Intelligent Machines

Pocket Photo Lab

Feb 19, 2008

Polaroid has developed an ultrasmall printer for digital photos that provides the same instant gratification its cameras are renowned for. The printer, roughly the size of a deck of cards, can connect to a cell phone wirelessly or to a camera with a USB cable. It has hundreds of tiny, precisely controllable heating elements that draw color out of specially designed two-by-three-inch photo paper. The paper has layers of nanocrystals that turn different colors depending on how long they’re heated and at what temperature.