A speaking newspaper: Creative advertizing by VW

I'm staying in New Delhi for the Commonwealth Games and the Hotel I'm staying at provides a copy of The Times of India newspaper to my door every morning.  This morning while opening the paper I was surprised by a voice coming from inside the paper.

After turning the paper around I noticed a small black patch stuck to the inside of the page.  A small hole in the black case shows a light sensor mounted on a small PCB.  I ripped the black patch from the page exposing the electronics and took some photos you can see below. It is a basic PCB with a couple of batteries and a small speaker connected.

On the bright side it is interesting to use such a basic sensor used to trigger this effect.  When the paper is folded the light doesn't hit the sensor and the speaker is silent.  As soon as someone opens the paper the voice comes out which has a surprising effect.

On the less bright side, Delhi and India are struggling to cope with the problem of trash disposal.  Streets are littered and recycling seems far from being on anybody's agenda here.  Such a siple device multiplied the huge amout of copies that The Times of India prints end up in tons of un-recycled plastic, PCB and batteries.

The Times of India

The hidden gadget exposed

Back of the gadget

Front of the gadget

(sorry for the poor image quality, my phone camera is not so good)