CAN SPEAKING PAPER FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE MONEY LITERALLY TALK? (PHOTO: MANJIDES)
A team from Mid Sweden University have produced a prototype billboard embedded with conductive inks and printed speakers, so that when you touch it it plays audio at you. The article in BBC News says that the inventors think it could be useful in product packaging - and I do see the temptation. However, I don't really need my yoghurt to tell me how many grammes of fat it has or exactly how tasty it is. That would cause quite the cacophony in supermarkets.
Seems to me that this would be more useful for blind people, as a high-tech version of braille. But there'd presumably have to be some way of listening privately though (a printed headphone jack perhaps), otherwise you could reach the end of your intellectual magazine only to find it suddenly starts shouting out all the adverts for sex phone lines that are printed at the back. Very embarrassing.
Such a fun & enjoyable 'lil post. :)
Well yes, as exciting as the prospects sound, the dangers'll prob. stretch as far as the human imagination wanders, i guess..
Thank you for these regular and amusing posts, and do take care.
Wishes, minerva*
Posted by: minerva* | June 08, 2007 at 10:12 PM