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Xerox Demos Self-Erasing, Eco-Friendly Paper
Lucas123 writes "The same Xerox lab that brought us Ethernet, the GUI and the mouse has demonstrated paper that can be reused after printed text automatically deletes itself from its surface in a day. Instead of trashing or recycling after one use, a single piece of paper can be reused up to 100 times. 'The paper contains specially coded molecules that create a print after being exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from a thin bar in a printer. The ultraviolet bar itself is very small, so it can be used in mobile printers. The technology could also be useful for network printing.'"
Now... where *did* I put that document...
I touch computers in naughty places
Wonder if you can recover sensitive data much like you can with over written hard disk sectors...
Not as in a crystal ball or anything, but I wonder if UV light will expose what was previously printed on these papers.
But will the paper start to jam after a few uses?
100 times is a lot of it to get jammed in the printer after a few uses.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
I bet the Whitehouse would LOVE this kind of technology...
Dare say many a politician or despot (the only difference being one has better eating manners than the other and doesnt need a large supply of brown bags) will be very happy to hear this news. I can see the White house glowing like Vegas in future from all the well placed ultra-violet lighting.
"I swear, my term paper was here two days ago when I turned it in."
www.voiceofthehive.com - Beekeeping and Honeybees for those who don't.
What if I want to keep it for longer? Just make it so it disappears when I shake it real hard.
Produces the same results. Yesterday's news
everyone seem to be making fun of these, but i could see them being really useful. a lot of stuff gets printed for short term use and are shredded right after.
say i go to a meeting, i print up a plan, diagram, couple pages of schematics for everyone at the meeting. that's a lot of wasted paper. then you do the presentation and everyone chucks it in the trash.
only the ludittes keeps the paper copies after the meeting, since you're likely to send them the documents by email anyway. it's just more useful to have a hard copy for the presentation
printed text automatically deletes itself from its surface in a day.
bush white house officials were heard saying 'yippee!' and we seen frolicking to and fro.
paper that erases itself: no need for any explanations about servers not being backed up, outlook doing this or that or any of those other handy excuses. "we didn't realize we used self-erasing paper. honest, we didn't."
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I wonder how it would show up on Dilbert cartoons: "Here. Read these 50 pages and make a report. You have 24h"
Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
..until some joker brought one of these to work http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8f84/
Hopefully Xerox learned from their mistake in the 80s in practically giving away their great ideas. Which is why still to this day many people think that Apple, or (god forbid) Microsoft invented the GUI and/or mouse.
I can see it now:
*cue flashback harps*
"As innovative as it is, this wacky graphical interface will never take off. Let those weirdo Apple guys have it."
10 years later...
"F**k."
Xerox has been trumpeting this technology at least as long as I've been slinging copiers for a living (nearly 10 years).
Considering how Xerox writes contracts, I wouldn't be surprised if they developed this technology for their own use!
"I know that oppressive contract I signed with Xerox had a service level agreement...Where is it?! IT WAS RIGHT HERE!!"
Next thing we'll have is DRM enabled printing that refuses to print this story unless it gets printed with self-erasing ink. But you can print it on permanent ink if you are a registered user. Registration is free. Enter your SSN here.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Double-take... did anyone else read "Xerox Hemos Self-effacing, CowboyNeal Pager"?
Or did I just come to the realization that too many 20-hour days is bad for reading comprehension and eyesight, and taking a break on slashdot is possibly not the best course of action?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
This is going to get picked up and achieve wide use if it's cheap enough.
The mouse, GUI and ethernet: these guys know what people want.
Perfect timing for all these companies who say they want to become environmentally friendly. Same companies that go through reams of paper every day.If there's cost savings involved as well this is a no-brainer.
Wait, I know!
They reinvented thermal paper! On purpose!
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.
Welcome to the 1970s and thermal printers. They self erased too and paper has always been re-usable.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Most (if not all) new paper comes from farmed trees - a renewable resource. We don't cut down virgin forests for paper. It's actually the recycling of paper that is a disaster for the environment. To this day, the paper recycling industry is the largest polluter of water in the US, due to all of the harsh chemicals needed in the process. Not to mention it's very expensive and requires government subsidies.
I missed the chance for an obvious Bush joke, so in all seriousness....
I moved about a month ago, and still haven't unpacked my printers. I think I printed three or four pages on a friend's printer last month, but that's it.
Virtually everything that I do these days is electronic - letters, ordering, resumes, photos - you name it. The only times that I print anything are handouts for meetings once in a long, long while, and drafts of really important proposals where I find that actually reading them off paper helps me to see errors and omissions.
My kids use significantly more of my stationary than I do.
Three Squirrels
Is this a dupe, 1 year ago?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/22/2353214
There's even pictures from the old TFA
I imagine if that became a concern, a simple software tool would become available that lets you run a page through a printer to black it out or fill it with random data, like shred (the command-line utility, not the physical process). It's not like it uses up ink.
We wrote on paper, then were able to reuse it at a later date. Sure, it wasn't as fancy as a printer, but the pencil and eraser sure worked well enough for me...
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Since its sensitive to UV, I guess you better be careful taking it outside or leaving it near a window. (Yes, I know most glass blocks a lot of UV, but still).
I doubt it was the same lab - the lab that brought us Ethernet (and the GUI, and Object Oriented programming) was their Palo-Alto Research Center (PARC) which has been spun off as a separate company.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
What happens when you place the paper in direct sunlight (which, too, contains UV wavelengths)?
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
...except for documents that have been marked up, stapled, or folded. So, about 80% of the stuff I print wouldn't be reusable anyway. That adds up to a big fat MEH.
include $sig;
1;
Back in the 1980s we used UV erasable EPROMS. With the correct UV lamps you could erase them in seconds or minutes. If you had natural light coming onto your desk then they'd get erased, but it would take a few days. Many an engineer was stumped as to why his circuit that worked fine yesterday was behaving badly today.
Now the same problem will extend to accountants!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The paper isn't going to be very reusable if you want to make notes on it. Which is the main advantage to printing things out in the first place (the other advantage being the ability to spread loose paper out on a table or any other large, flat surface).
DNA just wants to be free...
That printer's paper handling had better be absolutely amazing - I can't foresee a situation where a stack of daily-used, mildly dog-eared papers DOESN'T jam the thing on a regular basis.
computers MAKE more paper, not less of it. why do you think printers have been getting faster and faster. paperless office is a myth.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Imagine the fun that I'll have with professors when they constantly lose my homework...
>> Predictions that paper would disappear in the 1970s in favor of electronic documents were wrong
That's because no-one's ever given us E-paper. I don't want or need a whole forest of paper to be re-used after a single day (or whatever arbitrary number they set). I just want a single big sheet of foldable, high contrast (equivalent to todays paper-paper) E-paper that I can re-use whenever I see fit. I need it to be able to update wirelessless whatever data I happen to want (e.g. page 7 of the NYT), through a simple interface. And I need it be inter-active. If I double-tap a word, for instance, I want it to provide me with a definition, or perhaps wiki article, about that word. This reusable paper doesn't even come close.
Now we know how the government archived those missing e-mails.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
congratulations, Xerox! You've just invented the eraser!
+5, Truth
Just think, you can safely print out your "standard lobbyist price list" and it will erase itself, thus rendering it useless in corruption trials. w00t!
-- Will program for bandwidth
I wonder if that would work for newspapers? If they could make the paper more durable, you could read the paper, and when you picked up the next day's paper you could toss them the old one for a "deposit" discount on the next one. They'd just use it again. Save them on paper costs?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Xerox invents a paper where the printing disappears in a day. Not a bad idea for a copier company. Now you can make permanent copies from your prints and then reuse the print paper. Their new CEO is a lot like Carly!
Banjo - The more I know about Windoze, the more I love *nix
Yes, but how much?
Need an automatic screenshot taker? Try here.
The paper is printed on through UV light, so the printer mechanism wont need to be so complex, as in many modern printer formats. At least that's my assumption.
I'd be happy if it didn't jam the first time.
Actually, many receipts already are written with ink that will disappear over time. If you want to keep them for an extended amount of time, make sure you copy them to be safe.
In a related story, the White House has ordered 6 thousand reams of the new paper, to be used to print out email.
they're cheap thermal transfer, not ink. much like this paper. Put the receipt next to hot fries and it will turn all the way black.
I agree it sucks though that you can't read the reciepts. I have mine tucked away in the empty boxes from what I buy and with no light at all they are blank... how you supposed to honor the warranty?
Slight clarification:
The receipts are printed using Thermal printing, not thermal transfer. Dye Sublimation is similar to thermal transfer, where you have the dye separate from the paper in a plastic sheet that holds the dye, and the dye holder is heated, forcing the dye on/into the paper.
Thermal printing is where the paper turns black where it has been heated, without adding or removing anything from the paper.
Dye Sublimation is actually fairly durable, with the coating layer that is often used.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
"Xerox has always been inovative"
Yeah, but they stole this technology from the wallet photo in 'Back to the Future'.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Hmm, I wonder if a loop of something similar (with a longer lifespan) might be useful for yea old printed log files (the ones continuously printed to prevent against adulterated logs). Since a lot of them are shredded when their electronic versions are deleted...
Some day this might lead to devices that refresh the image several times per day, possibly even per minute or even second, and would last for years. With these we wouldn't even have to print things out! I know, it's somewhat far-fetched.
Turn them both black, I imagine. As long as they got sufficient sunlight, that is...
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Step 1: Print cheque onto self-erasing paper.
Step 2: Buy expensive stuff with it.
Step 3: Profit!!!
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
.. needed for email backup!
You think this is some sort of coincidence still, right?
I once had the inverse problem: a circuit that worked fine under normal light and crashed as soon as someone turned on the florescent lights. We at first thought it must be some poer surge thing and put scopes on the power etc etc. Eventually someone inadvertently covered the circuit and the problem went away, but scrashed as soon as we took the cover off. Of course the florescent tubes are actually blinking at 100Hz or so (double mains frequency) and that was causing a 100 Hz ripple on the gate thresholds, really screwing up memory accesses. Had us going for a while!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Using this technology, books could get an "expiry date"...
Great thing, although not at all for book buyers.
Papers get folded, stapled, wadded up, etc. etc.
How will reuse work if any of these things happen? I have to wonder how reusable the paper will be if the slightest, stain, or other ink-mark touches the page.
I can also imagine desperately trying to read the faint, disappearing words when someone forgot to change out the paper-tray for more indelible printing.
Electronic documents were/are the solution to this. I can hear moans from the ghost of Xerox Parc. . . after inventing the modern computer Xerox is still trying to make its money from ink.
What if I "print" on the paper a statement that you agreee I'm going to handle some sale for you.
Then, the paper erases the print, but your signature is intact since that's real ink.
Now, I print with a real printer a contract stating you already sold me your house for x $'s and it has been paid in full.
You've already signed the paper, so the sale is legal and final, I suspect.
This signature is DRM protected. By the DMCA, you are not allowed to counteract or oppose to it.
This stuff would be much more environmentally friendly than using 100 sheets of regular paper if it weren't for the fact that it's made of lead, thorium, mercury, arsenic, and aloe.
Well, the aloe is okay.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
Let me write you a check....
A printer that writes on slate with chalk!
'Course it only works with our slate and our chalk but you knew that.
The mouse and GUI were invented at the Standford Research Institute. Google the name "Doug Englebart".
couldnt they have made disapearing ink in a toner cart to just plug into any printer in the world? oh yeah.. that would make it too easy and then they couldnt charge a ton for some stupid paper that reacts to UV Rays.. hmm.. what if you go out in the sun to read? oh yeah the Suns UV rays will erase your page before the day is done.
this goes along the lines of Solar Print Kit paper already devloped and in stores so you can buy it now.. 12 sheets for less then $6.00 http://www.xump.com/Science/SolarPrintRefilPaper.cfm
Probably not for awhile. In my college experience, good excuses like "I had to go to the hospital" are given about as much relevance, let alone credibility, as "My dog ate it".
Prof's these days just don't give a shit about your problems. They want their assignments done completely and on time come hell or high water and don't give a damn if something goes wrong even if it's not your fault, or worse, even if they themselves contributed to your misfortune. (yes, this happened to me. Prof took an 8 day vacation and then dished out a massive assignment that was due the next day).
Not much different from modern day bosses and executives. What has our greed ridden capitalist world come to?
Similiarly, I don't put it past people to take advantage of this both ways.
"Sorry, but I never agreed to that in writing"
and "I did my job, so to hell with you if the writing's gone"
I wonder how this affects the use of Machine Identification Code currently used by almost all printer manufacturers at the request of the Secret Service. Obviously a counterfeiter would not be using self-erasing paper, (imagine their surprise when 24 hours later, their batch of freshly printed counterfeit bills appears blank!) but if that paper gets reused several times using several different printers, the machine ID codes printed on there would be useless.
I personally hope it does render the machine ID codes obsolete, since I'm not exactly in favor of having tracking codes printed on paper.
Best "String" Ever!
Ok here's a good trick... 1. Print out a contract with erasing ink. 2. Get customer, employee, employer, friend, enemy or whoever to sign. 3. Erase (leaving the signature) 4. Print new contract.
the world said, "congratulations, Xerox! You've just invented the carbon paper!", when they invented photo copier machine. :)
...and their CEO reject it while laugh "heh, self-what ?", then a small company take the copy from Xerox, and ... 10 years later ...
S.S.D.D
Indeed. What exactly is the point of a short-term printout that you can't make notes on?
I'm genuinely struggling to think of a use for it unless you have a really strong objection to reading things on a monitor, in which case an e-ink display seems a more practical solution.
"Algebraical symbols are used when you don't know what you are talking about" - BCS