JOYOSOLAR has launched the INKSOLAR-S1, a new six-color ePaper smart badge that combines the company's own perovskite solar cells, an ePaper ink screen and Apple Find My in one device. It is designed to be carried every day, whether for designer toy collecting, outings with children, business trips, trade shows or commuting.

A 1.54-inch six-color ePaper screen: both an electronic ID badge and a portable business card

The whole unit measures 52.88 x 39.48 x 10.30 mm and weighs 20 grams, barely larger than a game coin. A lanyard hole accepts straps, keyrings and various charms.

The front carries a 1.54-inch six-color ePaper ink screen with 240x240 pixels, supporting 3-bit full color in black, white, red, yellow, blue and green. Users can upload a name, company logo, portrait, photo or QR code and use it directly as an electronic ID badge — at trade shows, customer visits or field interviews, people can see who you are at a glance and add your contact details with a single scan.

Or it can carry no text at all. The app includes six information templates: schedule, itinerary, business card, countdown, ID badge and memo. Pick one, fill in the content, and the screen refreshes automatically with no layout work required.

The numbers: staying alive even under indoor lighting

The power module at the heart of the hardware is JOYOSOLAR's home turf — the perovskite solar cell on the badge is produced on the company's own line. It tops up a 180mAh lithium battery anytime, anywhere under indoor lighting, and drives Bluetooth, buttons and screen refresh.

Two sets of data were measured under laboratory conditions:

• Placed by a window for half a day, then refreshed every 30 minutes, the device ran continuously for 36 hours.
• In the extreme case of a fully depleted battery, placing it in sunlight restores positioning within a dozen minutes or so.

With light around, charging is simply not something to worry about.

The characteristics of the ePaper ink screen provide a backup: even if the lithium battery is completely drained, the last image on the screen remains clearly visible. If the device is lost, whoever finds it can press the button three times quickly to switch between preloaded images and reach the contact QR code.

Apple Find My support

For positioning, the device is officially certified as Works with Apple Find My and uses the same network as AirTag. It works directly with the built-in Find My app on iPhone for playing a sound, viewing location and precision finding, and up to 32 devices can be bound to one iPhone. Anti-stalking protection is handled by Apple's own mechanisms.

Normally it displays the image you choose. To change it, pick an image on your phone and send it over, or press the button three times quickly to switch among stored images.

From outdoor power generation to the palm of your hand: JOYOSOLAR's first step into wearables

The badge comes from Wuhan JOYOSOLAR Technology Co., Ltd.

Founded in 2022, the company works on perovskite photovoltaics with fully in-house development across materials, processes and equipment. Its founding team holds more than 30 perovskite-related patents, and the company has been recognized as a national high-tech enterprise and a specialized and sophisticated SME of Hubei Province, and has passed ISO9001 quality management system certification.

In the past, these technologies were installed in outdoor power generation, curtain walls, doors and windows, and sensors. Now, for the first time, they have been turned into a small object you can hold in your hand and clip onto your body: a perovskite solar panel, a six-color ink screen and a location-enabled badge whose image changes as you like.

No touchscreen, and no charging cable

Nineteen years ago, when Steve Jobs rejected the Kindle, he gave several reasons, including that it had no touchscreen and that its design was not new or elegant enough. He even considered the Kindle's wireless connection redundant.

Everyone knows what happened next. The Kindle survived, and so did the technology route that was rejected at the time — the ePaper ink screen — which has become less and less like a screen that can only display books.

From black and white to two colors, from four colors to today's six, the ink screen has spent these years mastering a very plain fundamental skill: how to keep color and content on the screen while consuming almost no power. As colors multiply, its uses extend far beyond the bookshelf — it can be a cover, a line of poetry, a photograph, a QR code, or something clipped to your bag that shows who you are today.

Jobs said the Kindle's failing was the lack of a touchscreen. Nineteen years later, we did exactly the opposite: no touchscreen and no charging cable, because what it needs is not more features but fewer burdens.

B-side first, then onto your body

In February 2025, the B-side moved earlier than the C-side. E Ink released the E Ink Spectra 6 full-color ePaper in April 2023, with official specifications of up to 200 PPI and a 30:1 contrast ratio, and mass production in 2024. At NRF in January 2025, 60,000-color ePaper posters were used to replace paper posters and LCD screens. In July of the same year, Samsung launched a color ePaper sign using six-color digital ink. Research firm Mordor Intelligence estimates that the electronic shelf label market was worth about USD 1.97 billion in 2025 and will reach USD 3.78 billion by 2030.

Color ePaper first proved itself on shelves, in exhibition halls and in hospitals. Now it is time for it to be worn on the body.

Making delight more elegant was never about bigger screens or faster refresh, but about a screen that can finally accompany you quietly, in color and for a long time — whether on a desk or on a bag.