Subscribe by EmailElectronic paper that talks to you
June 7, 2007 by Geeks are Sexy | 6 comments
Just imagine yourself going to the grocery store one day, and while picking up a certain kind of cookie package, the product would start talking to you, trying to sell you the idea that these particular kinds of cookies are the best ones you will ever taste. How would you react?
Something like this could become quite common in the next decade.
Swedish researchers have recently invented an electronic paper billboard that can actually emit sounds when touched. The prototype uses conductive inks that are sensible to pressure, linked to speakers that are embedded in the e-paper.
According to researchers, this technology could be very useful to advertising firms, letting them, for instance, interactively announce holiday destinations.
“When you approach the billboard and put your hand on a postcard that shows a picture of a beach, you can hear a very brief description of that beach.” said Mikael Gulliksson, the person in charge or the research project.
For now, the production of this e-paper is too expensive to let the technology be of common use, but it shouldn’t be long until scientists discover new ways of bringing its manufacturing cost down.
In just a few years, this talking paper technology could be used on simple product packaging, bringing an all-new dimension to the world of products advertisement.
(via BBC)
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Oh god, this is going to be like those freaky projections in Minority Report, isn’t it?
Yeah, I’m afraid so..
A day will come when no matter where we go, we’ll be harrased by publicity in one way or another..
Depressing isn’t it?
C’mon, this has far more wide-reaching implications than just advertising – what about photos which describe themselves to blind people, or a section of legalese on a contract which, when touched, explains itself more fully in layman’s terms.
Thats sexy technogoloy if you ask me.
Scotty: Good point, such a technology would definitely be of use to many more sectors of activity then advertisement. The future will indeed be a very interesting time to live in :) Let’s just hope we don’t make too much of a mess out of our world before then.
I really hope that this won’t be used for advertising because that would be more annoying than anyone could ever imagine. It would be cool though if you could buy a magazine that reads its articles to you. like reading pcmag and robert heron would tell you about the latest and greatest TV.
That’s crazy, but of course it will be used for advertising. As an investor, why would anyone invest unless they get a payback?
However, if they can make it so that it has a mute button,t hat would be nice. :o)