Greeting Cards Incorporate High-Tech Creativity @ (NAPSA)—If you’ve shopped for greeting cards lately, you’ve probably noticed a variety of technological innovations that are adding cutting-edge creativity to the New sound and motion effects are also being introduced into ecards. Tech-savvy Internet users, for example, can send “v-cards”’— electronic greeting cards that Although many consumers associate online greeting cards (ecards) with the latest in technology, card companies are integrating high-tech features into papercards, too. For example, recent advances in electronic chip making have allowed the industry to introduce cards that deliver a punch line or special sentiment with audio snippets from popular songs, hit television series and blockbusterfilms. Greeting cards are also on the move, literally. Several card publishers have introduced“lenticular” cards, which use a special printing technology to add motion to the visual images on cards. Somewhat akin to holograms,lenticular technology makes images move by delivering separate views to the right and left eyes. Looking to the future, card makers say Americans can expect to find cards containing motionsensitive light-emitting diode (LED) screens. Now in development, cards featuring LED screens—the same technology used for cellular phones anddigital cameras—would allow consumers to send a paper card con- greetings by enclosing a video clip recorded with a webcam. Or consider the new talking e-cards that sync a computerized reading of any message with a digital image of a talking character. Other e-card users build avatars—customizable cartoon images of themselves—to customize and personalize the cards they send. Another new-age option is tradition of card sending. taining a video clip. allow users to personalize their the “m-card,” an e-card that can be ordered online for delivery to a mobile phone with camera capabilities. “Innovative technology is allowing greeting card publishers to be much more creative and is allowing card senders to become more involved in developing exactly the card they imagined,” says Valerie Cooper, executive vice president of the Greeting Card Association. “What hasn’t changed is the special me-to-you connection of cards and their continued popularity with Americansofall ages.” For more information about greeting cards, visit the Greeting Card Association Web site at www.greetingcard.org.
