Paper Mounted CPUs 154
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."
Smart Toilet Paper (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Smart Toilet Paper (Score:2, Funny)
Errrr...isn't the toilet paper supposed to have those brown streaks on it? ;-)
Re:Smart Toilet Paper (Score:2)
Re:Smart Toilet Paper (Score:2)
Re:Smart Toilet Paper (Score:2)
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)
Just watch out (Score:3, Funny)
Hrmm (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hrmm (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Hrmm (Score:2)
Re:Hrmm (Score:2)
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)
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).
Re:Gives new meaning to the expression (Score:1)
Overclock? (Score:3, Funny)
Sure thing wise guy (Score:1, Funny)
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?"
Re:Overclock? (Score:2)
Text from the "blog" (Score:2, Informative)
so you dont have to
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."
Here is one possible application designed for drug trials.
Rafe Needleman is quite optimistic about Cypak's future.
More information about Cypaq's intelligent pharmaceutical packaging can be
found at their Electronic [cypak.com]
Compliance Packaging webpage.
Other applications (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Other applications (Score:2)
Re:Other applications (Score:2, Funny)
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?
Re:Other applications (Score:2)
Re:Other applications (Score:2)
Re:Other applications (Score:2)
Re:Other applications (Score:1)
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?"
Look Ma.. I get A's (Score:2, Funny)
Reinventing the Printed Circuit Board (Score:5, Interesting)
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)
Whole New Way to Cheat (Score:2, Funny)
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)
A: Fill a prescription
B: Test your blood
C: The morgue
Re:Processors running Windows CE... (Score:1)
Re:Processors running Windows CE... (Score:2, Funny)
harry potter (Score:1, Funny)
where this will be really used.... (Score:2, Interesting)
later,
epicstruggle
Re:where this will be really used.... (Score:1)
That would be a hell of a turn-off though...
Daniel
Re:where this will be really used.... (Score:1)
Unless it's a sexy woman saying "you'll see more of me".
*evil grin*
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:where this will be really used.... (Score:2)
(Or do some literal "money laundering"
Re:where this will be really used.... (Score:1)
Re:where this will be really used.... (Score:3, Funny)
Disposables? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Paperless office" anyone? =)
Re:Disposables? (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
~Jon~
electronic carbon paper (Score:3, Interesting)
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.)
Re:Disposables? (Score:2)
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.
Re:Disposables? (Score:2)
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!
counterfeiting applications? (Score:2, Funny)
Polling technology? (Score:1)
Wooah! (Score:2)
My thought (Score:1, Informative)
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)
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)
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)
Ironically, it's Windows-only! (Score:3, Informative)
"...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.
Re:Ironically, it's Windows-only! (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
I've crumpled up my Beowulf cluster of these (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I've crumpled up my Beowulf cluster of these (Score:1)
I screwed up mine using it as a grocery list.
Yet another tech journalism rant... (Score:3, Insightful)
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?
Minority Report (Score:1)
If only they could help compliance (Score:5, Interesting)
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)
Re:Serious medications already have this (in a way (Score:2)
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...
Re:If only they could help compliance (Score:1)
Re:If only they could help compliance (Score:1)
People who don't follow the directions with antibiotics are doing their tiny part towards breeding the next plague. (And there's the wholesale dosing of livestock with antibiotics, but don't get me started!)
You aren't ones of those people who demand antibiotics to treat their colds, are you? (Viral, won't help.)
Re:If only they could help compliance (Score:2)
Excuse me? Did I insult anyone? Did I call anyone stupid? I simply expressed my frustration at one of medicine's biggest problems, that of noncompliance with treatment.
In fact, I believe it was you who characterized doctors as "self-righteous drug dealers"...
Who has the attitude here?
Re:If only they could help compliance (Score:2)
Figured that out all by yourself, did you?
Well mister trolling anonymous coward... allow me to retort.
Patronising and self-righteous? Please... If you really think I'm a self-righteous drug dealer, then why do you keep showing up in my office? If you don't think I'm going to be able to help you, and don't trust my treatments, then why are you wasting your time and mine? There are plenty of people out there who want to get better, and are willing to give me the benefit of the doubt for my decade+ of training. Yes, you spent years and years training for what you do... that's why I'll take your advice on how to configure a kernel, and why YOU should take MY advice when it comes to medications. Where I have enough insight to know when I don't know, you are apparently an expert on everything.
If you are so cynical and paranoid that you aren't even willing to follow your medication instructions because you think I might be poisoning you (do you think we just make up dosages and treatment intervals?), then trot on down to the herb-and-crystal store and try your luck.
If this seems patronising, and you don't want to be treated like a 4yo, then start behaving like an adult. Don't waste your time going to the doctor if you think he's a quack... if you've got something better, have at it. Don't waste your doctor's time if you aren't going to listen, and don't have a modicum of trust for what he's going to tell you. I seriously doubt your doctor came over to your flat and dragged you to his office.
YOU sought HIM out, did you not?
Good grief... blaming your doctor for your own ignorant non-compliance. That's called projection... and it means you have the problem, not your doctor.
Troll.
Open source CPU? (Score:1)
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.
This has been around for years ... (Score:1)
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)
Re:What sort of Battery ? (Score:1)
JMR
Speaking ONLY for me!!!
Re:What sort of Battery ? (Score:2)
Had to be said.... (Score:1)
An HB2 now equals overclocking power! (Score:1)
Power! (Score:2)
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.
So much for the paperless office... (Score:1)
Ubiquitous sensors. (Score:1)
+
Missing Children "Have you seen me" postcards
=
Total Information Awareness [darpa.mil]
or...
In Bush's America, your mail reads YOU! [eff.org]
It's always been said... (Score:2)
Two Observations (Score:1)
"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.
oh the possibilities.... (Score:2, Funny)
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?
Re:oh the possibilities.... (Score:1)
So what about... (Score:1)
Clustering (Score:1)
Are you pondering what I'm pondering? (Score:3, Funny)
Making old or custom hardware... (Score:2)
the idea is not far off (Score:1)
Already in use in Porto, Portugal!! (Score:4, Interesting)
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)
Imagine! (Score:1)
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!
Can we print them too? (Score:2)
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...
Re:Can we print them too? (Score:2)
Wait a minute... (Score:1)
Multiprocessing made easy! (Score:2, Redundant)
Embedded in paper money? (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh crap... (Score:2, Funny)
printing microchips (Score:2)
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!
a Talking Cigarette pack (Score:2)
Saw this one coming (Score:2)
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)
Re:So you can use it on drug boxes... (Score:1)
Most things we do are about filling in a form (how many web forms have you created and/or filled today?). Suppose you want to post on /. You take your "Form request" form and write what you want on it, it requests the "/. post comment" form from your local printer. You write your comment on the "/. post comment" form and check the "Submit" box - your comment appears on /.
Xerox already have reprintable paper for those who think this is wasteful. So once you have a form for a specific application you could keep wiping it (just the bits you wrote, not the layout or the underlying electonics) and re-using it.
Re:Imagine (Score:2, Insightful)
Like detecting the presence of BLOOD in the stool. That's a major warning sign that something bad is happening in your colon.
Re:Imagine (Score:1)
Re:Only a month late (Score:1)