Slashdot Mirror
E-Paper On Cereal Boxes
coastin writes "Wired Mag has an article about electronics maker Siemens,
readying a paper-thin electronic-display technology. They say
it is so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable
packaging. Imagine items on grocer's shelves that flash commercials
at you as you walk by. From the article: 'When kids see flashing
pictures on cereal boxes we don't expect them to just ask for the
product, but to say, "I want it", said Axel Gerlt, an engineer
at Siemens tasked with helping packaging companies implement the
technology.'"
Looks awfully familiar to that cereal box in Minority Report...of course, this probably is an old idea put into a movie.
Boy, did the prognisticators really miss that one -- everyone kept talking about web-enabled microwaves. Little did they know the web-enabled cereal box would come first.
Something less recyclable than paper to package all our crap with. That's flashy and annoying. And uses (and landfills) batteries.
On the bright side you'll always know if the product is fresh or not. Not fresh: no display. Of course then you won't know till you open it if you have Cheerios or Chex Mix.
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
They've been talking about ePaper like this for years, along with a ton of other technologies. ePaper doesn't seem to be any closer to their claims now than it was years ago.
OLED too. Considering they keep showing off larger and larger displays, and the stuff is supposed to be dirt cheap to manufacture, I sure haven't seen any OLED displays bigger than a few inches across. If they are truely as cheap as they claim they are, lifespan isn't an issue as you could buy frequent replacements. Make a 17" OLED display with a modular capability to easily swap out the display itself. If it only cost $50 for the display itself, replacing it a few times during the lifetime of the product could still be cheaper than existing technology.
There still has to be a digital input to the ePaper. Like an LCD, it will always be possible to hack it to display something else.
You mean, in the same way it's possible to "hack" the FPU out of a CPU into another unit? THINK about it. If they print all the circuitry as a single device, you'd have to have fab-quality tools to directly interface with the ePaper. That is NOT my idea of a "hackable" piece of ePaper. (Especially since it would be cheaper and easier just to purchase a generic ePaper display.) And that's assuming that they don't further cut corners with tricks like not adding eInk to areas that don't change in the animation.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
There are potential benefits here, though. For one thing, if you can add some buttons to make the display interactive, you can fit a lot more information onto the label.
[javac] 100 errors
Grocery stores will be like the web prior to adblock, but then google will find some cool way to integrate relevant ads by scanning what is in your cart. "Hey you can make manicotti with what you have in your cart plus ricotta cheese and this box." All text, of course.
ink-printed images of today to a digital medium of flashing graphics and text that displays prices, special offers or alluring photos, all blinking on miniature flat screens.
This means that as people check out, the cash register could swipe the RFID tag on the umbrella that was just sold and tell all the other umbrellas to raise their price on this e-paper by $1.00 because it might be raining.
No Sigs!
Had to ask a woman (mid 20's, high school drop out, and quite frankly couldn't even approach pretty without plastic surgery) if, after looking at an ad, she thought some shampoo that cost more than she made in an hour would make her "beautiful". Was totally shocked when she said yes, and decided I couldn't do a job where the point was to find people's misconceptions and exploit them.
It only took two times of dropping to one knee in the middle of the grocery aisle, upending my son onto the other knee and a couple of quick whacks on his bottom to curtail whiny outbursts over whatever pretty shiny box with on it that he wanted. Not even hard whacks, it was the embarrassment and shame of having that done in front of strangers that did it. He's 4, and now is able to have a somewhat reasonable conversation about 'why' he can't have something. He might not like it, but he knows we have the final say.
Now, all I have to do is give a little askance look at him and ask him if he needs to be spanked in front of everyone. He'll then try to reason his way into getting it, sometimes I give in, most of the time I win. The next time he see's that particular item in the store, he'll even reiterate the reasons I gave him for not wanting to buy whatever it was, couched in language like "I can't have that because it is full of those plastic oils and high fructose corn syrup? Right Daddy?" Unfortunately, 'high fructose' comes out usually as 'high fucktoes' ;)
I love the stares from the other parents as they whip through the aisles trying to get out of there before their little one has another meltdown and they overhear these conversations.
Wait, What?
If you want to bring in a number of auxilliary driving forces, you might as well enumerate the seven deadly sins. When you think about it, these provide almost all the core reasons why we have advanced as fast as we have, compared to other cultures throughout history.
Many cultures have risen to heights, both technological and philosophical, some of which we ourselves can't yet lay claim to. But from a historical standpoint, Eurocentric societies have rapidly moved from being quite literally the armpit of the known world, to the absolute domination of the globe (both the US and modern Russia count as eurocentrically derrived, in the long run). Only China and the middle east can claim to have had a global impact worth comparing.
Why? Simple. Europeans, back in the dark ages, identified, enumerated, and understood human nature. They knew their sins, which made them easier to pursue.
Greed - the need to make money, and to find more ways of getting as much of it as possible.
Sloth - just plain lazyness. We want our machines to do the work for us.
Gluttony - the drive to produce more plentiful food, that tastes better, regardless of nutritional content or actual need.
Wrath - newer and better ways to kill our fellow man
Envy - one nation sees what another has, and wants it for themselves, so they have to figure it out for themselves.
Pride - the need to produce something better than what's out there, to become famous for your creations, or for national pride.
Lust - I'm not sure how to articulate why this actually drives western progress, but I'm certain it's the keystone to all our social evolution.
Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
I'm single and childless, so this isn't a real problem for me. However, a friend of mine from college will not even let her children go to the supermarket with them. She stays at home with the kids, and sends her husband to pick up the groceries. That way, the kids can't beg the parents to buy things on impulse.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
Which is why my wife and I take turns shopping: one of us stays HOME with the kid. Lots less impulse buying that way.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Actually, it's interesting - in a few kids I've observed, there is so much useless advertising hitting them all the time, they've learned how to ignore all but the "coolest" ads (and they like to watch those mainly for the artistry), and the really blatant stuff seems to annoy them.
They've also become really good at figuring out when their parents or siblings are trying to manipulate them emotionally - perhaps these skills are related.
Liberally dishing of spankings isn't without its drawbacks either. Plenty of psychological studies have shown that it can lead to serious issues (self esteem, depression, socialability) later in life.
Artificially creating conflict like marketing does should not be allowed. If it wasn't for the marketing, you (as a parent) wouldn't have to be forced to decide between spoiling the brat (which is even worse for his/her long term social and mental health, no less your pocketbook) and having to be the 'no' and punitive person (which leads to another set of problems mostly manifesting in teenagers/young adults).
Personally, I will not allow my kids to come with me food shopping if I ever have any, and cold cereals (or other crap) will not be on my list. Combined with strict commercial filtering I hope to keep the temptation to a minimum. This would mean no live TV, but my experience with kids is that recorded or P2P'ed material is far prefered by them anyway, and recorded material offers me more control over their viewing habits with far less intrusiveness than having to ban TV channels or TV altogether - and the wider selection available on P2P generally balances out the crap unavailable due to censorship. (I don't intend on buying stuff in stores as finding anything that isn't mainstream is extremely hard, and even the stuff that I can find will have to be ripped [since backups are a must for kids] and generally comes as a handful of assorted episodes instead of the full 65 episodes])