It’s like something out of a sci-fi novel: a poster that plays the music of band that it’s promoting. Or, how about a pen that can be used to draw and connect circuits that create light or music?
It’s the next most awesome thing that has the potential to change everything: conductive ink.
Like 3D printing before it, conductive ink isn’t exactly new. But, it’s moving fast into the mainstream. And, that’s where it’s going to get interesting.
In this video, research students for the University of Illinois demonstrate a ballpoint pen filled with conductive ink.
To kick things along in this space, U.K. company Uniform is prototyping what it calls a ‘Listening Poster‘ using conductive ink. It was showcased at SXSW. The poster is designed to play music of local bands performing, allow a user to download the song to a different device and book tickets to the show. All from a piece of paper using conductive ink to create an in-built speaker and to connect to Wifi.
A piece of paper isn’t going to be just a piece of paper for much longer.
If you can draw a circuit on a piece of paper, the paper takes on a whole new level of potential.
Want to play? Go shopping for some conductive ink here.
Conductive ink from a ballpoint pen
[videoframe][/videoframe]
