Virtual Reading Interface

Recently there has been a rash of ideas about reducing the amount of paper being used for print media and this rash has made me itchy to jump into the fray.

The usual paperless world solutions like email, ebooks, virtual reality glasses all require that one learn a complex interface to do something that they currently do quite easily. So what is needed is a more intuitive interface.

This device is not to be meant to try to fool old people into thinking that they are actually reading the paper. Old people are smarter then that and the ones that aren’t don’t read much anyway. It is meant to provide an interface that mimics the way one is use to reading to make the transition to a paperless world more comfortable.

The metaphor is a paper and reading glasses. You pick up the Hokeyville Gazette, put on the Virtual Reading Glasses and glance at the paper, but actually see a virtual image displayed rather than the text on the paper you are holding. The Virtual Reading Glasses are a Bluetooth devise attached to your computer running the VRG program that can access a variety of media. A newspaper, a book or a sheet of paper can be used to trigger the program.

The VRG program is launched when the Virtual Reading Glasses are put on. Initially a menu appears with a list of available documents. Sliding the glasses up or down on the nose highlights a title in the list and pressing a button on the bridge of the glasses selects the document you want to read. A laser senses if the distance between the paper and the eyes changes and the VPG program enlarges or reduces the image accordingly. Page turning is also sensed and used to move to the next or previous page in the document.

Your reading pretty much the way you always did but using new technology in a paperless world.