Random Movement Printing Technology

mszeto writes "For all those gadget lovers out there, here is a neat one. It's the worlds smallest printer[ed. note: no it isn't], and is Bluetooth enabled. Rub it over the page to print! Here are some more articles about it:"

What's really be cool...

[AtariDatacenter]

Is if this was adapted into a tattoo gun. Just wave it over the skin, and have a permanent (or temporary might be more marketable) tattoo placed on the body. Anything you can dream up or download could be printed onto the skin.

This sounds really bad.
In a good kinda way.

Is there a limitation on speed?

[gotr00t]

If the movement is so "random", then I just have one question after visiting the site and witnessing their really "non-technical" movie about how it "works". It looks like the animated dude's arm is moving in random directions, to be expected, but he just literally zips that thing right across the paper, and it didn't smear or cause streaks on the page.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that on this system, you can move it THAT fast. There MUST be some limitations to how fast you can move it, as the print heads can't possibly respond soooo quickily.

Killer app for bluetooth?

[Tetravus]

What do you guys think? This looks like the first killer app for bluetooth to me.

Imagine being able to print hardcopy contracts or directions on demand... though, the flexibility of the device to deal with different paper surfaces will be crucial to its widespread adoption.

~Tetravus

Re:Well fuck

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's like a regular inkjet printer, except the ink moves rather than the paper? Or am I missing something? Posting AC for obvious reasons.

hmmm...very interesting device...

[Kiriwas]

My best guess on how it works is very much like an optical mouse except that it can record rotation as well (every spin your optical mouse? if you do it just right, the pointer doesnt move). My guess also, is that you can't lift your hand once your start printing and that whatever orientation the printer is originally at is how the orientation of the image will be. It's really not a complicated technology in my view (not to say it wasn't difficult to implement, just that the idea is simple). I wonder if there have been attempts before to build something such as this. I also wonder if there will be any chance of a WIFI version. I never caught onto BlueTooth (though, if the price is right, I may with this).

Re:What's really be cool...

[Photar]

Seems to me that you could do temporary tatoos just using special ink with this same device.

Re:How does it work?

[hbackert]

How in the world can it know where the print? .... Unless maybe you are supposed to start in the direct center of where the image is supposed to be and then it tracks from there I guess?

Good point. Can be solved however by making the device aware of the paper. Thus you'd move to the corners of the paper (even a while paper on a white surface should be ok, as there is a contrast difference visible) and as long as you don't lift the printer thing up, the printer is able to find out your relative position on the sheet.

This will not work on very large surfaces. Or spheres. My guess is, you push a button where it's supposed to start printing. And you click again to make sure the printer knows where "right" is. Or "down" or "left" in other languages.

What interrests me most is how you can swipe over a freshly printed surface without making a mess, unless they limit surface-ink combinations. Only if the printer thingy touches the surface on the lower, yet unprinted part of the paper, then it would not smear as it does not touch the upper part. The "random movement" becomes less random that way though.

All in all, a nice idea, even given some limitations like randomness of movement, special fast drying ink, limited surfaces.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I can see people using these to bomb ads all over, on everything from school posters to that ugly shaved cat up the street.

Personally I think I'd use it to print clever things on the back of bills when I go out. Perhaps comments on service quickly typed out on the PDA and then printed in detail. Instant gospel message too.

This would be great for actually getting that information OUT of that PDA to people who don't have one, forget beaming a business card, print it on their hand, ok not exactly professional.

Re:more likely

[jafiwam]

Hmm. That type of activity is also a symtom of one of the new Windows worms... Bugbear maybe.

Might want to check that out. (Unless you want an excuse to wipe the machine to put something else on it at any rate....)