Whatever happened to the "Book print vending machine"

[danskmacabre]

Basically a vending machine where you select the book you want and it prints it out for you right there and then in minutes.

Here's an old (2009) article about such a machine.
http://newslite.tv/2009/04/28/vendin...s-any-boo.html

Places like Waterstones etc who are dying in competition with amazon and so on could make a killing with machines like these in their stores.

Did I miss something somewhere?

[elcreative]

Yes... they didn't work very well and their output took too long and was pretty c**p...

[danskmacabre]

As in faulty, high maintenance? Expensive to run?

The blurb says printed in minutes, although If it took say 30 minutes, that would be acceptable.
But yeah if the quality is poor, that would not be good.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

As in faulty, high maintenance? Expensive to run?

The blurb says printed in minutes, although If it took say 30 minutes, that would be acceptable.
But yeah if the quality is poor, that would not be good.

As in cheap feeling and looking books with dubious page retention, some maintenance problems in particular areas plus poor type and paper...

And how is 30 minutes production time acceptable - do the math - 8 hour day = 16 books if you're lucky, now that's going to help your business make a profit and pay your bills... not!

[LuvReadin]

Still around, apparently:
http://libfocus.blogspot.com.au/2012...-machines.html
http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org...public-library

I don't think Blackwells continued with it after the trial, though. I should think that ereaders had a significant impact on it.

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by elcreative

As in cheap feeling and looking books with dubious page retention, some maintenance problems in particular areas plus poor type and paper...

And how is 30 minutes production time acceptable - do the math - 8 hour day = 16 books if you're lucky, now that's going to help your business make a profit and pay your bills... not!

Assuming you just use 1 machine. And that was just a wild guess. it says it can handle 100 page a minute.. add a couple of minutes for binding and it could probably produce a 300 page novel in 5 minutes.
But I expect you didn't look that closely before you smacked your head.

[garygibsonsf]

I think it's a case of jumping on the bandwagon of what may still be a developing technology. I'm pretty sure that high quality instant book printing is on its way, but the current technology - I'm guessing may not be strictly financially viable just yet. Once the technology is able to match the demand in price and quality, I'm pretty sure bookshops with dedicated printers will be popping up everywhere.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

I think it's a case of jumping on the bandwagon of what may still be a developing technology. I'm pretty sure that high quality instant book printing is on its way, but the current technology - I'm guessing may not be strictly financially viable just yet. Once the technology is able to match the demand in price and quality, I'm pretty sure bookshops with dedicated printers will be popping up everywhere.

High-speed printing isn't going to improve in quality much more than what we have today. Binding is reasonably accomplished. It's the per-book cost that kills, and since materials aren't going to get cheaper, I don't think anything can be done about that. It's simply not practical for anyone except those willing to shell out a serious premium for the trouble... and I don't think bookstores believe there are that many people like that out there to justify offering the service.

[DreamWriter]

Most of the locations are in the U.S.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

Assuming you just use 1 machine. And that was just a wild guess. it says it can handle 100 page a minute.. add a couple of minutes for binding and it could probably produce a 300 page novel in 5 minutes.
But I expect you didn't look that closely before you smacked your head.

Actually I spent a considerable amount of time a year or two back when this was going to be "the next great thing" and the specs looked great but the practice didn't match (and that includes the espresso one commented on below)... you should know what assuming does...

It's a point of note that the majority, of the (nearly 60) worldwide installation of espressos, are in Universities where the longer term survival of a book is not so relevant as just surviving the length of the course... the first one installed in London was given great publicity amid a fanfare of PR etc... and then the demonstration to the media managed to produce a wonderful book where the pages promptly fell out...

Oh yes, the only place with more than ONE machine, is the Library of Alexandria so time is relevant and claimed times can be very variable but it still exceeds 5 minutes although when you're actually watching (at least the first time) it seems fairly short... and the head bang was to attract you're attentiion (just like Gibbs)...

It's another technology on the cusp of becoming really viable but not quite there for general usage...

[GlenBarrington]

The solution to a problem that didn't exist. Places that have the infrastructure to support a book vending machine, already have plenty of outlets for acquiring books. From bookstores (both online and Brick and mortar) to ebook download sites. Can you think of any situations that can't be satisfactorily resolved by an existing vendor?

[J. Strnad]

I just think about our copiers at work and how often they're down and can imagine the problems you'd have adding a cover stock and color printing and binding and trimming to the mix.

You're going to need a human operator anyway, so I'd think you would have better luck using simpler machines to manufacture the pieces and then a moderately skilled operator to put them together. I don't think much of the vending machine idea.