Conduct electronic experiments in a book with Papier Machine [Sticky or Not]

It can be difficult to properly illustrate the real world magic of things like electricity in the written word.

Unless, of course, you can insert actual electricity into a book. Then, the magic is pretty obvious.

That’s what the team behind Papier Machine is hoping to achieve with its colorful book. The book contains six electronic paper crafts requiring the user to draw, fold, cut and assemble things like a little electronic paper piano, a sound-emitting race track for marbles and a wind sensor.

All these projects center on the use of silver ink, which conducts electricity. The ink allows for the book to show real printed circuits, providing an interesting an educational look into the world of electricity for beginners or kids.

The book contains six toys, a manual on how to craft them, two button cells, two metallic marbles, two piezo elements (tap or knock sensors) and two sound components.

The project is currently gaining funding on Kickstarter, with one book available for about $84 CAD.

Verdict: Not Sticky (but almost).

It’s the design that gets me about this book — it looks beautiful and the creators promise that it’s crafted from high-quality materials. A book like this would make the perfect gift for any science and engineering-focused kid. But the price point, plus the fact that you can only really create the projects once gives me pause.

Hopefully the idea will catch on and Papier Machine or similar things will become more readily available at a lower price. Until then, I’ll just pin this to the Pinterest board in my mind under the category ‘Yet Another Cool Gadget Just A Little Bit Out Of My Price Range.’

Note: This post is part of an ongoing series titled Sticky or Not in which Senior Reporter Rose Behar analyzes new and often bizarre gadgets, rating them sticky (good) or not (bad).