Gerb's Product Idea #1

Fit For Public Consuption

This product idea is directly copied from an e-mail I sent to a good friend, after having had a fairly lousy day at work, and while brainstorming upon various changes to modern society.

Legal Disclaimer: This idea is mine and belongs solely to me. I expect full attribution, credit and royalties from anyone who decides to put this into practice. This is posted only for your enlightenment and amusement.

Date:      Thu, 12 Apr 2001 16:55:11 -0700 (PDT) From:      me Subject:   Re: the human race is doomed i tell you To:        pete I might have just had an epiphany. (Or a total brain-fart.) Rather than printing a crude icon of the weather forecast on a fairly rough-surfaced and low-density slice of bread, why not go all the way and use tortillas (aka wraps) as the next advertising medium? Tortillas are more dense and have more solid surfaces, making them more suited for the purpose of applied ink. Small-to-medium sized restaurants and street vendors could purchase (for cheap or free) an automatic tortilla-making machine, similar to El Machino as seen in local (western US) Chevy's Fresh Mex restaurants. This tortilla machine would be able to press balls of dough into the proper shape and cook them, then pass them through a printing stage where edible soy ink is applied to the outer surfaces of the tortilla. This machine would ideally be portable enough to not be a nuisance to move around. An alternate (and more compact) version of the machine would be able to use ready-made tortillas and only do the printing stage. For both cases, the printing mechanism would be similar in concept to an ink-jet printer, with soy ink being shot out of an array of tiny jets to form the printed message. Once the machine is in its place of operation, it could be connected to a host computer with a modem, which would call up to the provider's dialup lines, download the latest advertisements (images and text), store them locally, and cache them for use in the printing stage. Once downloaded, the advertisements would be dirctly printed onto the tortilla surface. Restaurants and vendors would then be paid kick-backs based on the number of tortillas printed with the ads, which could be directly tracked on a per-machine basis. Alternately, the vendors could be given discounts with major food-service vendors (such as Sysco) or other suppliers that are integral to their business. The edible soy ink would be provided free to the restaurant/vendor, in order to keep the ads printed. The machine might be smart enough to refuse to print without any ink, in case they try to bypass it. Customers purchasing an advertisement burrito or "wrap" would pretty much have to see the ad, as it's printed right there on what they're about to stuff into their hungry mouths. I'm not sure if this is going to paint me as a genius or as a criminal, so I don't know if I should be scared. :) - Matt (wondering if I should register printedtortillas.com now...) --- pete wrote: > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1264000/1264205.stm >

So far as I know, Pete has not yet responded.