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A GUI For Books

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the please-touch-here dept.

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.

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:any real users of this tech ? by symes · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This could be great for braille readers - the unsighted have a pretty hard time with the net. This technology could at least guide them to suitable media content.

  2. What if your hands are wet? by JoshDM · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will you get electrocuted?

  3. Interesting, but not promising. by mgemmons · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While the "ooooh aaaaaah" factor is there, I don't see this technology as being particularly promising. It wouldn't be useful in schools because with the amount of wear and tear that school textbooks go through kids would constantly be going up to the teacher complaining that their textbook is broken. Also, having to carry a power brick around (did you see the size of that thing in the video??) for any textbook would seem to be contraindicated. And finally, if you look at the website you will see this paragraph: Tracking the usage of a book makes it a cash register to sell additional services, advertising, and products. Your book becomes a continuing point of sales to all the money-making possibilities of the digital world. Now every page can generate continuing after sales revenue. Great. Just what the world needs, another medium for spam.