Would you buy an unprinter? That is, a printer that's capable of removing text from paper as well as printing it. Researchers at Cambridge University have found a way of using a laser beam to vaporize ink without damaging paper, so it's now possible to build such a machine.
But I'm struggling to see an application for this. In order to erase a character successfully, you'd need to do it during a current print job – you'd never get the right alignment if you were doing a re-feed of the sheet. The only kind of correction you'd be able to make would be one you could spot between the start and end of the physical print process. This is a tiny window.
Due to the alignment issue, it's unlikely that it would be practical to use the technology to erase printed paper as a means of recycling. Even if you managed perfect alignment, you'd need to match each waste sheet to its file identifier before you could issue an unprint command. And then you'd presumably have a paper bay full of disparate prints that had to be associated with a list of file identifiers. The problems just keep escalating.
Let's remember: paper is one means of presenting information to humans. It's by no means the best. The way to make paper more useful, less wasteful – and better synchronized with data – is to head toward technologies like e-ink. Telegraph
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