back to article Brit boffins print blinking booze bottle labels

A Cambridge-based printing biz has managed to print little lights onto beer bottle labels that flash as you grab your favourite tipple. Boffins at PragmatIC have been able to print working electronic circuits onto biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), which detect pressure from fingers and run the lights to create the …

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  1. PyLETS
    Pint

    twinkling moonshine

    If they take standard crown corks and are easy to soak off so I can reuse the bottle for home brew beer then I won't be averse to buying them.

    Reuse beats recycling every time.

  2. Ugotta B. Kiddingme
    Unhappy

    the cynic in me says...

    ... that this technology will probably be used by "lesser" brewers to trick people into buying shit beer.

    1. br0die

      I can just picture a sparkling Silver Bullet. Ugh.

      1. Northern Fop
        Alien

        Better candidate

        White Lightning cider - a near-permanent light show coming to an underpass near you!

        Icon cos that's what you feel like the morning after.

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          "Carlos Roca drinks White Lightning!"...

          1. Kamal Hashmi

            "feet like lightning..."

        2. Chris007
          Windows

          surely this icon in a morning after diamond white

          The post is required, and must contain letters. (what - no blinking letters available)

    2. Mediocrates
      Pint

      lesser brewers

      But it will be Sparkling Shit!

  3. Zippy the Pinhead
    Joke

    Let me be the first to say

    I'll drink to that!

  4. Chris Gray 1
    Unhappy

    Cold battery?

    Don't most batteries tend to go dead fairly quickly when they are cold? Stick your bottle in the fridge for a day or two, and the lights might not work anymore!

    1. handle

      Not cold enough

      It's about 5C in a fridge - not cold enough to stop batteries working. And the length of time they are in there will make no difference, or if anything increase the battery life by slowing down the self-discharge.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wouldn't want a blinky beer

    But I can think of useful uses for this kind of thing. Letter or box seals that light up to show they haven't been tampered with, maybe?

  6. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Joke

    Pulse

    Mine's still blinking from the wall shelf, it's got an atom heart...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    forget the bottles

    I want one that can be incorporated into the printing process for car wappers (you know, those tacky ads for insurance companies and law firms) so that when I'm driving fast down the interstate, the pressure waves in the air can generate patterns on my car.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh great, more electronics in the trash...

    And what happens to the bottles once the beer (or whatnot) is consumed? Will they go into landfills (etc) to help pollute the water (and help contribute the flavour to more shite beer)?

  9. M Gale

    yo dawg i herd you like computers and beer. . .

    Complete this sentence appropriately.

  10. Yag

    great for our new product...

    Nuka cola is proud to announce its new Quantum beverage!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's the last thing I need when I'm pissed

    A blinking beer bottle. Why don't they create a label that knows when I'm ready for the next bottle so it's easier to find when in an advanced state of happiness.

  12. raving angry loony

    <blink>

    So they have all that technology, and all they can come up with is the equivalent of a BLINK tag? Shoot them. Shoot them now.

  13. Dave 15

    James Bonds Aston on its way

    Must buy some the idea of the car changing colour .... brilliant .... would confuse the coppers properly :)

  14. b166er

    That Pulse battery box takes a good yank doesn't it? Most disconcerting.

    This is indeed a worrying development. Soon adverts will be EVERYWHERE

  15. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Megaphone

    Are you listening Stockholm?

    This is what the Nobel Prize was invented for! Sod fundamental research and jeanomes and all that, blinking lights is where it's at

  16. Christopher Blackmore
    Pint

    Savages.

    I don't drink beer out of the bottle. Ι know how to operate a glass.

  17. Black Betty
    Pint

    Outside of sports fixtures, events beer is small potatoes.

    Most serious drinkers have a preferred brand, and not much but a traitorous new recipie will shift their taste.

    Kids are the market to aim at :- Packaging for every junk food under the sun. Use a laminated capacitor (a new dilectric membrane shows enormous promise) and induction power while on the shelves.

    Greeting cards. Advertising fliers. all the drech and blech you could never wish for.

    But also product age indicators, cheap disposable slap on medical monitors attached to an adhesive bandage. $5 EKG machine. $0.50 heartrate monitor. $10 EEG. Even an entire sticking plaster defibulator for a few dollars might be possible.

    Beer, because...

  18. James Rouse

    "The BOPP film, manufactured by Innovia (which owns the UK trademark on cellophane), can then be wrapped around any product but it looks best on a bottle."

    ...and the Kinect can do all sorts of stuff, but it's really best as a game accessory. Adafruit needs to put up a bounty for reverse engineering this with home 3d printers.

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