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I assume we all know about the e-ink
technology. It sounds great for reading
books, but unfortunately the size of such
an electronic book is the size of the
average book (and 300 grams, see 1st
link).
How
to
read a broadsheet newspaper?
Think of the mechanism in new
PowerBooks that
puts the hard disk in a
save position when you drop it. The
Sudden Motion Sensor. There are
now even fun applications that use
this mechanism as a different kind of
input (2nd link).
1+1=2. Load the PDF of a broadsheet
newspaper on your electronic book, but
you get to see only a 6th of the entire
page. Tilting the entire book a bit and
your frame of moves, enabling a natural
way of reading your newspaper.
The book should calibrate when you hold
it still for a few seconds and it only
listens
to sudden moves of the book. Otherwise
you are required to keep the book always
in a certain neutral position and the thing
tilting over because your hand gets tired
will become navigational input.
Sony's Librié
http://books.guardi...305,1200034,00.html
lame, uncritical review in the Guardian of Sony's Librié ebook [rrr, Nov 18 2005]
software for the Sudden Motion Sensor
http://www.kernelth...m/software/ams2hid/
The Apple Motion Sensor As A Human Interface Device [rrr, Nov 18 2005]
[link]
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Tilting as an interface control is an interesting idea, but doesn't it just do what a wheel already does? |
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This has been done with Pocket PC and I've played with it. You can "pour" pages around--scroll--that are larger than the display by tilting the device. It used accelerometers for sensing orientation. |
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An especially interesting little feature on one of the prototypes was that when you tilted away from you, flipping it over as if to show it to another person, the screen inverts so that the image is right-side-up to the person to whom it's being shown. |
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Except when you try to read the newspaper in its most common location, this lurching, pitching and bouncing carriages of most public tranport systems around the world. At least it would be a way to flick quickly to the sport pages.... |
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... or, more importantly, away from the sports pages. |
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I was reading [krelnik]'s newbie guide again today and I noticed the phrase "Many of the users of the halfbakery are busy professionals". Then I come to the site and one of the first things I read is \\This has been done with Pocket PC and I've played with it\\ |
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Just goes to show that you shouldn't believe what you read. |
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