Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 13:58:30 -0400 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Nonsense discussion: dreaming up new technology Message-ID: <3F2412C6.8030907@potentialtech.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Since this is -chat ... I had this idea, and I'd be curious what some experts think about it. The basic concept is a printer that prints programs onto paper. Imagine taking an oridinary sheet of paper and printing a "document" on it. When it came out it had buttons and an LCD screen printed on it. The difference between what would come out of a normal printer is that when you pressed the buttons, the numbers appeared on the screen. (all on the paper) You could basically create a calculator by printing out a document. The overall approach is "interactive prited media". Imagine a sales brochure where you could press the paper to check/uncheck options and see the price update right on the paper. Sound crazy ... that's why I'm posting it. Here are the details of how _I_ feel it could work. I want to know if other people think it's possible. In addition to standard ink, the printer would have several special inks: a conductive (metallic?) ink, and several inks that change properties when electricity is applied (i.e. change from clear to red, clear to blue ...) Additionally, a pressure-sensitive ink that conducts electricity only when pressure is applied. Thus, it doesn't take a genious to imagine circuits, LCD-like screens, buttons, and possibly more complex circuit logic than simply on/off switches (inks with other properties to create things such as timers). The battery could either be wafer thin and embedded in the paper (you're using special paper) or (possibly) the chemicles that create a battery could be stored in ink form and the battery basically "printed" to the page. Complex, yes. But is it possible? Chemistry is NOT my thing, but I'm guessing that the technology to make such inks either exists, or could be developed. By making it do a multi-pass, conductive and non-conductive inks could be layered on top of each other, generating pretty complex circuits. Then the whole thing could be covered with standard ink to hide the circuitry. So. Am I the first to imagine such a thing? How close is the technology to actually doing it? What does everyone think about it? -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3F2412C6.8030907>