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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."

5 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Re:PAPERLESS OFFICE by AusIV · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It'll be a long time before paper can be completely eliminated from the office setting. Reusable paper decreases the number of trees killed.


    As for destroying the environment that's just FUD.

  2. An interesting application... by XorNand · · Score: 3, Interesting

    An interesting application for this would be for printable coupons. You get a piece of this paper in the mail with some sort of promotion. The instructions tell you feed the paper into your printer and visit a certain URL to print a "special one day only" coupon.

    Sure, expiration ("expiry" for the rest of the world) dates have been around forever. However, knowing that your coupon will literally disappear tomorrow would be an added psychological incentive to use it. (I've *got* to stop giving marketers new ideas...)

    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  3. Re:How long will the paper survive? by yoha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    True - and with regular paper costing only $0.01/page, the existing solution comes pretty close to free. Even adding the $0.05/page of ink, it's tough to see why a company/university would make the investment in this sort of paper. Assuming it's costs $1.00/pg, you would need this to last at least 16 iterations, on average, to make it worth your investment.

  4. Re:Finally, contracts ... by ThisNukes4u · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Make photocopies.

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    thisnukes4u.net
  5. Re:PAPERLESS OFFICE by inviolet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The recycling of paper is bad for the environment. Paper represents carbon that a tree took from the air by converting CO2 to O2. If you bury that paper, the carbon remains sequestered, and then a new tree can take new carbon from the air to make new paper.

    Recycling reduces the demand for this cycle, and therefore reduces the rate of atmospheric carbon removal rate.

    Ditto for lumber.

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