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Do We Need Reusable Paper?
Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Center previewed a printing technology that lets a printed page be reused.
Andy Patrizio, InternetNews.com, April 28, 2008
Excerpts from the article:
How many times have you printed out a document on a sheet of paper, used it once, and tossed it out? According to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), 44.5 percent of the time that's exactly the fate of a printed page. Print out something like directions or a memo for quick reference and then it's off to the recycling bin.
Paper is often used for all of a few minutes and tossed out. That's a waste of more than just the paper, but the power used to create it...
So what if you didn't have to make new pages but could reuse the old ones? To reduce that waste, PARC has among its many projects a reusable paper where the printout fades away after 24 hours, allowing it to be reused.
The demo was part of a number of technologies on display here at the vaunted Palo Alto Research Center which has historically produced numerous breakthroughs in computer graphics, user interface, networking and other technologies.
In the case of the erasable paper, [PARC] partnered with Xerox Research Centre of Canada to create a paper that can be reused again and again, until it rips, that is. The concept, as Eric Shrader, area manager for PARC's hardware systems laboratory described it, is similar to photoreactive glasses that automatically darken when you go outdoors into the sun...
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