Does science fiction pique your interest? I certainly find modern technology fascinating, and just thinking what could be around the bend is incredible. Here are some promising and interesting areas of development. Some may become a reality in the years to come, some might never be possible and yet others are already possible and available.

Printing just got so much cooler: 3D printer/fabricator and super-fast paper printing.

Sure typed pages are much easier to read compared to handwritten notes, but the printing has done so much more than improve legibility, it changed the way we communicate on paper. Hand written messages are now vastly outnumbered by their printed counterparts, which can be spat out of laser and inkjet printers at phenomenal speed.

There must be no new or novel developments left in the industry, surely? Well fortunately there is, and it’s more revolutionary then just evolutionary. 3D printers or fabricators are now a reality and are available to buy. These machines ‘print’ three dimensional objects. Perhaps one day you will be able to ‘print’ your own clothes or food, but for now it’s much more limited. Still, it is rather cool.

Now that’s all fine and interesting if you have a spare $10,000 to $100,000 for your next printer, but what about the good ol’ fashioned paper-based machines? Is there anything revolutionary going on there? Well, yes, there is.

Memjet technology is behind the blisterringly-fast print speeds shown in the video above. The video is not set at a fast speed, it is the actual speed of the printer. Want a page printed? Well it can be printed in fractions of a second. What about a poster? That’s easy too.

These two new developments are certainly keeping the printer market interesting, and something to watch in the coming years.