The Espresso Book Machine—which actually is a self-contained 150 pages-per-minute printing and binding machine—can produce a full book in five minutes from a catalog of 400,000 references. It only takes one button.High-speed all-in-one printing-and-binding machines are not new, but this idea is. Using the Espresso Book Machine, any customer can walk in, pick any book from a touchscreen (or bring its own in CD or USB stick,) and walk away with a "real book" in five minutes. The price? Around $43 for a 300-page out-of-copyright book.
According to the company, this is the future of book distribution, allowing readers to get out-of-print volumes on the spot, rather than having to wait an online purchase to arrive or, worse, hunt them down in second-hand shops. It should also be a boon to aspiring novelists as they can show up with a CD containing their work and walk out with a bound copy in five minutes.
Not sure where the Kindle fits into all of this.
Found at The Daily Mail
1 comment:
A couple of notes:
1. It's not really new, although it may be new to the UK. The University of Michigan Library has had an EBM for quite a while now, at least since September 2008. (NYPL's had one much longer, but it was an earlier, bulkier model.)
2. $43 is, well, awfully high for a 300pg. paperback. Michigan's charging $10, which seems more plausible for a public domain trade paperback.
Here's the link for the Michigan system.
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