Speaking photos with Speakpaper |
Speeky created and patended photo paper with a magnetic strip that can contain up to 15 seconds of audio.
The comic on their page shown above cracks me up. They are working on making this record time up to three minutes.
CNET yesterday: High-tech photos give new meaning to “talking pictures:”
the Speekysmart printer is not yet on the market. Founder Giancarlo Zanetti is shopping for a hardware manufacturer. “We are now negotiating with two printer companies–one of these is an Italian company, the other is a Japanese company,” Zanetti told CNET News.com. The spellings may be inconsistent, but the Speekysmart printer, Speakpaper and the accompanying magnetic reader are all being marketed under an umbrella Speeky brand, he added.
This reminded me of what you can already do digitally using OneNote. You can make notes and record audio and/or video and sync up the notes. This functionality is particularly usefu on a Tablet PC slate in a meeting or appointment setting.
For those who still like holding pictures in their hands, Speeky might have some market. I’d rather use my Tablet and OneNote. What about you?
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An interesting story, Seems italian company Zanetti Studio is developing a photo printer, sadly called SpeekySmart, that’ll print a small magnetic strip on the side of any photos printed. The strip will be able to record a few seconds of sound that was taken when the pic was snapped.
Naturally, the paper will be specialized, also from Zanetti though with a slightly more dignified name: Speakpaper. Whatever dignity Speakpaper had, however, is quickly lost when Zanetti reminds us that it and the printer are all to be marketed under the umbrella “Speeky” brand. Sigh.
Zanetti’s been using an HP look and feel on its Web adverts, which HP isn’t too happy with, but what’s more important is that HP is working on similar technology. But unlike Zanetti, HP hasn’t shown anything other than a comment during a press briefing, which means there’s some poor HP research geek trapped in a lab somewhere sweating furiously under a sign that says “Beat Zanetti or Die!”
HP has gone so far as to say its talking photo would allow users to approach and hear the sound through a cell phone–good concept. Zanetti’s magnetic strip requires a reader right now, which is too cumbersome IMHO. However, Zanett’s also said it was going to mod its paper to talk to mobile phones, so I’m thinking that’s the future direction of talking photos. Bluetooth-enabled headphones, MP3 players and PDAs might be another smart move, but let’s see where this goes.
Comment by Burton — November 18, 2005 @ 11:57 am PST
Hmmm, let’s see Italian startup vs. world-renowned printer nabobs, who’s going to bring a solution to mass market acceptance first?
Comment by Bob Moss — November 20, 2005 @ 7:52 pm PST