Ink Labs Brings Smart Printing to College Campuses

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is no stranger to the IoT. The campus is connected everywhere, from smart lockers to self-service checkout systems, and now smart printing is joining the party, courtesy of Ink Labs.

Smart printing is available across campus on a cloud-based system of 28 kiosks called Print IT. Students can use the systems to copy, print, scan or fax from any device, cloud account or USB drive. They can also have documents emailed to anyone. Students can also print from other locations and pick them up at a kiosk.

Ink Labs manages the system and all online accounts. The kiosks have real time remote monitoring to detect low paper or ink, connectivity problems and other maintenance issues, and have been tested to make sure they conform to strict security standards.

Ink Labs says the kiosks, which they call Ink Smart Stations, are touted as jamming six times less than regular printers because they include sensors that monitor temperature, humidity and ink per photo to insure high quality. The stations are integrated with Dropbox, Google Drive and other cloud based storage systems.

BYU, University of Alaska, Park University and the University of Santa Clara are among the growing number of campuses that use the Print IT system.