Everyone knows you can walk up to machines to get a variety of items like stamps, money, tickets, etc.
Well you may soon be able to walk up to a machine and get a paperback! For an expected price of less than $100,000, the On Demand Machine Corporation will be offering the
BookMachine that can create paperback books on demand. Books can be printed in three to five minutes in various sizes. The machine even handles the payment process if using a credit card.
While there are competing systems offered by IBM and Xerox, the BookMachine is designed to be so simple that a customer or clerk can run the machine as easily as a copy machine. A master database holds all the contents of books remotely.
Pretty impressive. Still, wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to just download the book and read it on your handheld?
Our thanks to
Engadget for pointing out this bit of news first.