A GUI For Books 115
NASA's Goddard Flight Center has just issued a contract to use Touch User Interface technology from a company called Somatic Digital. Their "TouchBooks" let printed material connect to digital devices via sensors in the covers. (C'mon, don't tell me you've never pressed on a URL on a printed page and expected something to happen.) This page on the vendor's site has videos of a 7-year-old using a TouchBook. Works with XP and OS X.
Ok... (Score:5, Funny)
Ok, I won't tell you that I've never done it.
Not exactly, but: (Score:4, Funny)
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http://www.dickblick.com/zz215/00/ [dickblick.com]
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(Pausing the book -- not my wife that is)
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In real life, though.
Every time, I was goddamn terrified when I realized what I'd been thinking
I've also "mentally reached" for quicksave a couple of times. Thankfully, I've not had to reach for "quickload" yet. Heh.
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Yeah, you should always quicksave just before sealing the deal with some hot chick. Then if you fail, you can quickload and try again. If you succeed, you can quickload and try again. And again. And again.
You'd think real life would have atleast the same features as a SNES :(
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Now, ctrl+F on the other hand...
And when drawing, I'm always looking for the undo.
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That's what that red, rubbery thing on the other end of the pencil is for.
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OK then... (Score:4, Funny)
Back slowly away from the psychoactive drugs, these nice men want to have a little talk with you.
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How sad (Score:1)
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-Rick
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1) Click on a word to get it's definition
2) Technical manuals.
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any real users of this tech ? (Score:1)
this technology. Are there any samples of use out there ? Anybody used this ?
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It's incredibly hard to even try to imagine what it is like to miss a sense, I tried
walking around blindfolded for a day and I never made it past the 10 minute mark (and
with a really nice bruise to show for my efforts).
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More ads. Can you say "CueCat"? I knew ya could.
KFG
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Good Lord! A pig just flew into my picture window. Excuse me while I go clean up the mess.
KFG
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I know of at least 3 cooking magazines (I subscribe to two of them) that have NO ads. Which is why they're the only magazines I subscribe to.
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Companies that still print catalogs could link the items to their website for quick ordering. Magazine ads could link directly to websites.
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I've been in the book selling business for over 20 years. These thing have come and gone regularly since the 80's. They always fail. After 20 years, I can tell you that people like the sight and the feel - and even smell! - of traditional books.
For those who really want computerized books, they just seem to be crippled, single use machines.
It will soon be gone, just like the others.
Re:any real users of this tech ? (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason it will never take off is because for the same price as a paperback + $1.99, you will get a single eBook that's encrusted with DRM, can't be transferred to a different device and, if the capriciousness of content providers continues on the path it is now, will expire (and self-delete) in a month.
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What about Grandma? (Score:4, Insightful)
OK, but little kids pick up on things pretty well. Like grandma asking little Timmy to open her child-proof medecine bottle for her.
Show me a video of my grandma using this thing and I'll be impressed.
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Huh? (Score:1, Funny)
What kind of dumbass approved that message?
I pressed a URL on a bag of chips (Score:3, Funny)
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This could be useful in many ways (Score:2)
Oh wait...
Never mind
I'm surprised I haven't... (Score:5, Funny)
one time in college after several days of no sleep and too much coding, I tried to click on a post-it note that was stuck to the top corner of my monitor.
And another time at work -- again after too little sleep -- I ctrl-c'd something on one computer, then walked into another room and tried to paste it onto that computer. Twice. Then I actually stopped to think about what I was doing.
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No but once I licked a clink .... (Score:2)
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Fortunately, a Dodge Intrepid tops out at well below 1300 km/hr, and it doesn't have "boost power."
Re:I'm surprised I haven't... (Score:5, Funny)
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That actually *works* if you use Synergy over a network! :-)
/[search-pattern] (Score:3, Insightful)
I can tell you I've never tried "pressing" a URL on anywhere other than an electronic screen (not even physical hyperlinks (Semacodes [wikipedia.org]).
What I miss more in hard copies of books though, is an easy search/grep functionality. Yeah, Indexes and Table of Contents try to achieve this to a certain extent, but that's nothing compared to the search capability in Electronic documents.
On countless occasions, after a long day of poring over text in vi, and searching for text as easily as "/[search-pattern]", I miss the same capability when I sit down to read a printed book.
And no, I don't want to go to http://books.google.com/ [google.com] when I want to find the last page I read that I read a Character's name on in my mystery novel.
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
No, but I do lick my fingertips before I click the "Next" button.
tinfoil hat (Score:2)
Oh great. Just wait until the "Catcher in the Rye" crowd gets wind of this.
7 year old! (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you're a little out of touch with modern kids. My son would was perfectly comfortable using a mouse, keyboard, and joystick to launch and play his favorite games. At 3. My wife does simple spreadsheets with her grade 1 class.
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And a similar sentament to other comments, if you can get my grandma to us
Undo for paper forms (Score:4, Funny)
No, but I have looked for an "UNDO" button when filling out paper forms...
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Looking at their web site... (Score:3, Funny)
Design -- D
Technical understanding -- F
Orthography -- D-
Yeah, that's gonna be a huge success.
What if your hands are wet? (Score:2, Interesting)
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No problem; the product itself is GUI.
Never done that but... (Score:4, Funny)
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A Bad Leapfrog Implementation (Score:2, Insightful)
Key differences from LeapFrog (Score:1)
The most important differences from LeapFrog include:
Holy Innovations! (Score:1, Redundant)
So let me get this straigh... (Score:1)
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You wuold only need to loko at the computer screen(PDA, Laptop, cellphone?) when you click on the link. Presumably because you need information not in the book. Like a good technical drawing you can zoom in on.
Lets say this is bluetooth enabled.
Your reading a good book on 'Cyber Security' and you come across a term that interests you. Click on the link, and more in depth technical information is now on
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Reversal (Score:1)
If you do have to, make sure you have enough loo roll.
Computers do not make good replacements they are sharp and don't flush very well.
I wonder... (Score:1)
Did the usability guy sleep through this design? (Score:1)
What it the purpose of the book here? Watching the video demo, the interface is mechanically awkward, and you need the computer hooked up to the book anyway.
Compared to a touch screen you have:
1. Two fundamentally different displays: paper and screen
2. Two fundamentally different navigation tools: press on paper and use mouse on screen
My 4 year old uses a touch screen just fine. It appears you have to be older to use this contraption.
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Some random tips:
1) Try lifting the page rather than pressing on it.
2) Try placing the mouse flat on the desk rather than on the screen.
just like leap pad from leapfrog? (Score:1)
Not really (Score:2)
No, I haven't. But then, I've been outside in the last five years, so I may not be the intended audience for that remark.
Doesn't work on white boards either (Score:5, Funny)
Back in high school my chemistry teacher once started wiping the white board before everyone had finished taking notes. A girl in class said "No, wait", the teacher stopped halfway through and said "Oh, sorry". Then he drew an undo button (like the one in, for example, MS Word) on the board and pushed it with his hand and said "Well it didn't work, maybe you could just copy someone elses notes".
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This whole "old-school blackboard thing" is a cover up for whiteboard marker junkies.
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I regularly try to hover Treo stylus over a link (Score:1)
This will be huge! (Score:1)
or you can have a barcode (Score:1)
blues brothers (Score:1)
- blues brothers
"Pressing paper or Braille can launch videos" (Score:2)
One of the schools I work with has braille directory signs. They're 25 ft deep into the foyer, past several other hallways. Nice work.
Dead Trees (Score:2)
Hell, I can't remember the last time I looked at a printed page.
Lose the monitor (Score:1)
Absolutely. Worked OK back in the old days: DigitalDesk [google.com].
psssht (Score:1)
Actually, I have. (Score:2)
There was this time when I wasn't smokin something, I jokingly poked a URL in a book to demonstrate how people in the future might react when they come across one of those antique artifacts of history made of ink and dead trees sandwiched between two flat, hard, rectangular plates
In soviet russia... (Score:2)
Interesting, but not promising. (Score:2, Interesting)
DRM Icon (Score:1)