Philips has filed a patent application for electrical wallpaper. The paper contains evenly spaced stripes of conductive material, alternately carrying the live and return parts of a circuit. Lamps and other devices have pins spaced to match the stripes, which are then pushed through the insulating paper to contact the strips. Because the spacing matches, it is impossible to short the circuit. Thus it is a lot easier to move lights around the wall without rewiring.
It's not entirely clear exactly what Philips is patenting here. It doesn't look like the actual idea of under-paper wiring, as the document admits that
So it could just be a small technical detail about the implementation. Still, if you hate cables as much as we do, you'll be hoping Philips brings this to market soon.
Patent page [WIPO via New Scientist]
