The computer mouse.
Wireless headphones.
Camera phones.
Laptop computer.
Athletic footwear.
LED devices.
Artificial limbs.
Firefighting equipment.
Water filters.
In view of this, beyond the milestone of taking us into space, we should thank NASA scientists for the help they have given us to make our lives more comfortable. On the other hand, there is no doubt that research for apparently altruistic purposes ends up providing a return on investment that we imagine to be colossal. How much does NASA bill for the exploitation of all these patents?
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Charles Babbage, British mathematician and engineer, inventor of programmable calculators and considered the father of digital computers, was the one who designed the first printer, which would not become a reality until half a century later, when a group of engineers took his plans and decided to manufacture it: with more than 4,000 parts and a weight of 2 tons, today it can be visited at the Science Museum in London.
A little earlier, in 1935, Chester Carlson invented xerography (electronic photography), being the founder of the Xerox company. However, since Charles Babbage’s discovery, printing technology evolves rapidly: In 1953, Remington Rand created the UNIVAC High Speed Printer, the first high-speed printer with 4 rollers and capable of printing 600 lines of text per minute; in 1957, IBM patented the dot matrix printer, with a print head that moved laterally across the paper and, in 1959, invented line printing equipment, which allowed overprinting; in the same year, the first automatic photocopier appeared, the Xerox 914 (with more than 7 copies per minute); then came the first EP-101 mini printer from Epson.
In 1969, Gary Starkweather created the first laser printer prototype, which was manufactured at the Xerox research center in 1971. This innovation was a trend-setter because it also printed images; in 1973, Canon developed color printers.
The inkjet printer was invented in 1976, very popular in small stores and homes; the daisy printer appeared in 1978, capable of printing high quality text but only writing letters and numbers; in 1988, the color toner mode was implemented with the Ricoh color 5000.
In the early 1990s, HP marketed the first network-connected printer, the Laserjet III and, in 1998, the first multifunction printer that prints, photocopies and sends faxes; shortly afterwards, new HP models were dual, with scanner, USB port and send emails; today, all printer brands have wifi as standard.
Today, the story evolves with 3D printers, which are used in almost all sectors (architecture or industrial production, for example), allowing to print almost anything on site, avoiding waiting times for shipments and saving on costs: will this printer be the one that will mark the future of printing?
Nubeprint is a manufacturer of monitoring software for printers of all makes, models and types (including laser, inkjet, large format, label and 3D). Making a bit of history, it patented the first cloud MPS solution in 2010 and, just one year later, implemented the Managed MPS Solution with dynamic algorithms and filters. In 2013, he developed the first A.I. (artificial intelligence) engine for MPS and, in 2017, ML (Machine Learning), specifically for MPS. In 2018, it patented the unique and first DCA integrated in a smartphone app. Since 2020, our ZERO Flex product allows you to configure your own MPS application, choosing from 27 Apps.
SOURCE: mastertec.co.uk/ basso.co.uk / Nubeprint
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“Productivity”: this is the concept on which there is most consensus. According to the OECD report, the benefits of teleworking are increased productivity, better work-life balance and reduction of companies’ carbon footprint through energy savings.
Stanford University conducted a study on remote work for 9 months in one of the largest tourism companies in the world: employees spent 9% more time on their tasks (with shorter breaks and fewer sick days), showed higher satisfaction (resignation rate decreased by 50%), and performance increased by 13% (reaching 22%). The data is pleasantly surprising, especially considering that teleworking was voluntary and not imposed. In addition to improved performance, there was also a lower turnover rate and reduced office costs: these three concepts improved the company’s productivity by up to 30%.
Another study, in this case by the University of Chicago and with more than 10,000 surveys, claims that 30% of employees felt more productive and motivated working from home. According to the U.S. consulting firm Omdia, telecommuting has generated higher productivity for 68% of the 400 companies surveyed worldwide (Netflix improved its productivity per worker in the first half of 2021 to 1.54 million dollars per employee; Apple obtained its best figure of the last five years, 1.16 million per worker).
In Latin America and the Caribbean, remote work increased by 20% on average during the pandemic and increased productivity. However, it is estimated that the growth of this modality will be more linear than that experienced in the early 20’s. On the other hand, it is predicted that 1 in 4 employees in North America will be working remotely on a regular basis by the end of this year.
In Europe, the five countries that rely most on remote work are Sweden (40.9%), the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland and Denmark. Above the EU average (21.5%) are countries such as the United Kingdom (31.1%) and France (28.3%); below, Germany (18.5%) and Spain (14.7%).
In Spain, the evolution of teleworking will increase productivity by between 1.4% and 6.2% annually. Companies such as Vodafone are already strongly committed to this model and allow remote work 3 days a week, with 96% of their staff adhering to it and with the aim of facilitating flexibility and conciliation; in Telefónica, on the other hand, 81% of employees have signed up to the possibility of teleworking 2 days a week. In this way, both companies have implemented remote work to set an example of the use of technology and connectivity, as they themselves market it, fully confident of being more competitive.
Thus, teleworking increases productivity: it increases motivation, improves concentration and brings savings to the company, both in cost of space and staff turnover; it is necessary that the worker can choose to work remotely and in the right circumstances.
Nubeprint supports teleworking and sets an example with 100% of its staff working remotely. Nubeprint technology allows the teleworker’s home printer to be monitored and the teleworker to enjoy MPS services at the same level as printers installed in the company environment. With its pioneering and unique mobile App, the teleworker’s printer can be monitored to alert the supplier when a consumable is low and replace it before it runs out, ensuring that the printer is always at full capacity and the employee does not have to worry about consumables.
SOURCE: caixabankresearch.com/ cincodias.elpais.com/ businessinsider.es/ blogs.iadb.org/ linkedin.com/ Nubeprint
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Cartridges are made up of plastics, metals, foam, ink and toner: these components take up to 100 years to decompose, causing allergies in people and polluting soil and water. However, we are not always aware of their danger and how to process them correctly.
First of all, the leftover of an empty cartridge is a container. As such, it must be reusable so that, once refilled with new contents (ink or toner powder), it can continue to be used for printing. In Europe there is a regulation prohibiting the use of single-use plastics. This directly affects the cartridges. But above all, it should be the common sense of each of us that prevents us from buying single-use cartridges. In addition, reused cartridges are more economical and sustainable and can be reused up to 7 times.
Many users complain about the price of new cartridges, not knowing that there are specialized stores that allow recharging them and saving up to 50%; it is also possible to buy remanufactured cartridges (the manufacturer changes the worn materials of the already used ones to sell them again), obtaining the same performance as the new ones and with a saving of up to 20% for the customers. So, reusing ink cartridges is quite simple: not only will we be showing solidarity with the environment, but we will also be saving money.
Of course, reusable cartridges also have a limited service life due to the aging of the material. Therefore, after several uses, the cartridge is no longer useful as a container and must be discarded for reuse. An easy solution at the service of the citizen are the clean points, perfectly signposted and that classify the cartridge as electronic waste; other institutions, such as schools and universities, have this service, since students make greater use of printers; in addition, there are many companies that, obliged by law, recycle their consumables independently.
The treatment of cartridges in recycling plants recovers a large amount of materials: for every 100,000 cartridges, 9,599 kilograms of aluminum, 40 tons of plastic and 1,000,000 liters of oil are reused. With this scheme, multinationals would make an economic profit from recycling and reduce pollution.
Nubeprint, with its “one million cartridges” initiative, has been actively involved in raising user awareness to reuse consumables and extend their useful life, reducing waste. Nubeprint uses its monitoring capabilities to accurately check and measure the existence of circular economy procedures and optimization of printing resources. It thus becomes an effective control and proof of your organization’s commitment to achieve a neutral impact, monitoring that the actual management of the printer fleet in terms of renewals and replacements complies with the most widely accepted sustainability criteria and/or applicable regulations. An advanced ML (Machine Learning) engine connected to a unique data collector ecosystem makes it possible to track every new or remanufactured cartridge and every printer component.
SOURCE: nationalgeographic.com.es/elespanol.com/ Nubeprint
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Will traditional check-in as we know it continue? The front desk itself is fundamental because it represents the customer’s first contact with the hotel, but there are already apps that eliminate waiting time at the front desk and allow check-in with a QR code, in turn accessing a hotel guide. It also performs other check-in functions, such as wake-up calls or renting a car thanks to a Smart key (no demagnetization problems or key loss), it allows not only to open the door and turn on the electricity in the room, but also to access food preferences or room service.
Hotels offer much more than just a bed to sleep in. More and more users are working remotely and looking for alternative spaces: wifi is a must, a service available to customers, as they will ask for the wifi password as soon as they arrive. Offering a good connection, with bar and food service, many hotels rent a desk space for hours, days or weeks, which also allows you to print documents by sending the order via wifi.
Similarly, there is a trend towards fully personalized reservations: when choosing a room, you select which floor to stay on, the view, the hygiene products, the type of pillow, the size of the room or which visits to make, among many other possibilities. After booking, you receive your room number for direct access thanks to digital check-in.
Where will the hotel technology of the future take us? There are already robot butlers thanks to A.I. or payments with NFC technology, where you only need to bring devices close to NFC readers to transmit payment data; the Internet of Things and Big Data increase the flow of data to make decisions and improve the traveler’s experience; virtual reality (VR) presents tourism products and services in a much more striking way; finally, 3D printing also has enormous potential in the hotel sector.
Nubeprint, with 27 Apps, enables the management of any brand and type of printer in a hotel (or any other type of business) thanks to its artificial intelligence engine for MPS and its Machine Learning. As consumables alerts can even be parameterized by days, printers will always have the necessary consumables on time, guaranteeing excellent service and optimizing the user experience.
SOURCE: siteminder.com/ – amara-marketing.com/ – Nubeprint
Similarly, there is a trend towards fully personalized reservations: when choosing a room, you select which floor to stay on, the view, the hygiene products, the type of pillow, the size of the room or which visits to make, among many other possibilities. After booking, you receive your room number for direct access thanks to digital check-in.
Where will the hotel technology of the future take us? There are already robot butlers thanks to A.I. or payments with NFC technology, where you only need to bring devices close to NFC readers to transmit payment data; the Internet of Things and Big Data increase the flow of data to make decisions and improve the traveler’s experience; virtual reality (VR) presents tourism products and services in a much more striking way; finally, 3D printing also has enormous potential in the hotel sector.
Nubeprint, with 27 Apps, enables the management of any brand and type of printer in a hotel (or any other type of business) thanks to its artificial intelligence engine for MPS and its Machine Learning. As consumables alerts can even be parameterized by days, printers will always have the necessary consumables on time, guaranteeing excellent service and optimizing the user experience.
SOURCE: siteminder.com/ – amara-marketing.com/ – Nubeprint
SOURCE: siteminder.com/ – amara-marketing.com/ – Nubeprint