'A New Page In Technology' is the pitch coming from Intellipaper's creators, a company behind an environmentally-friendly, super-cheap, paper-based alternative to the common USB drive.

Made from plain old paper with just a small memory chip embedded into its half a millimeter thick stature, the Intellipaper requires just a couple of folds before it can fit inside a USB slot. Given the minimal use of electronics and with no plastic in sight, the Intellipaper is also entirely recyclable and thus, easy to dispose of, even if that means the washing machine is a definite no-go zone. Picturing a future where Intellipaper is utilised in everything from greeting cards (perhaps a few family photos are sent on their way), business cards (a portfolio of work to accompany your contact details) and magazines (we see an advert having an installable demo file attached), the message from its creators is simple: make of it what you will.

Currently raising funds via crowd-funding platform IndieGoGo, the plan is to earn $300,000 in donations to ensure the growth of the product; whether it be expanding the memory capacity of each Intellipaper device (the sticks hold less than 100Mb for now), to implementing wireless capability and eventually launching its very own line of disposable USB drives.

Richard Birkett