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Printed Electronics: A Glimpse Into the Future

Many do not truly understand just how big printed electronic circuits (PEC) will become. I believe that PEC will affect nearly every aspect of our life in one way or another.

For example, one day in the near future, we may find cheap embedded electronic devices in our everyday products. You wake and head to the bathroom, and a bottle of pills senses that you're awake and reminds you to take your pill. The bottle displays the number of pills left, and will automatically order more medicine from the e-pharmacy store via the wireless Internet.

You pick up your toothbrush, and it plays your favorite song while you brush. When the song ends, you can stop brushing. The tooth brush knows when the bristles are worn out and the brush emits a little replace me song.

The head of the shower glows with the color of the water, red to hot blue for cold and nice orange for the 106 degrees you programmed. As you reach for the soap box, it senses your presence, lights start to flash and it plays the company's logo.

You wince and wonder how far the packaging will go to get you to buy that product.

During the shower, your shampoo displays a little electronic scale along the side indicating the amount remaining in the bottle. You stand in front of the mirror ready to shave, touch the mirror and it displays today's forecasted weather and switches channels to show your driving route to work and the delays in traffic.

The bread's plastic bag still displays a current "good until" date, which counts down. The milk container tells you the bacterial content of the milk is acceptable.

The handle on your pots and pans flash red lights when they're too hot to pick up. Your morning paper displays a full-color video of today's main story. For lunch, your box of Chinese noodles shows the temperature of the contents on the lid, and beeps when it's at the proper eating temperature.

Your watch records and emits a Bluetooth signal, sending your blood pressure and pulse rates, blood sugars and temperature to your computer. Or to your mirror.

Your tennis racket tunes the strings to improve the way you play after analyzing your swing. Your can of spray paint senses how much is left in the can and displays a "shake" symbol.

When you try unsuccessfully to read the small print on a package in the store, the font automatically changes to a bigger size.

These are but a mere glimpse into the future world of printed electronics. Printed electronics will help you in your day-to-day life, and marketing executives won't hesitate to use a $.15 printed electronic circuit to improve the chance you will buy their products.

Going shopping may be like going to an arcade. Each package will sense that you're near, play a fancy song, flash lights and change the size of its print. Some products may even recognize you by the tag in your shirt. (That's not just future-gazing.)

Your favorite bottle of rum might display, "Bob, you know your rum supply is low. Buy me now!" And then, right in front of your eyes, the price drops to entice you to buy.

What happened? Here's how it will work: The electronic RFID tag in the shirt you bought last month knows who you are, because you purchased the shirt with a credit card. As you walk into the store, your shirt's RDIF tag send a signal that you're here; it knows who you are and it knows your buying habits. As you walk through the store, it tracks you and changes displays for products that you have been known to buy.

It may even change prices if you are known to only buy specials.

Are you impressed by this? Are you scared? I am sure some lawyers will make a few dollars fighting this privacy invasion. But either way, PEC will find its way into clothes and even food.

Imagine how much fun kids will have eating candy that makes disgusting sounds as you munch. Yes you can make edible electronics circuits--sugar can be made to conduct electrical signals.

Not only is the aforementioned possible, but all of these ideas are being developed right now by some very big companies. These firms are spending exorbitant amounts of money--to help you track pills and shampoo and to help market their products.

The true strength of PEC is the effect it will have on a company's ability to use gimmicks and electronics to entice buyers to purchase there product.

Most companies will eagerly spend an extra $.15 on a package that lights up and sings a song when someone--especially a known customer - walks down the aisle in the store.

In the future, printed electronics will help us on a daily basis. But on a deeper level, it's all about marketing.

Robert Tarzwell is president of the technology provider DMR Ltd. He can be reached at bob@dmrpcb.com.