In today’s maker edition of “why didn’t we think of that before?”, we have a customisable name tag based on a Raspberry Pi hooked up to an e ink display.

The “PiE-Ink” was created by user “esper2142“, who is quickly identified as Josh King, a systems engineer at Cisco thanks to the included demo video.

The two core components here are the Raspberry Pi Zero and the e ink display, both of which had to be small enough to be attached with magnets to a shirt. As you can see when the name tag boots up, it also runs Linux.

While the video doesn’t show off a profile shot and the fact that the build is rather wide, we’re still a bit floored by the concept of a full Linux PC strapped to your chest. While that was always a possibility with enough duct tape, doing so with such a small package is always worth talking about.

If you want the fine details on how this project was made, or you’d like to follow along and do it yourself, King has uploaded the steps to do so on Instructables.

The tutorial ends off with some suggestions for upgrades to the project. These include adding wi-fi and RTC modules, a solar option for power and smarter shut down options.