Paper-embedded Data

Hewlett Packard has announced a new product that is a 2mm data chip that is thin enough to be embedded in printed paper, such as the pages of a book, magazine, or annual report. These chips can contain up to 500KB of data and can transfer to a reading device at a rate of 10Mbs. It has similarities to RFID, but with much higher storage capacity and transfer rates. Marketers see this as an opportunity to deliver short movies along with a printed advertisement. Financial users could embed an electronic spreadsheet in the printed annual report. Children’s books could contain a chip on every page to enhance the reading experience by transmitting audio and video to a player. One federal use would be to make all printed documents compliant with Section 508 rules by adding an audio version to the paper.

Though 500KB is not a huge amount of storage. These devices should be viewed as a form of USB Data Stick. Initial sizes are small, but if the product is successful, then mass production could lead quickly to storage on the order of 50MB at significantly lower costs. At these volumes, intelligence documents could contain photos and video footage

ComputerWorld Article