODINK technology on the environment. By banished the use of rare-earth elements and heavy metals, in particular Indium, we made our technology 100% Indium free and much simpler to recycle. Our efforts to privilege (i) the use of abundant raw materials, (ii) simplify the production process (lower number of steps) and (iii) reducing the use of chemical substances (as solvents) to the strict minimum, shall reduce considerably our carbon footprint. We are determined to keep improving and optimizing our production and manufacturing processes to maintain our Carbon footprint as low as possible.

Illustration of NANODINK solution’s technological components