Sydney’s world-first ‘e-paper’ street signs

Traffic signs using similar electronic ink technology to Amazon’s Kindle e-reader could soon be lining Australian roads, after a successful trial.

So much so that over in Sydney, Australia, it seems that the government has decided that maybe having to pay for signs all the time and maintaining them might not be so cost-effective in the long-run, and that maybe a better solution would be to turn to using e-ink display as signboards instead. The signs include wireless broadband and can be altered remotely.

The city’s main road authority Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) agency wanted to stop the continuous useless cash flows in changing signs and developed the new ones with Visionect. The displays will also significantly help cut the costs of changing road signs to reflect upcoming events.

The e-ink signs are solar-powered, making them self-sustainable and energy-efficient.

Rok Zalar, Visionect’s head of product development, explains how it works: “The hardware components are managed by server software programmed to “wake up” the sign for certain pre-scheduled windows of time when the content on the sign will be changed using 3G technology”. Fancier outdoor displays will be everywhere one day, but for now the city’s just hoping to save some money – Los Angeles spends up to $9.5 million putting up temporary parking restriction signs, for instance.

An RMS spokesperson told The Register that 15 of the new signs ‘were successfully trialled in the management of traffic on George Street in the Sydney CBD and a second rollout has since been completed in the Moore Park area.’.