Touch User Interface Links Podcasts To Printed Text
By Laurie Sullivan
TechWeb News
Dec 16, 2005 03:29 PM
Somatic Digital LLC said Friday it has developed technology that lets publishers integrate podcasts into their paper and ink content. The tool is offered through the BookDesigner software suite.
The software tool allows publishers tie a podcast to a paper-based text, supplement or magazine, the company said. The reader touches the page in a printed book and a podcast is directed to the reader’s computer or download to an MP3 player through Bluetooth technology. The podcast can serve as a supplement to the paper-based product bringing new revenue opportunities to publishers and authors, the company said.
The capability is made possible by Touch User Interface (TUI) technology that enables a reader to press the picture or word in the printed book and retrieve the digital content from a computer or PDA The TUI technology developed by Somatic Digital is based on sensors embedded into the cardboard of the hardback book or paper product.
Applications for the commercial sector are possible too. The consumer receives a catalog in the mail and decides to purchase the podcast that defines technologies such as composite application or Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The reader turns on their computer, launches a Web browser and touches the podcast icon on the catalog page to grab the podcast from the publisher's Web site.
The podcast is downloaded into a default music software package such as iTunes on the consumer's computer, and later sync it with an Apple Computer iPod or other MP3 player from companies such as iriver or Sony. Having received the technology catalog in the mail, the reader can sit at their computer and press pictures in a catalog to purchase and download the podcasts.
The sensor is a switch – a touch sensitive substrate – similar to a touch-sensitive mouse pad that you move your finger across. The sensors are embedded in the binding and back page of a 60-page hardcover book, for example. When the book is open and you touch a picture on a page, the pressure from the touch activates the content on the Web or software program.
Our Take:Not likely to impact Podcasting in any major way in the next year anyway, but a very cool technology.
Would you like to add value to your site by offering a free tool to your visitors?
Click here to Start Offering Your Own Ping Script, Absolutly Free!!
