In this data-sensitive age, could printing on food be the ultimate security measure? There's no risk of accidental disclosure once you've consumed it.
At the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles last month a couple of representatives from OnLatte, a Boston-based start-up company, set up shop next to Starbucks. For no charge, they'd print any simple image on top of a foamy cappuccino.
The results (video below) arguably rival the finest examples of Latte Art, while requiring zero skill from the barista. The secret is a caramel ink, which is virtually indistinguishable from the nutty brown colour of the coffee. A simple laser printer transfers the ink onto the surface of the coffee. They need to make it faster though - after the 2 minute process your coffee is well on the way to cold.
Elsewhere, Inseq Design, an Austrian-based company, took inspiration from a dot matrix printer and produced a toaster, Zuse, that burns a 12x12 pixel image into bread. There's a video of it in action below.
But the real question is, will the price of miracle toasted sandwiches fall if this sort of technology becomes popular?
Colin Barras, online technology reporter
Labels: gadgets, security, videoPosted by Colin Barras at 2:49 PM
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