Spotted @ CES: A Cool New Way to Make Photo Prints and Connect with Customers

As you walk the halls of the world’s largest tech show, you’ll find all manner of interesting stuff: running shorts that tell you how straight your back is, scanners that tell you how much fat is in the sandwich you’re about to eat, and a mind control headset (no, seriously).

So we were as surprised as anyone to walk buy the TapCards booth and see nothing but… photo prints.

But, as we discovered, these are no ordinary prints.

On the outside, the TapCard looks like your average Polaroid, though it’s definitely thicker and heavier. On the inside, however, there’s a built in NFC chip. When you tap your smartphone to the print, it instantly opens a digital photo album on your phone where you can view and download images. If your phone doesn’t have NFC, there’s also a QR code on the back that can be scanned to open the album.

To create a TapCard, you select up to 30 images from your smartphone for the digital album (the company is working on bringing a desktop solution too) and select which image you want to print and send. The card plus the 30 image digital album costs $7 and TapCards ships anywhere in the world.

TapCards will officially launch in February, when we should get pricing on international shipping rates.

It’s an interesting way to link tangible prints with a digital experience.