Who doesn’t know about the famous Post It Notes invented by one of the most innovative companies around, 3 M. With its ubiquitous yellow colour that is immediately recognizable, it is one of the most memorable stationary around. Well yes the product has evovled into different shapes, size and colours but the basic function remains, which is to post a message in a quick manner without having to scrap papers and so on.

For a long time scientist and engineers have tried to come up with a multimedia version of Post It Note but it never met with any memorable success, probably because of the product’s popularity in its physical form. However the main reason why it never really got digitalized in the first place is because of the more time consuming process of computer operating that defeats the main purpose of the Post It Note itself, that is to write and leave a quick note of message. Now try to imagine doing this on a computer, we will have to open the machine, wait for the load, select an application and so on and in the end we might just as well don’t do it at all. Besides the things on a computer are always personal in nature and may be for the eyes of one person only but what if the message is for the entire office for example?

This is why the engineers from University of Southamton have collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to come up with a good digitalized version of it. Now that’s a good research topic.

Adapted from latest engineering news