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A new breakthrough in Xerox ink could be changing our lives forever. The new ink contains silver and allows a printer to put a circuit onto a flat surface like a piece of paper, cloth or plastic. This will let any surface turn into an interconnected piece of machinery or an information-provider. Even your shirt might be tuned into the digital world in the future.

This new Xerox ink would let you put a circuit on anything you wanted. The possibilities are astounding. You could put a circuit on your shirtsleeve, allowing you to recharge your iPhone on your own body. Flexible displays that roll up or even fold into your pocket would be possible and in reach of anyone. You could create your own circuits at home, making everything you own connected.

This new Xerox ink can bypass the traditional process of silicon chip manufacturing, which requires an expensive trained staff and clean rooms for manufacturing. Anyone could be a home manufacturer of circuits. Don’t expect to see this right away. The technology is still being developed, and is not ready at all for home use.

This technology has been around for a while. Starting back in 2006, students at universities around the world were using this sort of technique to create circuits on plastic sheets. One student recently developed a technique to transfer circuits in a way like using a rubber stamp. The lag time between inventing and using in your life, however, is about 10 to 30 years. This means you won’t have to learn about printing circuits at home any time soon. Expect it to show up, however. This might mean that you will be reading a newspaper on a newspaper again – however, the newspaper could be updated remotely, meaning one broadsheet could be used and reused, refreshed and up-to-the minute.