Polaroid digital cameras coming to you soon
Zink Imaging, a spin-off company from instant-photo giant Polaroid, has designed technology to be incorporated into digital cameras that allow them to instantly print pictures, without the need for ink.
Zink, short for Zero Ink, is a U.S. based company that developed a thermal printer, much like your facsimile, that alters the chemicals in a special type of paper. The application of heat causes the colors to appear on the paper in different tones and hues, eventually forming the picture you’ve taken just a moment ago.
Steve Herchen, CTO of Zink Imaging, said that unlike ink jet and thermal transfer printing, which needs ink cartridges and ink ribbons, the Zink printing only needs the paper. “All the color-forming chemistry is embedded within the paper,” he mused.
The special paper is composed of a white plastic sheet covered with micro-thin layers color-forming dye crystals: yellow, magenta and cyan from top to bottom. It’s not light sensitive, so the paper won’t form images right off the bat in the sunlight, and it looks just like ordinary high-quality photo paper.
But when passed through a thermal print head (an assortment of little micro-heaters), the dye molecules change from crystals to amorphous glasses, where the color is released.
Temperature and time of exposure to heat is controlled to get the right color for every pixel. The top layer requires the highest temperature, yet melts quickly. The middle needs moderate high temperatures and takes a shorter time to melt. The lower layer melts slowest at low temperatures. “One can then generate the millions of colours found in the world by various combinations of different amounts of these three dyes,” Herchen claimed.
A normal sized picture – that is, 5cm x 7.5cm – takes around 30 seconds to print. It’s dry (no ink remember?), resilient to tearing and is also claimed to be waterproofed.
Two products are slated to come out by the end of the year: one that is a small battery-operated, pocket-sized printer for camera phones and a 7-megapixel, printer-equipped digital camera. The printer is expected to cost around US$ 200 while 100 sheets of paper will cost US$ 20.
Zink Imaging, a spin-off company from instant-photo giant Polaroid, has designed technology to be incorporated into digital cameras that allow them to instantly print pictures, without the need for ink.
Zink, short for Zero Ink, is a U.S. based company that developed a thermal printer, much like your facsimile, that alters the chemicals in a special type of paper. The application of heat causes the colors to appear on the paper in different tones and hues, eventually forming the picture you’ve taken just a moment ago.
Steve Herchen, CTO of Zink Imaging, said that unlike ink jet and thermal transfer printing, which needs ink cartridges and ink ribbons, the Zink printing only needs the paper. “All the color-forming chemistry is embedded within the paper,” he mused.
The special paper is composed of a white plastic sheet covered with micro-thin layers color-forming dye crystals: yellow, magenta and cyan from top to bottom. It’s not light sensitive, so the paper won’t form images right off the bat in the sunlight, and it looks just like ordinary high-quality photo paper.
But when passed through a thermal print head (an assortment of little micro-heaters), the dye molecules change from crystals to amorphous glasses, where the color is released.
Temperature and time of exposure to heat is controlled to get the right color for every pixel. The top layer requires the highest temperature, yet melts quickly. The middle needs moderate high temperatures and takes a shorter time to melt. The lower layer melts slowest at low temperatures. “One can then generate the millions of colours found in the world by various combinations of different amounts of these three dyes,” Herchen claimed.
A normal sized picture – that is, 5cm x 7.5cm – takes around 30 seconds to print. It’s dry (no ink remember?), resilient to tearing and is also claimed to be waterproofed.
Two products are slated to come out by the end of the year: one that is a small battery-operated, pocket-sized printer for camera phones and a 7-megapixel, printer-equipped digital camera. The printer is expected to cost around US$ 200 while 100 sheets of paper will cost US$ 20.
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