Paper Based Books with Hyperlinks
I don't quite know what to make of this. There's a prototype of a product called The Bluebook which is basically a normal paper based book printed with conductive ink.
In the back of it (or embedded in the jacket/spine) is a bluetooth chip. When you put your finger on an outlined section of text, the book sends a message to a nearby PC to do something, i.e. open a web page, play a music file or video, delete the contents of you hard disk, etc.
Have a look at the web site for some pictures of it and you'll get the idea.
There's a range of kids books that use a similar concept (the Leap Pad series) that works of spatial recognition and plug in cartridges instead of bluetooth/pc links. They work fairly well because the system is self contained and it's portable.
I don't know about the Bluebook though - reading a book within 10 feet of a PC is not my idea of fun. I think electronic ink might be a better basis for this sort of thing - just because the Sony Reader hasn't been successful doesn't mean the idea is wrong (anyone remember the state of mp3 players before the iPod?).
In the back of it (or embedded in the jacket/spine) is a bluetooth chip. When you put your finger on an outlined section of text, the book sends a message to a nearby PC to do something, i.e. open a web page, play a music file or video, delete the contents of you hard disk, etc.
Have a look at the web site for some pictures of it and you'll get the idea.
There's a range of kids books that use a similar concept (the Leap Pad series) that works of spatial recognition and plug in cartridges instead of bluetooth/pc links. They work fairly well because the system is self contained and it's portable.
I don't know about the Bluebook though - reading a book within 10 feet of a PC is not my idea of fun. I think electronic ink might be a better basis for this sort of thing - just because the Sony Reader hasn't been successful doesn't mean the idea is wrong (anyone remember the state of mp3 players before the iPod?).