A paper that talks

Damian Koh | Nov 18, 2005

Fancy printing out recorded conversations you took along with your pictures? Well, now you can, almost.

According to a report by Michael Singer from CNET News.com, Italian startup Zanetti Studio is preparing a new photo printer called Speekysmart. This imprints a magnetic strip on the side of a paper and is able to capture a few seconds of audio at the moment the picture is taken. The recordable tape, known as Speakpaper, works together with a mouse-like handheld reader, also developed by the same company, and can record or replay the audio tracks.

Incidentally, HP also revealed plans to add sound to photos churned out by its printers during a September press briefing, but didn't have any product mock-ups or physical samples. Howard Taub, vice president of Imaging Research at HP Labs, mentioned the idea of bringing your cell phone up to your photo and listening to the recordings.

It would be great to see both companies race to develop this new technology.

See full report.