Intelligent Machines

Pocket Photo Lab

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.


Credit: Christopher Harting

Product: Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer

Cost: Less than $150 for the printer; 30 to 35 cents per sheet of photo paper

Source: www.polaroid.com/onthego

Company: Polaroid, Zink