Old Nook Simple Touch display used to create a digital photo frame

There is no dearth of digital photo frames featuring an E Ink display though here is one by Ben and shown on Hackaday that uses the display of an old B&N Nook Simple Touch Reader. The benefits of such a move are multiple. For one, it runs on Android and hence, you can hack the same easily to make it perform what you desire. Also, it being an old e-reader – the Nook Simple Touch Reader was launched way back in 2011 – you can easily pick them up really cheap. Further, using an old e-reader display means there is at least one less device getting junked and hence is good for the environment.

The process starts with customizing the e-reader so that it is able to install and run an app named Electric Sign. The functionality of the app is simple as all it does is display a given website in full screen besides also updating it at regular intervals. That, according to its maker is all that is needed to display an image full screen. In other words, the e-reader display has been turned into a digital photo frame.

Things can be a bit tricky here onwards as you need to connect to an iCloud album. This will ensure you have enough photos to rotate and display. That is all that needs to be done as you will next have to attach the e-reader display to a suitable frame. As shown in the image above, Ben has done a really good job here with the surrounding elements being just enough to highlight the display without making it seem overwhelming. A good job done on the whole that gives a whole new life to an otherwise dilapidated e-reader launched more than a decade ago.