In computers, we have software and hardware. Jokingly, the human brain is sometimes called wetware. Up next: pulpware!
OK, technically it’s hardware–wires, sensors and computer chips–embedded in paper or cardboard. A spiral of conductive ink can be a speaker, or a touch sensor. Two layers, and a page can tell when it is being bent. Among the possible creations are books that talk or light up when their pages are turned (personally, I can’t think of anything more annoying!), or boxes that can tell you how much their content weighs. (Maybe with voice messages. "Don’t even try it, buddy! I’m a hernia-in-waiting!")
The project was outlined at the recent International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing in Innsbruck, Austria. Here’s a video of the production process and some applications. Here’s the original paper. And here’s the research project’s website.
(Via New Scientist Tech.)
(Photo from MIT.)
[tags]computers, MIT, technology, paper[/tags]
The Lifesaver
Many of the commonly tabled options for dealing with the incipient ecological crisis our planet is facing involve turning our backs on technology. One of the people taking the opposite position – namely that sustainability isn’t a zero-sum game – is 
As someone who started using computers back in the good old days when you had to bash every instruction into the keyboard at the command prompt, I still feel kind of grateful for the revolutionary interface change that the now-standard mouse brought with it. But after a few hours trawling the web, my right hand starts telling me that there has to be a better way. And there is, thanks to 
Totally pointless, and more an art project than anything else,