Paper computer

The notion of a printable computer has been around for several years; in late 2000, Technology Review ran an article titled "Print Your Next PC," on printable electronics research at MIT. Now a Swedish company, Cypak AB (itself the subject of earlier articles on printable computers), is marketing a simple, disposable computer that is printed on paperboard (a mix of paper and plastic), and "can collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data." As TechWeb explains,

The Cypak product utilizes RFID technology that is based on printable sensors and electronic modules. The components are integrated on a variety of products, ranging from packaging and plastic cards to adhesives.

Interestingly, the company is positioning it not as a kind of replacement for the conventional computer-- with only 32K of memory, that would be a hard sell-- but as a kind of supercharged, secure RFID chip, readable through a scanner that the company also produces (though they're working on an industry-standard version).

"Initially, it will be used in industrial-specific applications as an enhanced and secure RFID device," said Cypak marketing director Strina Ehrensvard in an email [to TechWeb]. "Today, in pharmaceutical and courier packaging as a data-collection device; tomorrow maybe for interactive books, lotteries, passports, and voting cards."

Elsewhere, Ehrensvard says that the printable computer will "transform static objects into secure data collection devices." The same technology is also being used a smart card (RFID Journal has some pretty pictures of the card.)