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Xerox Reveals Transient Documents

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bum-papers dept.

Heartless Gamer writes "Xerox has lifted the veil from some of its research and development work in the field of printing. They demoed the very intriguing 'transient documents.' These offer the prospect of reusable paper in the sense that the content is automatically erased after a period of time, ready for fresh printing. Inspired by the fact that many print outs have a life-span of a few hours (think of the emails you may print out just to read, or the content you proof read on the train journey back home), the specially prepared paper will preserve its content for up to 16 hours."

3 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. How long will the paper survive? by iansmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Interesting, but how many times can you reuse paper that has been out in the real world?

    Spilled drinks, people drawing on it with pen, folding, crumping, tearing, chewing.

    I know most printers can't handle the paper if it's not in 100% perfect condition.. I can just imagine the kind of paper jams this thing could produce when someone thwoes in 6 pages stuck together with bubble gum, corners torn off and grease from their lunch calzone smeared all over it.

    Neat idea with the UV though. I love the idea of inkless printing, as long as the paper doesn't end up being more expensive than gold.

  2. This sounds like... by Jsutton1027w · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A really good way to play a practical joke on someone...

    - Term papers
    - Contracts
    - I could go on forever :)

  3. I'm worried by raptor_87 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This seems like it can (and therefore will) be used to add "DRM" to paper.