Here’s another one of those “wow! I could have really used something like this at x point in my life, why didn’t someone think of that before” ideas. In University, the occasional textbook I actually bought was usually stuffed full of Post-It notes referencing quotes or other important facts I’d probably be tested on. But instead of drawing little arrows pointing to what I should remember (highlighting would have diminished the text’s resale value) I could’ve used these sheer Post-It notes to actually circle the blurb of text and remove any doubt of what I had to memorize when it was time to cram for exams. At the moment it seems that 3M only sells their Sheer Post-It notes in 1 inch wide colored strips (sheer yellow, sheer green, sheer blue and sheer melon) but I think a larger version would come in a lot more handy. Even an 8 1/2 x 11 letter-sized Post-It that would let you mark up a whole page.
You know what the biggest waste of paper is? That’s right: paper. Xerox knows a thing or to about paper, and they’ve come up with self-erasing paper that can be used over and over again. Not erasable, but self-erasing, leaving you with an entirely blank sheet of paper after 24 hours that you can reuse up to 100 times. Here’s how it works:
“The paper contains specially coded molecules that create a print after being exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from a thin bar in a printer. The molecule readjusts itself within 24 hours to its original form to delete the print, or heat can readjust the molecule instantly.”
Obviously, one of the nice things about paper is that in general when you write something down it means you have a permanent, physical copy of something. But for memos about TPS report formatting and such, it’s better for everyone when they just disappear.
When I went to CTIA last month I noticed something cool at most of the monorail stops. There were large mats close to where you would board, and on the mats you could see fish swimming around. If you stepped on it, you would see water rippling and the fish would scatter accordingly. There wasn’t anything around to identify the mat, and it was too bright out to get a good picture, so didn’t think about it anymore once I had left. Then I saw something about an exhibit at the Science Museum in London which looked very familiar.
I can only imagine that what I saw in Vegas was done by the same company. The Living Image, as it’s called, uses a 6,500 lumens overhead projector and a slew of sensors to create the images on a mat. Multiple people can interact with it just by walking around on the mat. I thought it was cool, and it certainly made the wait for the Monorail go by quicker.
Buttons were a good idea for controlling gadgetry. Touchscreens were a better idea, and tilt sensors improved usability further. The problem with all of these interfaces, however, is you have to do unnatural things with your device to get them to function, especially if your gadget is just a big screen, which is the sexy thing to do nowadays. Microsoft has developed a demonstration device (it’s a hacked up Samsung UMPC) with built-in force sensors that respond when your hands put pressure on the unit… For example, you might squeeze the unit to zoom in on a picture, and then stretch it to zoom out. The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to take your hands off the device, and you don’t have to change the orientation either.
It’s just a research project, but it has such obvious applications to gadgets that are getting more and more compact and consequently more complicated to control, that I’m relatively optimistic about this technology making the jump from prototype to production sooner rather than later.
Post-It notes are one of those things that I didn’t think could be improved by technology. Turns out I’m wrong, as the MIT Media Lab has invented a system called Quickies, which take ordinary sticky notes and makes them digital and intelligent. Developed by grad student Pranav Mistry, Quickies use an electronic pad and embedded RFID tags to figure out not only what is written on the note, but also where the note is stickied. The Quickie software can then do all sorts of neat little things based on the contents of the note:
Quickies are just a functional demo right now, but it won’t be long until printing RFID tags on paper get cheap enough (and RFID readers get ubiquitous enough) that it’ll make sense to have Post-Its that are just a little bit more clever than your average piece of paper.
I swung by the Stanford Cool Product Expo yesterday to have a look at some of the… uh… cool products being showcased by companies from the Stanford University community (design groups, startups, etc.). I have a thing for nifty displaysystems, so BumpTop and their giant touchscreen caught my eye right off the bat. Take a look:
BumpTop is different from things like Surface for the simple reason that it’s software driven and requires no special hardware. You can use it with your mouse, or two mice to emulate a multitouch display. ‘Course, ideally you’d have a touchscreen to get the most out of the system, and by the time BumpTop launches later this year, hopefully we’ll have some affordable touchscreen computing platforms to choose from. I’m looking at you, Asus.
The prototype version (the one I saw appears to be a later beta version) showcases some neat little tricks that weren’t obvious in the above demo; you can see the prototype in action on YouTube after the jump. If you’re in any doubt how neat the little tricks actually are, you should know that the prototype demo video is ranked #10 in all time views in YouTube in the sci/tech category. So yeah, it’s cool. Read the rest of this entry »
The Kyocera Corporation recently announced that it has developed the world’s fastest high-resolution inkjet printhead for commercial applications. In fact the KJ4 Series achieved a print speed of 150 meters per minute on a Miyakoshi MJP600 commercial printer, at a resolution of 600×600 dpi. That translates to about 1,000 A4-sized pages a minute, or an even more impressive 16 pages a second.
To pull off this feat, the company applied its proprietary piezoelectric ceramics technology to create a compact piezo actuator that controls the ink flow. And its this component that makes the high-speed, high-resolution printing possible. While the KJ4 series was tested in a commercial printer, I’m not entirely sure if it will ever be available in consumer level inkjet printers. At least not one that’s capable of spitting out 1,000 pages a minute.
When I first read about this whole ‘digital pen’ trend a year or so ago, I really wasn’t sure if there was a market for the devices as most people now rely on computers, cellphones and PDAs when it comes to communicating or jotting down notes. But based on the feedback I got from my review of the FLY Fusion Pentop Computer there’s definitely a large group of consumers looking for a way to bridge the gap between writing with a keyboard and writing with a pen or pencil.
Over the past year the EPOS Digital Pen has popped up on OhGizmo! from time to time in various prototype forms, but now that the pen is finally hitting the market I had an opportunity to see what it was capable of and how it compares to the FLY Fusion. You can check out my full review of the EPOS Digital Pen & USB Flash Drive, complete with plenty of photos, after the jump.
In their March newsletter, Aptera is making things sound pretty bright and cheery when it comes to the future of their (let’s face it) revolutionary car-thing. Yesterday they added this video, which doesn’t provide much in the way of new info, but does show some details of the car’s interior:
Also in the newsletter, Aptera promises that they’re “going to be updating you regularly from now until the rollout.” They’re hiring new people, making a new website, and moving into a bigger place, but the meat and potatoes is that they still have to conduct advanced crash testing and refine the manufacturing process before production. Their goal is still to begin production in “late 2008.”
I noticed a few more facts on their website, such as the minimum hybrid mileage of 130 mpg (at sustained highway speeds). Also, the Aptera is classified as a motorcycle (although it doesn’t require any special driver’s license endorsement) but it exceeds safety requirements for a passenger car. Check out the Aptera website for plenty more info.
If you hand someone a gift wrapped in newspaper and twine, they’re going to figure out you picked it up at the gas station 10 minutes before you got to their house. But if you hand someone the same gift that looks like it was wrapped by Martha Stewart, they’ll cherish that deodorizing air freshener until the day they die. But since very few of us have Martha’s skills (or dedicated army of gift wrappers) Hallmark has made things a bit easier by introducing adhesive gift wrap.
The underside of the wrapping paper is covered with a low-tack adhesive which is probably similar to what Post-It Notes use. So if you can leave a note telling your co-worker to stop stealing your lunch, you can wrap a gift like a professional. The sticky side also makes it a lot easier to wrap non-box shaped items like bowling balls, golf clubs or even puppies. And while I think it’s a clever idea, it’s still not as fast as my own wrapping system which involves a can of spray paint and a well ventilated room.
The adhesive gift wrap will be available exclusively from Hallmark for about $5 a roll.
Related Tags: Innovation, Office
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By Andrew Liszewski
