Wireless electricity enables next generation of annoying packaging
posted Jan 28th 2011 3:00pm by Mike Szczysfiled under: wireless hacks
Yep, these cereal boxes light up. They’re using a new branded-technology called eCoupling that provides electricity via induction, which means the shelves have a coil with AC power running through it. The “printed coils” on the boxes allow inventory control and data exchange presumably thanks to a low-power microcontroller. But in the video after the break you can see that the printed lighting on the boxes lets them flash parts of the box art as a way to attract customers’ attention. We’d bet that they’re using electroluminescent materials but we weren’t able to get find specifics on how this is done. We just hope advertisers don’t start rolling noise-makers into their packaging.
[Crave via Laughing Squid]
Combined with paper transistors[1] (invented by a team at my Uni), I fear for our trips to the supermarket a few years from now.
[1]: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/paper-transistor