Takashi Kondo, an interactive design student at at IAMAS in Japan, has created these novel interface studies using conductive ink screened onto paper. The first, Zipper Messenger (above) is an interactive card screen printed with an image of a ribbon using conductive ink. When the user tears open the card, a “Happy birthday, thanks for everyday” message plays in Japanese. More obscure than the first, the second experiment is a graphic of a brain printed using conductive ink. From the video it appears that touching the conductive graphic triggers various sounds.
Paper Piano
Lastly, my personal favorite, is a paper piano created using an arduino chip, paper and printed conductive ink. Unfortunately no video of the paper piano yet. These playful experiments are hinting to a possible new trend towards paper circuitry.
Glam the Glo Bug
When I was writing Fashioning Technology, I experimented a lot with conductive inks but I found them messy and difficult to work with. Once dry, the ink would always crack and I would have issues with continuity. For the paper circuit project in the book, Glam the Glo Bug, I opted for conductive fabric tape instead.
Tear Dop Kit
There are several other wonderful projects that use conductive inks, specifically all the experiments currently in development at the MIT’s High Low Tech group. Tear Drop, for example, is an electronic tool kit focused entirely on paper computing.
Paperduino
From interactive electronic pop-up books to the Paperduino, is there a new craft trend of paper circuitry emerging? What do you all think about paper computing?
