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SnapJet lets you print your smartphone snaps as Polaroids

A new device seeking funding on Kickstarter uses Polaroid technology to let you wirelessly print photos from your smartphone.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
2 min read

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SnapJet

An Impossible Lab challenger has appeared to let you print Polaroid-style photos directly from your smartphone. The SnapJet -- seeking funding on Kickstarter -- uses no apps (although there will be a free app available), no wires, no Wi-Fi, no NFC, no Bluetooth -- and it's compatible with every smartphone that can take a picture.

How? Easy -- the device is an all-in-one scanner and printer: you place your phone face-down on top of the SnapJet, which scans the image on the screen and prints it out on Polaroid 300 or Fujifilm Instax, using the light of the smartphone's screen to develop the film at a resolution of up to 1,200 dpi.

"After a few experiments, we realised that the light emitted from a smartphone could be used to develop a photo. Smartphone displays like iPhone's retina display have achieved amazing resolutions at 326ppi or higher, and they are all carefully color corrected. The light emitted from them could produce a beautiful print on instant film -- if only there was a way to focus that light," the SnapJet team wrote.

"SnapJet combines vintage analog instant film and cutting-edge fiber optic technology to do just that. It's a modern reinvention of a beautiful, artistic, and expressive medium. We can't wait to bring it to the world."

It is not dissimilar to how the Impossible Lab works, with a few key differences: a smaller, sleeker form factor, achieved thanks to the use of optical fibres instead of a lens -- an array that the company claims can transfer an image from one surface to another -- and no phone cradle, so that it is compatible with all phone sizes.

The device is also open source, including an OLED display, USB and BLE compaitibility. "We'll release all of our designs and schematics to the community. You'll get our printed circuit board files, our CAD models, and anything you would need to build a fully working SnapJet. We want to empower our users to hack, re-program, and re-purpose SnapJet, even commercially," the team wrote.

The SnapJet is going for an early bird pledge of $129 at time of writing, with an estimated delivery date of December 2015. You can visit the Kickstarter project page and the SnapJet website for more info.