David Savastano, Editor09.01.21
Books have a special place in our hearts. We all grew up with them, and almost everyone has a favorite book. However, digital devices have come to dominate our world, and even some books have gone digital, for example the Kindle ebooks.
Still, ebooks have stalled out along the way. Perhaps, though, Greek start-up AmphiLab has developed a unique solution. AmphiLab has designed traditional books printed with conductive inks that wirelessly connect to digital devices. This enables readers to access digital content by touching “links” or linked buttons printed directly on a book’s paper pages.
Manolis Kelaidis, AmphiLab’s founder, is a mechanical and aeronautical engineer and industrial designer, and he took his training and experience to the bitbook. AmphiLab is now collaborating with the EU H2020 project INNPAPER.
The idea behind INNPAPER is to reduce the amount of discarded electronic devices by developing alternative systems such as paper. INNPAPER’s printed electronic devices include paper batteries, antennas and paper electrochromic displays, which offer environmental benefits.
AmphiLab’s paper/digital book hybrid recently won INNPAPER’s European printed electronics competition. As a result, Amphilab will gain access to INNPAPER’s printed electronics pilot line.
“AmphiLab is proud to have been selected by INNPAPER for bitbook’s innovation in the field of printed electronics and is currently working with its world-leading technology partners to develop bitbook towards commercialization,” Kelaidis said.
Kelaidis said that bitbook is the story of an art and design project “gone astray” to become a product and a business.
“It all started years ago, as a project for my MA at the Royal College of Art that looked into the ‘future of the book’ at a time when e-readers were all the hype, and influential people in the industry predicted that paper will disappear in a matter of years,” said Kelaidis.
“The result of this project was an elegantly made hybrid interactive paper book printed with conductive ink which connects wireless and controls nearby digital devices and screens,” Kelaidis continued. “As an indication of what AmphiLab’s culture aspires to be, this result was made possible only via an interdisciplinary approach that combined people with backgrounds in industrial and graphic design, copywriting, printing technologies, bookbinding methods, software and hardware engineering and material science to work closely together with printed electronics being at the heart of the technical solutions.”
Kelaidis noted that the rationale for developing bitbook back then is ratified today as ebooks sales have stalled in recent years and print is making a slight comeback.
“It is AmphiLab’s conviction that printed books and ebooks market shares will settle in an equilibrium that reflects each medium’s unique strengths,” said Kelaidis. “While ebooks will always offer unparalleled benefits such as portability, interactivity and updated content, they still remain plastic content-delivering devices with no emotional value as a product and some reading experience limitations.
“In contrast, there is a strong scientific argument for printed books to be made in terms of concentration and comprehension (‘deep learning’), ease of browsing through content and on the eyes,” added Kelaidis. “In addition, there will always be a market for beautifully-crafted printed books that reflect the value of the actual content and which evoke emotional bonds with the end-user.”
Although interactive paper book concepts exist in the market, particularly children’s books, Kelaidis noted that they are rather primitive in function and looks and limited in capabilities.
“Most of them consist of cardboard-like pages, have limited number of plastic buttons or utilize QR codes, AR and VR cameras or external pens, therefore requiring external devices to perform the task,” said Kelaidis. “Existing interactive books with buttons incorporate large housing for the electronics and batteries, making them bulky and aesthetically unpleasant and lack the feel and beauty of real books.”
In contrast, Kelaidis observed that bitbooks look, feel and smell like regular books, not an electronic gadget or toy, thanks due to creative design and extensive adoption of printed electronic innovations that make it possible. It eliminates the need for any external devices such as pens and cameras.
bitbook is flexible in terms of applications, as it can connect to other IoT devices, or be autonomous, where all digital content, audio or visual, is stored and played back from within the book. The digital content can be updated to keep the bitbooks current.
While bitbook has to compete with traditional books because it looks like one, it is actually a new hybrid product which adds value to the traditional book.
“Having said that, the number of copies, creative design solutions and implementation of Printed Electronic innovations are the main factors to make bitbook price-competitive,” Kelaidis observed.
Technical Challenges
Kelaidis said that all of the technical challenges for developing such a book derive from its initial design brief, i.e. “design a printed paper book with numerous printed touch sensors on its pages, that looks, feels, smells like a book and is manufactured primarily based on established book-printing processes.
“This translates technically to some serious challenges in terms of sensor technology, graphic and product design, printing and bookbinding method, type of conductive ink, electronics miniaturization and printed electronics implementation in a cost-effective manner. All these parameters influence each other, thus the technical complexity both in terms design and manufacturing,” added Kelaidis.
“What makes it interesting and fun though, is that both the problems and the solutions are to a large extent hybrid, i.e. AmphiLab aims to pioneer a new kind of art-form for combining both conductive and conventional printed elements on paper with focus on functionality and user-experience,” Kelaidis noted. “For instance, the presence of both ‘normal’ printed content like text, graphics and illustrations co-existing on the same page as the ‘electronic’ printed content such as the touch sensors and its conductive paths, presents challenges, but also opportunities for creative solutions that require close collaboration and good communication between the graphic designer and the electronics engineer.”
Markets for Bitbooks
Kelaidis said that there are some interesting markets for bitbooks. One area is limited edition books, up to 5,000 copies. Larger runs, like children’s books, are ideal for AmphiLab’s technology. Music books, where sound and digital content can be added, is also a good possibility.
Kelaidis added that since bitbook’s introduction, the technology and concept landed with a “big splash” among publishing and technology communities and has never ceased to received inquiries of interest from various business segments.
“Among them, four of the top international book publishers, major music publishers and music producers, corporate publishers, major advertisers, digital media providers, and content creators are interested in publishing their content in such a format,” Kelaidis noted. “Two examples from the past include Penguin for an anniversary edition of a famous book title and Ogilvy One for a large corporate client edition.
“Also, quite important for us is the feedback and interest from parents and publishers, many of whom regard such a product as more promising to existing interactive children book solutions,” Kelaidis concluded. “Those customers are of course interested to know more about the production process and precise unit costs and this is what we are working towards to together with our INNPAPER partners.”
Kelaidis noted that AmphiLab is still in early stages as the core-team is now being built, and is looking for more founding members. Next year should see the commercial launch of bitbooks.
“We aim to complete R&D first half of 2022 and launch commercially towards the end of next year,” added Kelaidis. “Our plan is to grow in the years following by entering the mass-printed editions market while we continuously develop bitbooks towards an ever more functional, elegant and fun to use product that will eventually evolve with the aid of printed electronics into other formats such as paperbacks, magazines and leaflets.”
Still, ebooks have stalled out along the way. Perhaps, though, Greek start-up AmphiLab has developed a unique solution. AmphiLab has designed traditional books printed with conductive inks that wirelessly connect to digital devices. This enables readers to access digital content by touching “links” or linked buttons printed directly on a book’s paper pages.
Manolis Kelaidis, AmphiLab’s founder, is a mechanical and aeronautical engineer and industrial designer, and he took his training and experience to the bitbook. AmphiLab is now collaborating with the EU H2020 project INNPAPER.
The idea behind INNPAPER is to reduce the amount of discarded electronic devices by developing alternative systems such as paper. INNPAPER’s printed electronic devices include paper batteries, antennas and paper electrochromic displays, which offer environmental benefits.
AmphiLab’s paper/digital book hybrid recently won INNPAPER’s European printed electronics competition. As a result, Amphilab will gain access to INNPAPER’s printed electronics pilot line.
“AmphiLab is proud to have been selected by INNPAPER for bitbook’s innovation in the field of printed electronics and is currently working with its world-leading technology partners to develop bitbook towards commercialization,” Kelaidis said.
Kelaidis said that bitbook is the story of an art and design project “gone astray” to become a product and a business.
“It all started years ago, as a project for my MA at the Royal College of Art that looked into the ‘future of the book’ at a time when e-readers were all the hype, and influential people in the industry predicted that paper will disappear in a matter of years,” said Kelaidis.
“The result of this project was an elegantly made hybrid interactive paper book printed with conductive ink which connects wireless and controls nearby digital devices and screens,” Kelaidis continued. “As an indication of what AmphiLab’s culture aspires to be, this result was made possible only via an interdisciplinary approach that combined people with backgrounds in industrial and graphic design, copywriting, printing technologies, bookbinding methods, software and hardware engineering and material science to work closely together with printed electronics being at the heart of the technical solutions.”
Kelaidis noted that the rationale for developing bitbook back then is ratified today as ebooks sales have stalled in recent years and print is making a slight comeback.
“It is AmphiLab’s conviction that printed books and ebooks market shares will settle in an equilibrium that reflects each medium’s unique strengths,” said Kelaidis. “While ebooks will always offer unparalleled benefits such as portability, interactivity and updated content, they still remain plastic content-delivering devices with no emotional value as a product and some reading experience limitations.
“In contrast, there is a strong scientific argument for printed books to be made in terms of concentration and comprehension (‘deep learning’), ease of browsing through content and on the eyes,” added Kelaidis. “In addition, there will always be a market for beautifully-crafted printed books that reflect the value of the actual content and which evoke emotional bonds with the end-user.”
Although interactive paper book concepts exist in the market, particularly children’s books, Kelaidis noted that they are rather primitive in function and looks and limited in capabilities.
“Most of them consist of cardboard-like pages, have limited number of plastic buttons or utilize QR codes, AR and VR cameras or external pens, therefore requiring external devices to perform the task,” said Kelaidis. “Existing interactive books with buttons incorporate large housing for the electronics and batteries, making them bulky and aesthetically unpleasant and lack the feel and beauty of real books.”
In contrast, Kelaidis observed that bitbooks look, feel and smell like regular books, not an electronic gadget or toy, thanks due to creative design and extensive adoption of printed electronic innovations that make it possible. It eliminates the need for any external devices such as pens and cameras.
bitbook is flexible in terms of applications, as it can connect to other IoT devices, or be autonomous, where all digital content, audio or visual, is stored and played back from within the book. The digital content can be updated to keep the bitbooks current.
While bitbook has to compete with traditional books because it looks like one, it is actually a new hybrid product which adds value to the traditional book.
“Having said that, the number of copies, creative design solutions and implementation of Printed Electronic innovations are the main factors to make bitbook price-competitive,” Kelaidis observed.
Technical Challenges
Kelaidis said that all of the technical challenges for developing such a book derive from its initial design brief, i.e. “design a printed paper book with numerous printed touch sensors on its pages, that looks, feels, smells like a book and is manufactured primarily based on established book-printing processes.
“This translates technically to some serious challenges in terms of sensor technology, graphic and product design, printing and bookbinding method, type of conductive ink, electronics miniaturization and printed electronics implementation in a cost-effective manner. All these parameters influence each other, thus the technical complexity both in terms design and manufacturing,” added Kelaidis.
“What makes it interesting and fun though, is that both the problems and the solutions are to a large extent hybrid, i.e. AmphiLab aims to pioneer a new kind of art-form for combining both conductive and conventional printed elements on paper with focus on functionality and user-experience,” Kelaidis noted. “For instance, the presence of both ‘normal’ printed content like text, graphics and illustrations co-existing on the same page as the ‘electronic’ printed content such as the touch sensors and its conductive paths, presents challenges, but also opportunities for creative solutions that require close collaboration and good communication between the graphic designer and the electronics engineer.”
Markets for Bitbooks
Kelaidis said that there are some interesting markets for bitbooks. One area is limited edition books, up to 5,000 copies. Larger runs, like children’s books, are ideal for AmphiLab’s technology. Music books, where sound and digital content can be added, is also a good possibility.
Kelaidis added that since bitbook’s introduction, the technology and concept landed with a “big splash” among publishing and technology communities and has never ceased to received inquiries of interest from various business segments.
“Among them, four of the top international book publishers, major music publishers and music producers, corporate publishers, major advertisers, digital media providers, and content creators are interested in publishing their content in such a format,” Kelaidis noted. “Two examples from the past include Penguin for an anniversary edition of a famous book title and Ogilvy One for a large corporate client edition.
“Also, quite important for us is the feedback and interest from parents and publishers, many of whom regard such a product as more promising to existing interactive children book solutions,” Kelaidis concluded. “Those customers are of course interested to know more about the production process and precise unit costs and this is what we are working towards to together with our INNPAPER partners.”
Kelaidis noted that AmphiLab is still in early stages as the core-team is now being built, and is looking for more founding members. Next year should see the commercial launch of bitbooks.
“We aim to complete R&D first half of 2022 and launch commercially towards the end of next year,” added Kelaidis. “Our plan is to grow in the years following by entering the mass-printed editions market while we continuously develop bitbooks towards an ever more functional, elegant and fun to use product that will eventually evolve with the aid of printed electronics into other formats such as paperbacks, magazines and leaflets.”
