The Internet of Things, Soon Accessible by Smartphone
The heady day when the shrink-wrap on your broccoli can be scanned by your smartphone for the latest recipes just moved a bit closer.
Thinfilm, a Norwegian company, is putting printed wireless transmitters together with existing printed logic, memory, sensor, and battery systems on product packaging. This novel assemblage will be commercialized in 2014, the company says, in partnership with Bemis, a Wisconsin packaging company that makes 200 billion packages a year for meat, cheese, medical devices, and personal care products.
“This is a step toward an Internet of things, where you have the embodiment of a printed system that can go on any object,” says Davor Sutija, CEO, Thinfilm, in an interview yesterday.
Thinfilm has already put printed memory together with printed transistors on the same sheet of plastic in a partnership with PARC, and had previously announced plans to include printed batteries and printed displays, too.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”
Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives
The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.
Learning to code isn’t enough
Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google
Hinton will be speaking at EmTech Digital on Wednesday.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.