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Paper Mounted CPUs 154

Posted by Hemos from the disposable-pcs-are-the-future dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Rafe Needleman discovered an interesting young Swedish company which is printing really cheap chips. "The company, Cypak, has technology to mount a very small microprocessor, which it created, on paper (or inside a credit card), as well as a technique to print sensors, switches, and very short-range antennae on the same paper, using special conductive inks." Here is one possible application designed for drug trials. "Drug trials need data about how and when subjects consume the drugs being tested. In this application, a pill pack registers when individual pills are popped out of their plastic bubbles; it then can beep and ask the user a question like, 'Are you feeling better today? Press Yes or No.' (The answer buttons are on the pack itself.) When the patient visits the doctor, the package is placed on a Cypak reader and the data is downloaded to the physician's computer." Visit this page for more information about Cypak or read the full Business 2.0 article."
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Paper Mounted CPUs More

Paper Mounted CPUs

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  • Smart Toilet Paper (Score:5, Funny)

    by chrispix ( 624431 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:09AM (#5214547)
    I am waiting for smart toilet paper so it can tell me when I have wiped enough.. No more brown streaks!!
    • I am waiting for smart toilet paper so it can tell me when I have wiped enough.. No more brown streaks!!

      Errrr...isn't the toilet paper supposed to have those brown streaks on it? ;-)

      • Your sig doesn't beg the question at all. "Begging the question" means presupposing your conclusion. It is similar to a circular argument. It does NOT mean a question that begs to be asked.
        • "You're so sharp you'll cut yourself"
          --The Way of Mrs Cosmopilite

          The sig comes from Terry Pratchett's "Thief of Time", but the attribution was truncated. I apologize with all appropriate sincerity for the mental anguish this has obviously caused you.

          Do not try to understand the sig. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
          There is no sig.

  • Minority Report (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:10AM (#5214550)
    Talking cereal boxes, anyone?

  • Just watch out (Score:3, Funny)

    by Op7imus_Prim3 ( 645940 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:10AM (#5214551) Journal
    for the buffer overflow errors from happy prozac patients pushing yes one too many times.

  • Hrmm (Score:3, Funny)

    by acehole ( 174372 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:11AM (#5214556) Homepage
    At last, I can have a paper aeroplane that I can program to seek and destroy.

    • Re:Hrmm (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Seek and destroy with what? Paper cuts?
      • Apparently, you have never been hit in the eye with a paper plane sent at mach .001 from across the class.
    • Holy shit, this is brilliant! All you need to add to the paper is a gyro on a chip (readily available) and some pieces of memory wire to bend the paper. If you have enough processing power you can make a smart self-flying glider out of paper. It still wouldn't be self-guiding but maybe you could make it radio controlled.

      Dear lord, it's like a dream. Radio controlled paper airplanes. THIS is the killer app for this technology, mark my words.

  • Gives new meaning to the expression (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Zog The Undeniable ( 632031 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:13AM (#5214562)
    "Cheap as chips".

    For uninitiated readers, this is the catch phrase of current student TV favourite David Dickinson on his UK "Bargain Hunt" show.

    More seriously, one of these would be a really good idea for books - you could get it to remember which page you were on without a bookmark (or bending over the corner of the page, as is my habit).

  • Overclock? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Professor North ( 606910 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:15AM (#5214564)
    I wonder whether or not something along the lines of a Mad fold-in will hold overclocking potential....

    • Sure thing wise guy (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      ...Whatcha gonna do with the added heat from overclocking it? put a heat sink on it? what if its too much heat? You got yourself a great little match now don't cha? I'd love to see the converation you'll have with your insurace agent after the house burns down:

      Agent: "What happened here?"
      You: "Well I was overclocking my Mad Fold-in.."

      or better yet

      Agent: "What happened here?"
      You: "Well I was overclocking my Playboy centerfold..."
      Agent: "Overclocking eh?"
    • Brings a whole new permanance to "Crash and Burn" when you dont get 'Tab A' and 'Tab B' to perfectly match up...

  • Text from the "blog" (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    so you dont have to /. fella's "blog", why you had to link it is beyond me when all he is doing is quoting the business text anyway, maybe he is short on hits to read his dribble and rantings and thought slasdot might be interested


    Cypak mounts [business2.com]
    CPUs on paper. Can disposable PCs be far off?

    Rafe Needleman discovered an interesting young Swedish company which is
    printing really cheap chips. Here are some excerpts of his article,
    "Coming Soon: Printed Computers."


    The company,
    Cypak [cypak.com], has technology to mount
    a very small microprocessor, which it created, on paper (or inside a credit
    card), as well as a technique to print sensors, switches, and very short-range
    antennae on the same paper, using special conductive inks.

    Here is one possible application designed for drug trials.


    Drug trials need data about how and when subjects consume the drugs

    being tested. In this application, a pill pack registers when individual pills
    are popped out of their plastic bubbles; it then can beep and ask the
    user a question like, "Are you feeling better today? Press Yes or No."
    (The answer buttons are on the pack itself.) When the patient visits the doctor,
    the package is placed on a Cypak reader and the data is downloaded to the
    physician's computer.

    Certus, a drug-testing company, has just begun testing Cypak's

    technology. Compared with logging and "compliance" products that use more
    traditional computer parts and sensors, the Cypak technology is less expensive.
    The chips embedded in the paper drug packages cost only a buck or two, and the
    scanners that read the data from the used packages are inexpensive as well --
    less than $10, Cypak CEO Jakob Ehrensvärd says. Also, the data is more reliable
    than the logs that patients might keep.

    Rafe Needleman is quite optimistic about Cypak's future.


    It's clear that more and more items, like shipping boxes, eventually

    will be able to monitor themselves, and that an increasing number of devices
    will support some kind of authentication feature. Cypak-like technology will
    play a part in this.

    Cypak's technology currently costs a dollar or more per unit. That's

    pretty cheap for a computer, but still too expensive for everyday products.
    Still, there are solid industry-specific applications for this technology --
    enough, most likely, to make a success out of Cypak.

    More information about Cypaq's intelligent pharmaceutical packaging can be
    found at their Electronic [cypak.com]
    Compliance Packaging webpage.


  • Other applications (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ndnet ( 3243 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:16AM (#5214573)
    Couldn't this also be used for some unsavory applications? Such as: making sure you read your printed EULA, tracking paper files through a building, etc.
    • Making sure you read the eula seems like a good thing...
    • unsavory applications ... tracking paper files through a building

      I am well aware that some Slashdotters are paranoid about privacy rights and I make no judgement on that, but seriously dude, what planet are you from?

    • Umm, how exactly would it do that? A CPU on a chip is one thing, but how would it tell if someone's eyes are scanning it?
      • Among other ways, you could have something analagous to how in some current EULAs you have to scroll to the bottom of the text to find the "yes I agree" button. In the case of the paper, for example, you could have a sticker over the "I agree" part, where a sensor detects whether or not it was exposed to light, possibly remembering the timestamp, etc.
      • You could quite possibly add to THIS process a process for embedding a tiny little CCD-and-decoder-on-a-chip into the page. It would need to have a lens on it, but this is not outside the realm of reason. Of course, you'd probably need more processing power than they are currently laying down, but this is only a beginning...
    • You're right! And furthermore paper itself can be used for unsavory applications (Cease and desist letters to overzealously protect copyright, using as kindling to set things on fire, and not to mention what happens if some psychopath decides to use it to give everyone some nasty papercuts!)

      Actually... just about everything out there can be used for unsavory applications - it takes a similar set of sensors to monitor a critically ill patient and to build your average lie detector, a knife can be used to cut bread or to threaten another human being. I don't see cheap CPU and (very) short range antennas being the fall of modern civilization as yet.

      Not unless they use this in printing money and every time I open my wallet a small electronic voice says "Do you REALLY want to spend your last 60 bucks on a video game and starve til payday?"

  • Finally you can really get down into getting A's in the exams... Teacher thinking: "Why is that kid over there tapping on that blank paper?"

  • Reinventing the Printed Circuit Board (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Snoochie Bootchie ( 58319 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:18AM (#5214582) Journal
    It seems like the only possible innovation here is in the conductive inks. Effectively, they using a paper substrate rather than FR4 (or other PCB material) and the conductive "ink" rather than copper to make connections. The ability to make a very thin chip and embedded it into a thin form factor is not new.

    The more interesting thing is the non-traditional markets that are being explored. They're not trying to do another smartcard rehash. (although they appear to talk about smartcard-lke devices on their web site)
  • I can use use especially programmed paper as scratch paper on my next math exam...

    Just need to figure out a way to make the "your answer is wrong" warning a quiet one.

  • Processors running Windows CE... (Score:3, Funny)

    by silvaran ( 214334 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:29AM (#5214611)
    Where would you like to go today?
    A: Fill a prescription
    B: Test your blood
    C: The morgue

  • harry potter (Score:1, Funny)

    by etucexe ( 598278 )
    anyone want a howler?
  • As with all cutting edge technology, this will be popularized by the porn industry. can you imagine what kinda marketing info they could get just off their magazines. like how long you really read their articles :). How much time youve spent on each page, maybe an auditory warning if your on a page for too long. :) Anyways sounds cool. hope we dont get conspiracy theorist coming out of the woodwork saying that this will automatically be put in money to track you. :)

    later,
    epicstruggle

  • Disposables? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tigress ( 48157 ) <rot13.fcnzgenc03@8in.net> on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:34AM (#5214626)
    An interresting spinoff of this could be the disposable computer. Like disposable cameras and things like that, an item such as a notepad (PDA) could be designed for a very short lifetime. Write your meeting-notes with a normal pen, on your notepad. After the meeting, you take your notepad to your computer, press the transmit button on the pad and discard the page(s) you've used up.

    "Paperless office" anyone? =)

    • Re:Disposables? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ideonode ( 163753 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:56AM (#5214707)
      The idea of disposable computers might seem appealing and convenient, but should the current thrust in technology really be towards disposables when there's already an environmental issue over dead tech today? Dead mobiles, obsolete computers, fridges - all these dead consumer devices cost a lot to dispose of. And you're proposing adding to the mix?

      The trendy application for this paper technology you've described is wholly unnecessary. Why bother taking notes on e-paper and uploading to your server at home? Why not think about developing tablet technology which is always connected (GPRS, 3G, WiFi) with your desktop PC at the office. Then you write in realtime to your PC with your tablet. Realtime paperless office with no redundant technology building up.

      • Recyclable PC (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Kadagan AU ( 638260 )
        But the really cool thing about this is that if it's printed on normal paper, you can most likely recycle it. This will be a lot better than current PCs that are very difficult adn costly to recycle.

        ~Jon~
      • You raise good points. I sincerely hope that the idea of electronic parking tickets that they floated on the website [cypak.com] is replaced in most cities by an entirely software solution. (Email you your parking fines. no more paper tickes on your windscreen which the local hoods can steal for pranks)

        On the other hand, what if you use pressure sensative paper as the worlds's most portable scanner? Write your meeting notes on normal paper, with the smart scanner paper underneath like that old fashioned pressure activated carbon paper that people sometimes use to duplicate reciepts.

        the pressure sensative paper stays blank. At the end of the meeting, file your handwritten notes and plug in your pressure sensative mat to your laptop/desktop/whatever. the dozens of pages that you stored in it are copied across, and the handwriting recognition goes through in a few minutes. presto!

        (if you're really adventureous, you could get the pad to have a built in wifi antenna. then you'd never have to leave the meeting. when you run out of paper, just use an inkless stylus on the pad directly, and hope you remember where you've written... or maybe make the top layer smart colour change paper. [gyriconmedia.com])

        Might be handy for those business people who don't want heavy laptop bags or bulge inducing pdas ruining the line of a good suit. (on the other hand, most people like that who I know just get their PAs to carry all their junk for them. oh well. maybe the new tech might still sell on early adopter chic.)
    • Interesting points made here and in the other replies to your post.

      First, Disposable computers, in addition to the sad trend towards "disposable" items that really arent "disposable" (safe to get rid of) - might be to easy to use for malicious purposes. I hate to be the one to spout the paranoid Homeland Security perspective - but if you have a machine that you could use then easily put to flame, it might be a perfect tool for a black hat.

      Second, make the paper writable with a magnetic(?)dry erase pen... then you can have the paper recognize what you write, and you can see it and easily clear it as well.

      Tracking documents through a building would be a perfect application for government and businesses with sensitive material which needs to be in a portable hard caopy form.

      One thing that would be interesting is if the ePaper could have a biometric scanning device in one corner - and "Ink" that it could turn on or off.

      If you had proper access to the sheet - then the ink would display - and only while you were holding your thumb on the scanning square.

      also - if you could have it do ink like this - then you could keep hard copies of whatever around - but when you were done with it - just place it in the "printer tray" and it will be re-programmed with new data. So it would be 100% re-useable and not even need traditional recycling. It would just immediately go back into the pool of blanks.
      • One thing that would be interesting is if the ePaper could have a biometric scanning device in one corner - and "Ink" that it could turn on or off.

        If you had proper access to the sheet - then the ink would display - and only while you were holding your thumb on the scanning square.

        even better, have it programmed to display disinformation until activated by a thumb with the proper clearance!
  • Can I reprogram my $1 bill to be a $20?
  • Would this kind of tech make great for polling? Advertisement polling or other ways of making polls using magazines / newspapers. Now that we are at it... how about intelligent advertisement? The intellipage(tm) asks questions and responds to your needs regarding which flavour of their toothpaste you will like. Possibilites are endless.
  • Finally I'll be able to get a fucking paper plane in the air!

  • My thought (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I certainly hope nobody thinks this is revolutionary?
    Set your time travel machine to the 60's. The 1960s. I would have loved to be my age (30) in the 60s. EVERYTHING was already done back then...
    TFT history [eetimes.com]
    Just search for 'paper' in that article if you're one of those hyper-active now-now-now-now types.

  • Call me a luddite, but... (Score:3)

    by Queuetue ( 156269 ) <queuetue@gmai l . com> on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:45AM (#5214665) Homepage
    Isn't this pharmaceutical application stupid, when they could just include a card that you mark with a pen?

    Or, how about the doctor just asks you the next time you see him, since that's when he'll get the card anyway...

    • Re:Call me a luddite, but... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Overt Coward ( 19347 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @11:47AM (#5215606) Homepage
      Pen marks have a few problems... first of all, there's no timestamp on them, so you can't verify that the patient filled it out at the time they took the medication (see below). Secondly, there's the issue of stray marks -- was that something the patient checked off or not?

      As for just telling the doctor (or more likely, a nurse or PA) at the appointment, you have the problem of does the patient accurately remember the details from a few days (or weeks) ago, or are they just guessing. (This goes also for the patient who just fills out their paper card right before the appointment.) In a clinical trial, accurate data is very, very important and any mechanism that will increase the likelihood of collecting all of the required data with fewer chances for incorrect data is a good thing.

  • Intelligent Origami (Score:3, Funny)

    by Omkar ( 618823 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:46AM (#5214667) Homepage Journal
    I'm thinking things that help you fold as you fold. "Sink here...Not like that, idiot."

  • Ironically, it's Windows-only! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Tsar ( 536185 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @08:53AM (#5214693) Homepage Journal
    From the FAQ [cypak.com]:
    "...our COM/ActiveX interface component can be used to get data from the ECP directly to Excel for example. Some VB scripting is required to do the plumbing with the specific customer application."

    So until somebody writes the requisite API, your application has to be Windows-based to read patient data from these packages. I called that ironic because their site is apparently on a Linux box.
    • I dont see that as particularily ironic. They are using Linux to host their site because Linux is particularily better at doing this.

      If I was using spreadsheets, processing data and making reports I would most likely be doing it in Windows.

      A COM object is excellent. You can have a macro embedded in your spreadsheet / database / word document that grabs all the data out of this.

      As far as i can see they are picking the best tools for the job.
  • by accident..may I have another one?

  • Yet another tech journalism rant... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tsar ( 536185 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @09:04AM (#5214735) Homepage Journal
    Just an observation (okay, a gripe): Why is it that every time someone makes an announcement about printing electronics on paper, the press starts talking about "disposable PC's right around the corner?"

    Silicon is pretty cheap, right? But that one fact hasn't made PC's disposable. And none of these companies (that I know of) are planning to print PC's anyway--they're just talking about cheap stuff like lightweight CPU's, sensors and tracking circuits. Why all the hype, you press guys? Didn't the dot-com debacle teach you anything?
  • So now we can finally have those annoying singing cereal boxes just like in the movie.

  • If only they could help compliance (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The Tyro ( 247333 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @09:12AM (#5214780)
    I don't know about other applications, but I'd like to see something like this to help patient compliance.

    over 50% of patients are non-complaint with their drug regime and/or instructions. I am not sure if some pill-pak reminding the patient would help or not.

    I provide printed medication instructions, verbal instructions, and instructions on the bottle... and people STILL don't take their medications like they are supposed to. This leads me to do things like treat Strep throat with single-dose Intramuscular Penicillin injections... one dose, done... takes non-compliance right out of the picture.

    No matter how many times I tell people to take all their medication... they take it 'till they start feeling better, then stick the rest in the medicine cabinet. The next time they get a "sore throat," they promptly bust out the old prescription and start taking pills. I find this out when they show up a few days later, wanting to know why their sore throat isn't clearing up like last time (answer: because it's viral). Of course, we'll also never know if it's viral or not, because the antibiotics they are taking screw up any throat culture I might do.

    They either need to make a pill-pak that self-destructs after a period of time, or one that repeatedly screeches "I'm expired! Throw me away now!" in a high, fingernails-on-the-chalkboard voice.

    • Serious medications already have this (in a way) (Score:5, Interesting)

      by adzoox ( 615327 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @09:30AM (#5214869) Journal
      Serious medications or trial medications from most resources like Pfizer have been coming in little 30 day pill boxes for about a year that do "alarm" when needed. and DO document whether the little "box containing the pill" was opened within 30 minutes of the alarm. My grandmother has such a dosage meter/alarm for her parkinson's medication. It looks like a 3D calendar and she has to go exchange it for the "next month" every month - the pills are already placed in the proper compartments. (Some days have different dosage and some days have different medication)
      • Those are actually a real godsend to senior citizens, just like those "a box for every day of the week" pill boxes. They are mostly for the people who are non-compliant through sheer forgetfulness (which includes a lot of us as we age...).

        Even so, I wish they could do something about the "hassle factor." People simply don't take their meds because it's inconvenient, or too much hassle.

        A good example is Acyclovir for herpes... you have to take it five times a day. People don't take it because it is inconvenient, and I tend not to prescribe it for this very reason. If I have my choice, I make it as easy as possible for the patient; given the option, I opt for something like Famcyclovir (can be given three times a day, compared to five).

        You are correct; compliance can be improved somewhat with the type of product you mention. but there is still that hassle factor, and the fact that unused medication accumulates in people's medicine cabinets, waiting to be used inappropriately. I still would like to see the self-destruct option, it might save someone's little nephew when he goes looking in the medicine cabinet for some tic-tacs. That happened to me as a very young child... I sucked down a whole bottle of thorazine. I was lucky enough to survive. Some kids aren't so lucky...
    • And an alarm reminder when they haven't taken their medication.
  • I wonder when we'll be able to print our own CPU's at home, using a bubble-ink printer with special ink...

    And if we can print it, there must be some way to see/edit the underlying circuitry, hence open source printable CPU's could be around the corner...

    What is better that recompiling your kernel? Running it on your own variation of the Intel architecture.

  • Hasn't anyone ever bought one of those cell phone antennas that come on scotch tape. "It's like having a six foot antenna coming out of your cell phone!" I say you tape a bunch of these to an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and then tape that to the back of laptop, shouldn't that give you a 250ft Wifi antenna?

    Of course these "tape antennas" are $19.95 TV hoaxes. I'm sure this will happen one day, but I doubt if the company has anything behind their theoretical trial at this point.

    Also modern chip lithography isn't much different from printing.

  • What sort of Battery ? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hopbine ( 618442 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @09:24AM (#5214838)
    It seems like a great idea, and some /. posters have already got some applications for it in mind, but what powers this, is the battery printed as well? If it gets really inexpensive, will there be a disposal problem.
  • Imagine a Beowulk cluster of these things.. It would trulyly be a Von Nueman machine. If it needed to speed up its processor it could just issue print commands to the printer... If it had itself in a pile on the floor and had contacts ready it could add on to itself automattically. (Bring back the old paper reels with the perforated sides... Ideal for such a thing.)
  • Sounds great... until your doodle in the corner accidentally overclocks your daily minder, schedules you for lunch with 65536 different people at the same time and bursts into flames.
  • Now they just have to figure out how to shrink a power source down small enough to match. With this technology, the size of a battery would be a limiting factor in thickness. Not only that, but a battery contains toxic chemicals that would be paired side by side with one of the most thrown away materials of our day: paper. This might also throw a wrench into recycling..not only because of the battery but because of the material(s) used for the processor and electronics.

    Still pretty cool thought, but perhaps a warning "do not burn this computerized paper in your fireplace" would be in order so people aren't getting battery bits shot into their eyes.
  • Remember, aluminum cans in this bin, CPUs and newspapers in this one...
  • Circuits/Sensors/Antennae on PAPER
    +
    Missing Children "Have you seen me" postcards
    =
    Total Information Awareness [darpa.mil]

    or...
    In Bush's America, your mail reads YOU! [eff.org]
  • That I ideas are often better on paper than on silicon.
  • First of all, what are the implications of a packet/bottle/box of pills spurting out questions whenever you pick them up? I mean, how the hell are you going to keep paranoid skitzophrenics on their medication?

    "My meds, man... They're talkin' to me. No, really... They're talking to me man."

    I suppose the potential is the same for stoners, but that's another bag of beans.

    Secondly, weren't we supposed to see paper printed cell phones in every vending machine already? I remember a few years back some woman had figured this application through, and the media was running around with their typical un-educated stories: "Soon, you'll be able to print a cell phone from your own printer right at home."

    Still, this is existing technology, and has been jumped upon before, with no results I've ever seen.
  • You pull out a note pad and begin to write...

    Dear Sally,

    And your paper clip stands up and says "It looks like you're writing a letter, would you like help?".

    You throw the paper clip in the trash, but before you can get rid of it, it winks at you. Scared yet?
  • ...if you pop too many pills in a certain time frame...does it have a built in cell phone to report you to a substance abuse center?
  • Does this meen that we will be able to order a A4 sheet of cluster any time soon?

  • Are you pondering what I'm pondering? (Score:3, Funny)

    by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @10:33AM (#5215176) Homepage
    Paper airplanes with guidance systems!
  • Every time I see an article about these conductive ink on paper circuitries, I get to wondering how feasible it would be to get a pack of these inks for an inkjet printer and print your own simple integrated circuits. How large a piece of paper would you need to print an 8086 clone (and would it burst into flame from the heat released)? If hardware becomes trusted against its user, could we print a useful (if slow) processor using this technology?
    • I used to work a summer job at a screenprinting shop where we printed the circuit boards for remote controllers and other such things. the trick is finding something that will draw small lines with conductive ink.

  • Already in use in Porto, Portugal!! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by joaoncastro ( 590926 ) <jnc@esoterica.pt> on Monday February 03, 2003 @10:48AM (#5215273)
    Here in Porto [metro-porto.pt] we already are using paper tickets with a memory chip for ticketing in the public transport.

    These chips are dormant most of the time and wake up when they are near the equipment that reads the data. The circuit is made with a special silver ink.
    Each ticket costs around 50 cents for 176 bits of data.

    For more info check out www.ask.fr [www.ask.fr] (silver ink)and www.rafsec.com [rafsec.com] (thin copper)

    cheers!

  • Imagine... (Score:3, Funny)

    by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @10:53AM (#5215306) Homepage
    A Beowulf cluster of these! Definitely a novel approach, and you could rack-mount them on your bookshelf.
  • Sure, like all technologies it can have as many bad applications as good ones.

    When I read that they had antennas and buttons, etc. I suddenly thought of electronic ink/OLED-type touch screens, perhaps to be used as wireless x-terms or such? I figure that perhaps the power supply problem could be solved by powering through induction(is that the term?) - like how my electric toothbrush charges (no plugs or wires - just sit it on the base) - or perhaps the battery could be contained in a clipboard? Hell, you could probably fit it all into a cardboard sheet!

    This and the printable-screen technologies are seriously cool and exciting things. Perhaps the potential to use such technology to 'invade' privacy isn't a bad thing? Age of transparency anyone?

    Bleh, just image the possibilities!

  • What qualified this technique as "cheap, and is it available to the home consumer?" I'm guessing that they probably don't have a kit for my home inkjet that would allow me to print mini-computers.

    Still, if one could get a printer for say,
    Note: With the current trend, I wouldn't be surprised if "CPU printers" cost $100, but the paper is $150/ream and the equivilent of ink somewhere in that range as well...
  • I thought one of the cool things about technology was moving towards a paperless medium.

  • Just photocopy your CPU and before you know it you have a Beowu...good grief! Is that the time already? Must dash!
  • This could be used to thwart counterfeiting I would think. If each legal note came with some sort of hash that could be verified through a checksum of some sort.

  • Oh crap... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Bvardi ( 620485 )
    Does this mean that the paper my EULA is written on will have it's own EULA? (Which will have its' own EULA... so on and so on... ok I have to lay down now, my brain hurts.)
  • So how about printing microchips on paper on your office printer:

    Hired another programmer? See this stack of paper? It will become your desktop - this sheet your CPU and this one is your RAM chip. If you want a bigger monitor grab that tabloid sheet of paper (11x17) or better yet, stack 4 of them together.

    All you need is a keyboard and a mouse - we probably can print a keyboard and real men don't use mice anyway!
  • That gives you the warning every time you pull a cigarette from it.


  • Just another way for Lexmark to sell you a printer for next to nothing, then screw you on supplies...

  • OK, somebody has to say it (Score:3, Funny)

    by errxn ( 108621 ) on Monday February 03, 2003 @05:08PM (#5217820) Homepage Journal
    This idea looks great on paper....

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