Digital polaroids: Printing without ink (VIDEO)

Imagine taking a photo of your grandfather with your mobile camera phone and instantly giving him a printed copy.
No need to asking him to open an e-mail account so you can send him the photo.

Here is a really fun, useful and revolutionary technology developed by ZINK Imaging, a privately held company that purchased from Polaroid Corporation the technology and physical assets to develop it.

How does it work?

“ZERO INK technology produces on-demand color images and photos - without ink, ribbons or toner. The key to this process is the patented ZINK paper, an advanced composite material with dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside.

Before printing, the embedded dye crystals are colorless, so ZINK paper looks like regular white photo paper. The ZINK printer uses heat to activate and colorize these dye crystals. The printing process is now radically simple. Just add paper and press “print”. The result is high quality, long-lasting, durable, and affordable images.”