Conductive paint turns paper into a sensor

Thanks to the invention of the Swedish scientists it is possible to radically change the properties of the usual paper. For example, you can create paper prints sensitive to touch and even talking paper with built-in speakers. “The first generation of paper was for displaying information, like a book,” says Mikael Gulliksson, one of the inventors, “the second was for packaging, and the third was for hygiene; we are exploring what the fourth generation can be. ”

Gulliksson and colleagues are confident that Paper Four (fourth generation paper) will be interactive. Compared with the well-known technology of "electronic ink", this paper will be much cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Inductance of ink is provided by the addition of particles of silver. For example, in the production of a billboard, this layer is placed in a “sandwich” between a three-centimeter base and the main paper layer, on which a graphic image is applied. If you connect such a billboard to a power source, then it turns into one continuous sensor. The entire surface is pressure sensitive. If you add a simple control chip and speakers to this system, the billboard can reproduce certain sounds, depending on where the person touched.

Thus, the most ordinary paper does not change at all externally (it can be kneaded, folded and rolled into a tube, used for packing and printing magazines), but at the same time it acquires the interactive properties of an electronic device. The video presentation ( MP4, 30 MB ) shows what a talking paper is.
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Of course, now the main problem is that the paper needs additional electronics and a power source. But in the future, these devices can also be imprinted directly into the surface of the sheet: see the latest inventions in the field of semiconductor polymers.

via New Scientist