Chicago (IL) – Wired’s 2008 Nextfest opened this weekend in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Its limited size may not be able to keep the event’s promise to “see the future”, but if you live in the Chicago area and are in Chicago downtown anyway you should stop by the Nextfest tent, which is open to the public. And if you can’t make it, you can simply click through pictures and see what we found to be most interesting. Update 9/29 10:54 pm EDT: SLIDESHOW added.

 

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Xerox erasable paper

I admit that the Xerox erasable paper was the only reason why I actually decided to stop by the Nextfest and ironically I felt it was one of the most boring things to see. It is still a project that is stuck deep in the research phase. The paper itself is very thin, with a distinctive smooth yellow coating. Prints are done via UIV light, which cause a chemical reaction. The print will disappear over time and at least in theory allow you to reuse the paper.

At this time, the prints last a few hours, but PARC scientists, who develop the technology, believe they can take the time frame to about 7 days. If you need to delete contents earlier, you can send the paper simply through a heat source and get rid of prints right away. So much for the theory.

In real life it seems that the paper will look awfully wrinkled once it has gone through several hands and even worse when it has gone through printers multiple times. That is why PARC suggests using cardstock once the technology becomes available, but even then a reused paper may not be something you would want to use in a presentation. But for basic office applications, it is clearly an idea with future.

 

Xerox also had its solid ink a water purification device (which works with pollutants down to a size of 3 microns) and a piracy-proof printing technology on display.

The latter is already on sale and is supported with some of Xerox’ high end-printers. It allows users to embed watermarks in a document through a different distribution of ink within a certain space. These watermarks cannot be captured by a printer and can make, for example, tickets copy-proof.           







Toyota i-swing

Toyota has been working on single-person-vehicles for several years and the most recent idea is the i-swing. It is basically a futuristic arm chair powered by an electric motor that will accelerate the 3-wheel vehicle to a speed of 36 mph (the demonstration device was limited to 5 mph). Controlled by two joysticks, the i-swing is said to have a range of about 20 miles and either this unit or a revised model is planned to be put into production. We heard that the price might be in the $7000-$8000 range.

The brief demonstration looked fancy, definitely more fashionable than riding your average Segway. But at 36 mph? Without any protection in the front and without airbags? We are not so sure about this one.  















Read on the next page: Brainball, Saazs ultra-efficient lights