
12
The participants would like more interactive, such as putting oneself in the story and
choose from alternate versions, as well as retaining the book form while adding
functionality, such as merging of book and device, with a cover, and page-turning yet
without fixed content, or books that contains hyperlinks, electronic annotations, and
multimedia
24.
A concept design competition called “the future of reading” based on
Portigal Consulting’s initiative has announced the winning proposal which is about
sharing reading in a living room with contents floating on the wall
25
.
This indicates more
about the trend of future reading which is interaction with natural gesture and
maintaining the book form. It also points out that people expect something beyond
books as tranquil objects, such as reading in a social perspective and be given
possibilities to develop activities. Is digitalizing reading the only solution? What about
many of us who love books and really enjoy them and consider reading books as real
reading? Is there a way to keep people reading books, as well as making use of
technology to benefit reading?
2.2 Purpose and goal
Reading with ability of interaction
People’s opinions about books and e-readers indicate that there are issues between
what a book can offer and what people expect toned with modern technology and
lifestyle. Although we could see a trend according to the emergent new reading media,
like smart phones and e-readers, books still play a very important role. People do enjoy
the content more and learn better by reading books. After all, it takes time for new
medium become perfect and accepted by most people. The purpose of this project is
to find a solution for traditional reading in the modern context so that people could
enjoy reading books, as well as developing related activities, by creating interaction
between books and readers, and among readers.
The goal: A companion
Reading is a relatively quiet activity, but it is more active and creative than we thought.
During reading, a reader may need a dictionary to look a word up, write down a few
sentences on her notebook or mark pages with colorful tags. An e-reader user may also
experience similar things to satisfy his specific need, like adding digital annotation and
searching other books mentioned in the references, etc. People can achieve a better
understanding of the contents with their activities during the reading. Meanwhile, they
identify themselves by what they achieved.
The goal is to make a handy tool to refresh traditional reading with digital approach.
A tool that is able to inspire readers to be engaged in reading and relevant activities.
It can be used while reading, as well as after reading. It scans and stores texts which can
be for further use. It has built-in dictionaries and translator which could help reading
more fluently. It has access to internet to enable readers to search resources related to
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Dan Soltzberg, Reading Ahead: Topline Summary, Aug. 10
th
,2009, http://www.portigal.com/
25
Core77, Announcing the winners! 1 hour design challenge: the future of digital reading, Nov.2
nd
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