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The BookMachine: On-Demand Book Printing in 3-5 Minutes 332

Posted by michael from the pulp-fiction dept.
Photo_Designer writes "Engadget has an article about these cool BookMachines that spit out on-demand books in just a few minutes. Sounds cool. Forget eBooks.. get the real thing!" The company website has some more information, though it's a bit suspiciously skimpy on hard specifications.
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The BookMachine: On-Demand Book Printing in 3-5 Minutes More

The BookMachine: On-Demand Book Printing in 3-5 Minutes

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  • In USia, however, it's a different story. IMHO, there's a perverse sense of pride in not reading that is slowly crawling through the USian population. More and more people (that I work with, at least) simply want to go home and let the TV do their imagining for them.

    So, you could have vending machines which not only print books, but tuck the reader in to bed after bringing them hot coco and a stuffed bear before reading it to them and they still wouldn't take off.

    However, for you and I of the dwindling reading population, it is a neat thing.
    • Nobody reads anymore, huh? So all these giant Barnes and Nobles they're building are just for decoration?

      I knew it all along! Now, excuse me, a Simpson's rerun is on and I need it to think for me.

      • Re:On demand books are the next big thing ...in ja (Score:5, Funny)

        by kfg ( 145172 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @05:57PM (#9754423)
        The purchase of books does not necessarily imply the reading of them.

        KFG

      • I didn't read that (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Psymunn ( 778581 )
        Barnes and Nobles are, in fact, realyl just a starbucks wrapper. they add to the atmosphere starbucks is trying to provide. at least that is the best estimation i can come up with..

      • Re:On demand books are the next big thing ...in ja (Score:4, Funny)

        by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:08PM (#9754538)
        Nobody reads anymore, huh? So all these giant Barnes and Nobles they're building are just for decoration?

        Last I checked, most people go to B+N to have a nice cuppa at the cafe corner while perusing a few magazine they picked up on the mag shelf for free.

        Oh yes, and by CD, stationery and postcards, and books for work.

        And it's true, sometimes book for fun also.
      • "Nobody reads anymore, huh? So all these giant Barnes and Nobles they're building are just for decoration?" From the most recent issue of Newsweek: from '93-'03 there was a "58%increase in titles published" From '92-'02 there was a "12% decrease in fiction readers" So that giant Barnes and Noble exists because there are more books bieng printed each year than ever before. Unfortunately, fewer people are reading them.
        • From the most recent issue of Newsweek: from '93-'03 there was a "58%increase in titles published" From '92-'02 there was a "12% decrease in fiction readers" So that giant Barnes and Noble exists because there are more books bieng printed each year than ever before. Unfortunately, fewer people are reading them.

          How'd you conclude that? More books published + Fewer fiction readers implies MORE NON-FICTION, not fewer readers.
    • "However, for you and I of the dwindling reading population, it is a neat thing."

      It's actually "for you and me." Normally, I wouldn't care, but if you're criticizing the US for being dumb and claiming to be well read yourself, you might as well use correct grammar.
    • you're reading. the claims that folks aren't reading any more are highly exaggerated. people may be reading different things than they did when there was nothing but novels, magazines, and newspapers. granted, Tivo and DVD makes it easier to watch TV (since there's usually something decent available to watch). But the big change IMO is the availability of online reading resources. I don't watch that much streaming video and I spend a lot of time online, and that time is primarily spent reading.

      Novels are f

  • Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rfernand79 ( 643913 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @05:52PM (#9754380)
    Excellent! No more "Out of Print" (Hopefully). I don't know if only a few of us have encountered more than one reference book that has been out of print since the mid-80s and is virtually impossible to find.
    Yes, "no more eBooks" sounds good, but I'd say "Finally, a great balance".

    • Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Engineer Andy ( 761400 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:01PM (#9754454) Journal
      O come on. The technology has been around for (many) years for similar things to allow "out of print" cds to be produced for people interested in music beyond the top 40 pop charts, and I have yet to see it in stores.

      If the music industry couldn't get their act together to allow on the spot pressing / burning of their back catalogue it's a pipe dream to hope for this in books.

      • Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:36PM (#9754774)
        I think this should be part of copyright reform, if you let a piece fall out of print then you lose copyright to it. The technology is here to provide for printing at zero marginal cost to the publisher so there is no excuse for them to not allow continuous printing after the main print run(s) have sold out.
        • I've actually got a better idea.

          Sitting on my hard drive is a novel waiting to be published. I'm going to find some way to get it published, hopefully by a big house--and whenever you or anyone else buys my book, IMO they're buying the right to have a copy of that book for the rest of their lives.

          If they contact me and supply a verifiable information, I'll send them an electronic version of the book and give them secured written permission to copy, print out, or just read on their palm my book... just so
        • if you let a piece fall out of print then you lose copyright to it

          Personally, I tend to agree: a copyright holder should have some responsibilities. Alas, I don't believe it will fly in actual practice. A more realistic solution may be that of compulsory licensing: anyone can print the book, so long as they pay a licensing fee to do so. A similar situation exists with regards to musicians performing the works of other musicians. The compulsory license may be restricted to situations where it is not reasona

    • Sure, no more out of print, just out of paper.
    • I think part of the reason that some of these books are out of print is that nobody has bothered, cared, or been able to negotiate with the copyright holder on doing reprints.

      this machine probably wont fix that problem, maybe partially (for those books that just havent gotten published because nobody wanted to print them)

      It could also be a big boost to public domain books....

      though I'd hate to waste the paper and cut down trees...

      Still I prefer reading a book over a PDF. books are highly portable, you
      • Still I prefer reading a book over a PDF. books are highly portable, you can carry a book with you almost anywhere. And it doubles as a defense weapon that gains strength by thickness.

        And it isn't backlit... and higher res.
    • The clock on copyrights can time out based on when the work went out of print. Now publishers can hold on to works indefinitely.

      • Re:The down side to no more "Out of Print" (Score:4, Informative)

        by EvanED ( 569694 ) <evaned@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:43PM (#9754836)
        At least in the US, and I think most other countries, you're full of shit.

        The clock on copyrights start running when the author dies (for 70 years) for works by individuals, or first publication (for 95 years) or creation (for 120 years), whichever expires first, for anonymous works and works for hire.

        Older regulations also started the clock at first publication.
        • What the previous poster is referring to is the common "out-of-print clause" between writers and publishers. It's not a law, but it's common to many contracts. Basically if a publisher stops publishing a book after a certain period of time the copyright is suppossed to return to the author.
      • Hmm, I reread your post and saw the "can"... I apologize for my prompt reaction to your post before.

        Anyway, such a technique would probably be ruled unconstitutional as it isn't for a limited period. (And before you reference the Sonny Bono copyright extension and it being upheld, SCOTUS hinted that they would not approve future retroactive increases.)
    • I wish! Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way.

      A couple of years ago, I asked a publishing house about a classic that they had published- "Resource manual for a living revolution." It turns out that one of the authors could no longer be contacted for permission to reprint... :(

      Another harsh reality I learned while working for a publisher was that many of the books did not have electronic versions - either did not exist, were lost or existed in very old formats. Sometimes it just isn't worth paying s

  • Just wait (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @05:52PM (#9754382)
    Soon there will be eBookMachines which do all the stuff the BookMachines do but entirely online!

  • Great for students (Score:5, Interesting)

    by daringone ( 710585 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @05:53PM (#9754384) Journal
    Library checked out of the book you need for that paper? Just make a copy! I can't think of how many times back in high school where we got assigned a paper on a given subject and I got to the library only to find that most if not all the relevant books were long gone. Of course, it'd only work so long as it was extremely cheap. Most students I know are poor :-)

    • Re:Great for students (Score:2, Insightful)

      by kfg ( 145172 )
      Library checked out of the book you need for that paper? Just make a copy!

      The music store out of the CD you want? Just make a copy!

      Someone still has to pay the publisher per copy for works under copyright protection, not to mention for the paper. Don't expect libraries to become retail centers.

      KFG

      • Re:Great for students (Score:3, Interesting)

        by SquadBoy ( 167263 )
        I think the idea is that you could go to a store and get a copy. The theory here being that material cost is rather low. Say for example you wanted a copy of say one of the old Burroghs (sp?) Mars books. Since the text is public domain you could go to a store pay for the materials and a reasonable service charge and walk out with a copy. With something out of print but not public domain they could set a fee of a few dollars for the content. (Think about clearly they are making nothing off of it if it is out

        • Re:Great for students (Score:2, Informative)

          by kfg ( 145172 )
          I think the idea is that you could go to a store and get a copy.

          Of course, but that is not the hypothetical case I was responding to.

          KFG
          • Or I don't see why they could not stick one in the library and let them sell it to you for a few dollars. I know I'd use it. But then again I give money to "friends of the library" already. I would have no problems with this whatsoever.
    • Most students I know are poor :-)

      Actually most students these days use this new thing called the intarweb.

    • Re:Great for students (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ieshan ( 409693 )
      Oh come on.

      The reason the library only has one copy of the book is because it gets used very rarely [or lack of funds, but probably not applicable in the case of a library that'll have a hightech book-printing-machine-o-matic]. Just what are you going to do with all that paper used to bind and print the book once you're done writing, throw it away?

      Why not charge you for a text PDF, since the machine would need a copy of the text anyway? It's unlikely that you need an ENTIRE book to write a paper. You like
      • noob. this is actually a very good idea.

        a book may not be a recommended text or may be used rarely hence the library only has one copy. then 2 people happen to want it at the same time, so the library prints another copy, adding a barcode and making you check it out as normal.

        I could imagine this being great at my university. however, since there's a cost associated with it I imagine it would be restricted to use by postgraduates.

  • Bibliography (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Eberlin ( 570874 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @05:55PM (#9754407) Homepage
    It would seem a bit strange when the bookmobile prints your books for you. Imagine doing research or a book report and having to cite your sources. Do you cite that it was published a couple of days ago at the back of someone's tour bus?

    The idea of print-on-demand does seem attractive, though. No real inventory to keep track of. No shelf space, no warehouse needed, and no unsold books. A similar promise brought out by e-books, except that you actually get a tangible book in the end. It can't be all bad.
    • Do you cite that it was published a couple of days ago at the back of someone's tour bus?

      Why not, it worked for Pamela DeBarres.

      (Sorry, too obscure for /., I know) :)

    • Re:Bibliography (Score:2, Insightful)

      by antispam_ben ( 591349 )
      Imagine doing research or a book report and having to cite your sources. Do you cite that it was published a couple of days ago at the back of someone's tour bus? No, that's just the printing location. Publication is the FIRST printing. But if the first printing was indeed in the back of a tour bus, then yes, that's where it was published. But interestingly, the machine COULD put the exact printing date and time on the copyright page (the appropriate page for such info) along with the location in both tex

  • Cool (Score:4, Informative)

    by someguy456 ( 607900 ) <someguy456@phreaker.net> on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @05:56PM (#9754411) Homepage Journal
    This seems really neat, and especially convenient for booksellers to have larger selections of books without having to stock up on physical copies. In fact, it seems very similar to the previously mentioned software on demand" system [slashdot.org]

  • Yeah, but can they... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ..do all the scrolls and cunieform tablets I see at the MVSEVM?

  • POD (Score:5, Informative)

    by Spudley ( 171066 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:00PM (#9754445) Homepage Journal
    There's actually quite a lot of Print-On-Demand (POD) publishers out there these days.

    Have a look at Publish And Be Damned [pabd.com] for example.

    (Even CafePress is offering it alongside their tshirts and stuff, though as with their other products, they're quite expensive)

    I think the difference with this one is the specific machine, and the speed it produces the book. That's only really important if you're standing in front of the machine at the time.

    Maybe we'll get book vending machines outside the supermarkets, and all the bookstores will close down? Or then again, maybe not. If I'm buying books, I like to browse around the store, see what it's got... Find a cover that appeals to me... read a random page to see if I like the writing. A book machine in the mall won't do that for me, so I'll still go to the book store. Or I'll use mail order... in which case it doesn't really make any difference to you whether it takes five minutes or five hour to print, because the shipping time will make that irrelevant
    • or maybe they'll have ONE copy of each book on the shelf, library style, spines out, carry 30X's the # of titles, and you can skim. if you like it, you can buy it, and they'll print it's replacement, or you can wait five minutes, and get your 'fresh' and personalized copy.....
    • Is PABD cheaper than CafePress's Self Publish Books [cafepress.com]? If so, they should probably stop making you register for a membership before allowing you to see what the prices are. Like most people, I'm not going to sign up for a membership just to see if the cost is inline with what I want.
    • Even CafePress is offering it alongside their tshirts and stuff, though as with their other products, they're quite expensive

      Ain't it the truth. $20 plus shipping for an iron-on t-shirt? What's a white t-shirt retail for these days? $4? $5? Must be difficult to compete with screen-printed shirts in 19 different colors for $7.99 each.

  • Why promote an intellectual monopoly? (Score:5, Informative)

    by NZheretic ( 23872 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:00PM (#9754447) Homepage Journal
    The On Demand Machine Corporation is also the same company that has successfully sued Ingram Industries, Inc., Lightning Source, Inc. and Amazon.com [bookmachine.com] for a patent granted to a methord in widespread use thoughout the academic world since the late 1970s [tug.org].

    Do not promote this government granted business methord intellectual monopoly.

    • "The lawsuit was filed in October 2001 and went to trial on February 9th. The case went to the jury on the afternoon of March 2, after sixteen days of testimony and proceedings. The jury found that the patent was valid, that the defendants infringed ODMC's '213 patent, and induced others to infringe. The jury awarded ODMC damages of $15,000,000 for past infringement up to the period ending December 2003. The jury also found, by clear and convincing evidence, that Ingram's, Lightning's and Amazon's infring

    • The Patent and details (Score:4, Informative)

      by NZheretic ( 23872 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:46PM (#9754873) Homepage Journal
      United States Patent 5,465,213 [uspto.gov]: System and method of manufacturing a single book copy
      A computer based book manufacturing, distributing and retailing system for the high speed reproduction of a single copy of a book is disclosed. The system is especially adapted for direct consumer sales since the manufacture of a selected book can take place at the point of sale. A master module includes a computer having a database of books to be selected, the books preferably being stored in a digital book-description format. Upon selection of a particular book from the database, a single copy of the book (including the text and a color cover) is printed by means of high speed raster printing engines. The system includes a binder for binding the text pages and the cover into a book.

      Which is just like downloading an TeX,Latex or DVI encoded file off a central ftp site and proccessing it though to a postscript file and printing and binding the result. Most Universities and tertiary institutions were providing this service by the late 80s. Harvey Ross patented not an invention but a description of an existing service.

  • Wow, it's like, so 1990! (Score:3, Informative)

    by muonzoo ( 106581 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:04PM (#9754491)

    I believe that Xerox had these machines in the mid-90s.

    Graphic Arts Monthly has a nice blurb [gammag.com] about the machines too (from 1996!).

    Nicholas Negroponte [mit.edu] in Being Digital [amazon.com] talks all about these and how they will play an important part in the switch from 'Atomic Distribution' to 'Bits-is-Bits' business models.

    These machine were either a really slow-burn success, or it's just an insanely slow-news day at OSDN. :-)

  • The American Publishing Association declares ASCII files a threat to the publishing industry...

  • Will stores such as Barns & Nobels or Borders addopt these machines, or try to prevent them? Looks like this is a great way for them to reduce inventory and floor display size, but this might in the long run open up more competition by stores such as UPSStore or Kinkos, or even Walmart.

    To make it even more interesting, would Amazon benefit by just printing the book, and automatically shipping it, w/o the need for a warehouse, profit from this kind of operation? I know that this produciton mechanism can

  • I wonder if it's coincidence that ODMC was recently awarded $15 million by a jury in litigation with Amazon.com:

    http://www.capv.com/Store/publications/pub00722.ht ml/ [capv.com]
  • so we had books, but they were hard to find, so we got online paper book sites. but they werent digital, so we got e-books. got them on demand on e-book sites. so then we got digital books on demand, but they werent paper, so we got a machine that makes the paper books at digital speed on demand.

    now if we can just get... i have no idea where this is supposed to go from here.

    what i really want to know is can i walk into a place with a pdf and get my own book bound and printed. that would be awesome. I have
    • what i really want to know is can i walk into a place with a pdf and get my own book bound and printed.

      Uh ... Kinko's? Some of them are able to perfect-bind (like a paperback book).

      Otherwise, do a Google for "short run publishing" -- although many of these will want to do more than one copy.
    • This isn't full circle. This is about trying to make things easier and more profitable.
  • and
    will have a central storage facility that will contain hundreds of thousands of book titles
    In othr words, it doesn't exist yet - so this may never happen.

  • The Publishing Industry vs the RIAA (Score:3, Insightful)

    by beforewisdom ( 729725 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:12PM (#9754582)
    This is a tremendous opportunity for the publishing industry. They can save boffo $$$ on printing, shipping, warehousing, and other costs. There will be no shipping and they will only print what they sell. ( good for the environment too ) The customer will be happy in being able to get any book s/he wants at any bookstore that has one of these machines. It will be interesting to see if the publishing industry will be as short sighted as the RIAA in whether or not they will run with this new technology.

  • Collectors (Score:2, Interesting)

    by powerpuffgirls ( 758362 )
    Is POD limited to certain books? At the moment, some out-of-print books are commanding huge price tags, what happens when you can now print a copy of the 'last copy found on earth' book?

    Another way is to serialize all POD books, so someone will always get the F(irst)P(rint)!

  • Not all that new (Score:5, Informative)

    by iamdrscience ( 541136 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:15PM (#9754609) Homepage
    "Print on demand" systems have been around for almost a decade. They're basically a super-industrial version of your home printer, so it (in theory) doesn't cost any more per book to print one paperback book than 100,000. They're usually used by low volume publishers (i.e. a few hundred to a few thousand). Where they really shine though is when they're used to print entirely customized manuals (i.e. if you sell some modular product you can on-demand print up a version of your manual for your customer which only includes the specific parts that their solution uses).
  • I can see the latest and greatest publishing craze: Extreme Writing and Extreme Editing modeled after Extreme programming.

    Not only will authors be able to publish the same day they write "The End" (with their editer looking over their shoulder in typical pair writing style) they can issue revisions for future copies.

    No need to think too deeply about plot, if it doesn't sell well in the first few days - rewrite the thing!

    Oh wait, that already happens now without the rewriting part...

    -Adam
  • The problem with print on demand is it's 20 to 30 -Dollars- for a book, when I can go down to the book store, get something by a -known- author, who has a reputation for being -good- for less than 6 dollars.

    Now if the print on demand books were half as much as the ones in the book store, I'd look at them. Until then, print on demand will just be a pipe dream.
    • The problem with print on demand is it's 20 to 30 -Dollars- for a book

      In color, with overnight shipping. A basic book with regular shipping is about half that.

      when I can go down to the book store, get something by a -known- author

      Yes, because only "known" authors write well.

      Now if the print on demand books were half as much as the ones in the book store

      $3? Magazines cost more than that and take about 10% the time to write. Print-on-demand books shouldn't have to be unrealistically priced in or
    • My dad used to be in publishing.

      The first book was very expensive, every one after that was about 1-2$ for a paper back.

      The book business is similar to recording/software. You pay for the creation, the duplication is fairly inexpensive.

      I still think this is a good idea, people will pay good money for books that are out of print.

  • But it won't take off anywhere else. Why wait five minutes for a book you can't flip through and pay the same price for what is practically guaranteed to be inferior to a cheap mass-market paperback? People like going to bookstores as an end in itself... even for new bestsellers it's not something that anyone will welcome being automated away.
    • People like going to bookstores as an end in itself.

      I was fortunate enough to have Clinton show up at a local book store. This boggles the mind. I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would give this guy their hard-earned money, much less have him sign a book he wrote. What a way to "punish" a former president who singlehandedly turned our system of justice into a three-ring circus, and redefined the word "sex" for people the world over.

  • ...here [www.bod.de] (sorry, german-only site). BoD has been operating since many years already. It's amazing that it's not more popular.

  • POD is great. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by John Meacham ( 1112 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:27PM (#9754705) Homepage
    I have been working with authors of out of print technichal books on functional programming and type theory to get the books published via print-on-demand services. It is absolutly great for academic interest books which a traditional publisher will refuse to carry or charge an obscene amount for because of the limited demand.

    See my shop [cafeshops.com]

  • current on-demand printing vendors online (Score:3, Informative)

    by PhantomHarlock ( 189617 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @06:28PM (#9754714)
    I'm not sure what kind of technology they are using, but there is www.xlibris.com [xlibris.com], which, after an initial setup fee, does one-offs as they are purchased. There is also www.mypublisher.com [mypublisher.com], which publishes onesie-twosie books for personal use (they are expensive, not much room for markup) and then CafePress has been printing books, although their formatting options are limited. Xlibris will allow you to do color on the regular pages.
  • have been greatly exagerrated.

    It was once said that CAD would render paper obsolete in the drawing office, but when I was a design engineer I found that everyone had to print the thing on paper in order to proof it properly. Somehow it was easier to miss mistakes on screen and easier to spot them on paper. The paperless office is a long way off. I don't know if anyone has done research on this or not, but there is something about paper that no electronic medium will ever match IMHO.

    Now before I get t

  • The article didn't mention it, but I did a little bit of search and it seems that cost of one book printed in a standard 5000 piece print is about $1.85 USD, while cost of book printed in this machine is about $5.00 USD. There is also one place that mentions that thanks to 20-30% books being returned to the publisher, it adds abotu $1.65 USD to the cost of one book. Which would bring the comparison somewhere about $3.50 USD for standard book versus $5.00 USD for on demand one. Which is not such a big differ
  • Are any of the books free?
  • Paper has its advantages, but paper costs money and takes up space. Its the same arguement as with the iPod. Would you rather carry 100 cds, or one compact iPod. There's a reason iPod's become the latest little craze with geeks and non-geeks alike.

    I'd much rather see a truely decent ebook reader - I'm talking about instant on, decent screen size, yet folds to something at least as compact as a real book. Add a decent bit of storage - in the 10s to hundreds of gig (which we're starting to see now) and thing
  • Artech House [artechhouse.com], a publisher of books on subjects like radar systems design, has done this for a while. Their older and more obscure titles are printed on demand. They call it "In Print Forever".

    I wish more publishers did this. I'm always running across references to classic texts that have been out of print for decades. Usually I can find a used copy on the Internet, but some are difficult to find and/or very expensive.

  • Internet Bookmobile (Score:4, Interesting)

    by EricEldred ( 175470 ) on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @07:01PM (#9755003) Homepage
    More stable because not so automated is the Internet Bookmobile. Extend an invitation for a free visit at http://www.archive.org/texts/bookmobile.php

    The system is cost-effective for low print runs. There are more than 25,000 public domain or non-commercial licensed Creative Commons books available. We help authors do custom books as well. All free, supported by the Internet Archive and Anywhere Books.

    July 8, 2004, we printed "Walden" at Walden Pond, until we were threatened with arrest. See
    http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/200 4/07/ 19/fighting_to_be_free/
  • ...is a machine that can print--using CMY and K icing--on cakes!

    In fact, I would gladly do a beta test for a company that would make such a product.

  • I don't really want this. I want a good, editable, cut-and-paste-able ebook format. Especially for non-fiction books. I'm in grad school and every time I have to type out a quote it irritates me that the only reason I can't cut and paste everything is based on restrictive laws and fear of piracy. Sure, there's lots of demand on kazaa for books put out by University Presses.
  • This has a lot of potential for marketing serials and comic books, which are very popular in asia. Especially if you could print a sample couple of pages of something you were interested in (limited free pages per month, tied to your credit card number) independant comic book publishers and writers who produce serials might want to take a look at this. (the following comment may seem sexist but its my opinion) I also bet women could be targeted if this thing was put in walmarts, supermarkets etc. and carr

  • Looks like a Xerox DocuTech (Score:3, Informative)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Wednesday July 21, 2004 @12:17AM (#9756895) Homepage
    That looks suspiciously like a Xerox Docutech with custom front panels.

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