Tome-based browsing

When looking for information in bulk, I am struck by the speed and efficiency of a paper catalogue over the 'on-line' version. Moreover, the book is an excellent, intuitive user interface, understood by billions of people.

I propose a new input device - the USB-enabled book. Once calibrated, the index 'position' can be calculated just by flicking through pages of the book, rather like the mouse-wheel. To achieve this the front and back covers would provide the anode and cathode for a capacitance sensor with specially treated paper adjusting the amount of conductivity.

Executives would require a hardback edition in the form of a leather-bound folio, replete with caligraphic illumination on crisp, white pages and BlueTooth[tm]. More accurate calibration would be afforded using a small amout of radioactive source to measure page thickness (note, this approach is used successfully in Bank ATMs to count the number of banknotes). The hardback would certainly be a weighty tome, due, in no small part, to the lead plates sewn into the flyleaves...