The Paper Four project in Sweden is merging electronics into a fourth generation of paper that can tell you where to go
August 2007
By Nils Lindstrand
In three concept studies, lasting for 18 months, a research group at Mid Sweden University will try to find out how paper and electronics can merge into a fourth generation of paper products. A paper generation that tells you where to go, plays music from a CD when you touch the cover, or maybe tells you how to open a package. This fourth generation paper can communicate with both people and computers, thus providing cost efficient and recyclable materials for building information interfaces in everyday life, distribution systems and the media.
"The really exciting new innovations come about when you mix technologies like we do," says Paper Four project coordinator, Mikael Gulliksson, part of the Fiber Science and Communication Network (FSCN) at Mid Sweden University. At this center, paper and fiber research is being pursued in close cooperation with electronics and media research. These research areas are now also combined to create the communicating paper product platform developed in the Paper Four project.
"A new product platform like this, the fourth generation pervasive paper media, Paper Four, could be the chance for the European paper industry to create a future prosperity," believes Gulliksson.
Users like to be in charge
The goal is to establish a whole new generation of paper products by combining paper with printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink sensitive to pressure. Digital information is embedded, and available to the user by touching the surface.
"The technology is already in place," Gulliksson says. "We have built a large interactive information display to show the possibilities within Paper Four. Now we will spend the next six months, ending the project phase of pilot studies, trying to develop this technology. One important goal is to scale it down to be available for use in packaging systems. Other parts of the project concern user interfaces and working with user attitudes and preferences."
One area of specific interest to the Paper Four team is using the mobile phone as a tool to communicate with information systems. A simple way doing this is by using the built-in camera to read advanced two dimensional bar codes. The mobile phone may also be used for reading RFID tags, and to dock into external information bases.
"We are thrilled by the potential in making paper displays a true and instant 'point of sales' by using the mobile phone as interface with the digital world," says Gulliksson.
Using mobiles might also be a way of making the user feel he or she is in charge, an important factor in avoiding negative attitudes toward new information technologies.
"Research on user reactions has shown that people do appreciate a lot of the possibilities with electronic papers," notes Gulliksson. "People enjoy hearing how the product sounds when reading an advertisement, but they want to be able to choose to do so. Our studies have shown that the use of mobile phones as a tool, when services are set up correctly, can give people this feeling of being in charge, being able to control the information flow."
Paper structure in focus
Today about 15 professors and research students are working part-time on the Paper Four project. It is jointly financed by public funding (including EU funding) and Swedish paper producer, SCA. Paper Four is also linked to a research program at Mid Sweden University, called "Sensible Things that Communicate" (STC). This program is publicly financed for six years. The concept study of Paper Four is aimed at getting results in order to motivate a further, and larger, research project to fully explore the possibilities shown by the concept study.
Today, research is carried out in three research areas within Paper Four. Project area 1 is working with paper physics, and led by Professor Tetso Uesaka. This group is working on the fiber level, trying to find out how the paper's structure can be used, or possibly changed, to produce paper ideally suited for print using conductive ink. Another goal is to find out how to dock electronics with paper.
"Electronic components are getting extremely small," says Gulliksson. "Docking these small components with the uneven structure of paper means problems with positioning, which is one important area for this group to investigate."
Project area 2 is working with interfaces and electronics design, e.g. how mobile phones can be used as a tool for the end user. Project area 3 is focused on the user: How will people respond to this technology, and what kind of interfaces will they accept?
Promising combination of technologies
One of the three "pilot projects" has already come as far as the prototype stage; the system of "big boards" or large point of sales (POS) displays, demonstrating some of the features offered by the combination of paper technology and electronics. The general idea is interaction. As a user, you don't just read information, you select it by touching images on the display.
One of these displays is built to market travel. When the visitor touches an image, a recorded voice presents him or her with more information about the place or event. Another big board shows pictures of new music CDs. Guess what happens if you touch those? Right, you can hear the music. And it is all made from paper! Well, almost.
"The loudspeakers are based on a pattern on a thin conductive film," says Gulliksson. "We have tested both printing this pattern with conductive inks and creating it by surface milling of thin aluminum foils, a solution that seems to give us a slightly better sound and volume."
A strip of very thin magnets is attached to the foil, and the "speaker" is then placed over a cavity of 5-15 mm in the board.
"We believe the sound quality we achieve is good enough for the promotion of music CDs," says Gulliksson.
The obvious advantage in using this kind of display would be the possibility to produce a large number of boards for shops or travel agencies, and to be able to replace them at a reasonable cost.
"Today we don't know the costs of a commercially available display, but it would certainly be lower than a solution using touch screens and computers," says Gulliksson.
The paper layers holding the visual information and the speakers are pasted on a base material called Wellboard. This is a light construction material resembling corrugated board, but considerably stronger. This means that almost everything in the display system can fit in the paper and board recycling systems. The electronic boxes holding the controls for the information system can be used several times, providing a system where everything is either disposable or reusable.
The display is, as far as technology is concerned, available for the market today, says Gulliksson. "Now we will concentrate our efforts to scale technology down to make it work in packaging systems. From where I stand, the future for a lot of information systems lies in hybrid media, linking paper and a number of electronic systems, e.g. conductive ink, RFID, etc. The FSCN centre here at Mid Sweden University is all about this combination of technologies, and we are making it work."
Nils Lindstand is a freelance journalist based in Stockholm, Sweden.
