Smart and Intelligent packaging
The term smart and intelligent packaging has been used for long enough now for us to understand and we are starting to see packaging using such technology on the marketplace.
One such example is Tequila flavored beer brand Oculto demonstrating the possibilities of smart label technology, with a bottle which lights up when held by the consumer.
The illuminated bottle was created with Inland Packaging, using printed electronic pathways, paper batteries, micro switches and LED lights.
Another example is Diageo and Thin Film Electronics releasing a prototype Johnnie Walker Blue Label ‘smart bottle,’ to assure authenticity and help track the product.
The bottle’s packaging includes Thin Film’s printed sensor tags which can be read with a smartphone.
The Kirin Group F&B company in Tokyo partnered with WHITE design agency to create what they claim is the world’s first Internet of Things (IoT) LED bottle cap dubbed 'Illumicap'.
The plastic cap has a built-in wireless system that senses and reacts to music and movement through a smartphone and illuminates the bottle in various colors, we could see this on shelves by the end of 2016.
Printpack has developed a process allowing for photochromic ink to be hidden within standard graphics on a flexible film pack and only become visible when exposed to sunlight.
Photochomic inks have been around for a few years but it will be interesting to gauge consumer reaction to this attempt to stand out on the shelf.