Patentseed

It looks like Dell is trying to do some good for the environment.  In doing so, Dell may gain a competitive edge in the printer market with patent application 11/962,843, aptly named “Used Media Printing.”

This patent application states that “substantial waste of used media may occur when the used media is discarded as, after the printing, there will typically be a printed side and an unprinted side on the used media.”  We’re all guilty of it.  We print on one side of the paper and end up tossing that sheet of paper into the waste bin once we’re done with it.  As the patent application points out, we’re all capable of putting that used paper back in the printer and printing in the unused side, but we don’t.  Why?  Because “such a solution is time and labor intensive and prone to errors that may result in the waste of printing material when a previously printed side of the used media is printed upon. Such problems discourage the use, and encourage the waste, of used media.”  So true.

Dell’s solution is a printer with a scan module that will detect the “printable side” (i.e. the unused side of the paper), and print on that side of the paper.  This takes the onerous of loading the paper properly away from the user and onto the printer.  We love it.

And to throw in our 2 cents, it would be convenient if the printer also marked the unused side so we know which side the second side is.  Perhaps just a dot in the corner somewhere.  It will be useful for the user to quickly distinguish between the previously printed side and the newly printed side.