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.
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Hot Christmas Gadgets
From Yahoo Buzz LogHot GadgetsThursday December 15, 2005 11:00AM PT
Video iPods The holidays mean gifts, and most guys seem to want gadgets. And to keep up with coolest, smallest, and latest electronic doodads, the web-savvy often turn to Search. So what's buzzin' in the electronics aisle? Well, let's first point our cart in the direction of everyone's favorite handheld...
Interest in Apple's iPod shows no signs of abating, with searches on the portable media machine up 5% over the last week. It's made it on to so many wish lists, it's now ranked in our top 50 searches overall -- no mean feat for a piece of equipment. The two newest iPods in the product line are duking it out for supremacy, with the tiny iPod Nano looming over the Video iPod by a 4 to 1 margin in Search. Popular accessory searches over the past week include: "ipod speakers," "ipod case," "ipod skins," "ipod covers," and "ipod car accessories."
To fill your iPod with photos, you need a sleek digital camera. Canon leads the brands in Search, followed closely by Sony. Rounding out the top five manufacturer searches are Kodak, Olympus, and Nikon. People shopping for the right camera to record those precious moments were also likely to search on "photo printers" and "photo paper."
And while many of those who have HDTV still haven't figured out how to hook it up properly, that hasn't deterred other couch potatoes from seeking it out. Searches on HD are consistently strong as people seek to have the biggest and flattest hanging over their hearth by December 26. Popular HDTV-related searches include: "HDTV antenna," "HDTV reviews," and "HDTV tuner." We're surprised "HDTV help" didn't rank higher, but we're sure it'll spike on Christmas afternoon as new owners unwrap their presents.
Our Take:Podcasting related equipment is in this year! Appropriate considering 'Podcast' has been named word of the year! Expect Podcasting to take off next year (like it hasn't already!)...
Search This!
iPod has been burning up the search engines this past month, as we approach Christmas. In contrast, the XBox 360 drew about 4.75 million searches and Playstation, only around 2 million. Granted nobody can even get an XBox 360 at this point but, based on these results, if you wait any longer you probably won't get anything iPod either.
More Lawsuits For Apple
Just when you thought everything was good in the world, your product was selling like a veritable hotcake, you can't even keep up with demand, and you're entering the busiest season of the year, BAM! You get rabbit-punched by a patent lawyer. Funny how an iPod can help you so much, but turn around and bite you too. Could the iPod be the teenager of the Apple product line?
Creative Technology Ltd., revealed their own offering for the iPod, errr, I mean digital music player market on Thursday of last week, and later would reveal their plans, during a BBC interview that same day, to pursue a patent infringement case against another manufacturer (Apple).
Does the case hold any water? Interestingly enough, it should be noted that Apple's application for an interface patent for the iPod was rejected the same month that Creative's was accepted. Could it be that Apple was just beat to the punch? Ever notice how you never hear patent disputes over things like the "No-Touch Pooper Scooper" or "Aunt Mabel's Secret Recipe Jam"?
Santa Has A Podcast This Christmas
He was once a distant, elusive figure accessible only through letters, parades and mall visits. Now, with the click of a mouse, Santa Claus can be easily reached via email, blogs and, yes, even podcasts.
"It's a whole new way for kids to interact with Santa on a more personal level to hear what's going on in the North Pole, to hear his voice," says Todd Hustins, co-creator of a Toronto-based website that posts a daily blog and free audio podcast from Saint Nick.
"If the kids know what they're doing, it is downloadable, but you just click on it and it starts playing. We're also in Apple's iTunes, so you can subscribe to Santa's podcast and story and then it gets downloaded right to your music player."
Podcasting, which distributes audio or video programs via the Internet, is a new phenomenon for Father Christmas, says Hustins. "There's been nothing like this done before."
At
http://www.santasjournal.com, the podcasts contain holiday music underneath the voice of Santa telling personal stories, like how he and Mrs. Claus vacation in the winter months in colder climates so they can ski and eat la tire, a French-Canadian treat made by pouring maple syrup over snow.
Our Take:Humorous Take on Santa's Build up to his busiest time of the year :)
Worth checking out!
