Touch-sensitive wall paint turns lights on, off
![nusca-techonomy2013-640x465.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/52a64e267d32d4f162587ff80ba156c09d021b17/2013/01/22/87a6db64-1175-11e4-9732-00505685119a/nusca-techonomy2013-640x465.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
In the future, mothers will no longer yell at their children to "keep your grubby hands off my clean, white walls."
That's because touch-sensitive wall paint will be used to turn lights in the home on and off, at least in a future envisioned by French design firm Quarks.
With a dash of paint and a healthy dose of embedded electronics, walls are the new switches. Appropriately, it's called "ON/OFF" paint,
Once the ON/OFF paint has been applied to the wall, a simple touch detects the contact desired by the user to control an electrical appliance. This "switch" is no longer positioned at an exact location only a few square centimetres in size but on the entire surface of the wall.
The paint can be applied with a roller or a brush, on any background (plaster, wood, concrete, plastic, etc.). It may be covered in a coat of paint the colour you want, or wallpaper, without losing effectiveness.
ON/OFF may be combined with a lamp, an alarm, roller blinds or any electrically-controlled appliances. You can add another function to the unit such as a dimmer, timer or plug.
The benefits? No wires, a large "switch" area (turn the lights off from any point along the edge of the room, or isolate the signal), and convenience when your hands are full -- not unlike Delta's Touch Faucet.
Quark suggests this interactive wall paint as both a safety precaution for elderly or disabled people who need to trigger an alarm or as an activity enabler for children. Or for the rest of us, a way to turn everything off in a room before you leave -- not just whatever is controlled by the switch nearest the door.
[via PSFK]
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