We do say that this is age of technologies. But I think this is age of "Smart-Technologies" as all inventions of 21st Century has prefix "Smart" in build in then. One more member is added to this list now naming "Smart Paper."
Group of Scientists, including one scientist of Indian-origin, have created ‘smart paper' with sensing capabilities. This paper can respond to gesture commands and connect to the digital world.
This technology is based upon small radio frequency (RFID) tags that are stuck on, printed or drawn onto the paper. These tags create an interactive, lightweight interfaces that can do anything from controlling music using a paper baton, to live polling in a classroom.
The technology 'PaperID' is inexpensive. It functions without batteries. It is detected through a reader device placed in the same room as the tags.
"Using the technology, connecting real-world items such as a paper airplane or a classroom survey form to an Internet of Things environment may be possible", researchers said.
“These little tags, by applying our signal processing and machine learning algorithms, can be turned into a multi-gesture sensor,” said lead author Hanchuan Li, a doctoral student at University of Washington .
Each tag is identified by its unique identification, so a reader’s antenna can pick out an individual among many. These tags only cost about 10 cents each and can be stuck onto paper.
Alternatively, the simple pattern of a tag’s antenna can also be drawn on paper with conductive ink.
When a person’s hand waves, touches, swipes or covers a tag, the hand disturbs the signal path between an individual tag and its reader. Algorithms can recognise the specific movements, then classify a signal interruption as a specific command.
The researchers developed different interaction methods for different tags. User can use any tag according to type of interaction that user want to achieve.
“The interesting aspect of PaperID is that it leverages commodity RFID technology thereby expanding the use cases for RFID in general and allowing researchers to prototype these kind of interactive systems without having to build custom hardware,” said Shwetak Patel, professor at University of Washington.
They also can track the velocity of objects in movement, such as following the motion of a tagged paper conductor’s wand and adjusting the pace of the music based on the tempo of the wand in mid-air.
“Ultimately, these techniques can be extended beyond paper to a wide range of materials and usage scenarios,” said Alanson Sample from Disney Research.
