back to article Korean boffins make e-books more like real ones

Korean researchers have developed an app which makes reading e-books more like flicking through the pages of the real thing. The Smart eBook interface prototype from the KAIST Institute of Information Technology Convergence is an iPad app packed with extra gestures for finer page control. It allows users to turn pages …

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  1. James 51

    I am not sure that boffin should be applied to programmers but looks useful all the same. Now if they can get the same trick to work for proper e-book readers that would be more interesting.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh good

      Something to make the page turn take longer and make you feel queasy to boot. I was really struggling to press the button already beneath my finger. Just what I need, thank you.

  2. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    Does anyone yet make a decent e-book reader that actually looks like a book?

    That, combined with this, would be very nice.

  3. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Next: Reins and stirrups for cars

    The real trick would be getting a real book to open at the next page that contains a word or phrase that I type on the front cover.

  4. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Wow

    Very nice indeed.

    Now let's see how long it takes before Apple 'patents' it and 'magically & revolutionarily' includes it in the next iBooks.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Too late

      The KAIST boffins already patented it.

      1. horsham_sparky

        Since when do existing patents, being bleedin' obvious or prior art make any difference to apple patents? (or subsequent lawsuits)

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Tom 7

    Again?

    Didnt the British Library publish an e-book that folded pages over - 10 years ago or so.

    Interesting but still not as good as paper or a decent e-format. If you dont make your data paper-shaped in the first place you dont have to bust a gut trying to get a computer interface to work like paper.

  7. banjomike
    Thumb Up

    Nice, very nice

    Very, very nice. Shame it needs an iPad.

  8. ravenviz Silver badge
    Stop

    The juicy stuff

    How do I hold it so the "well thumbed" pages open for me? ;)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Disappointing

    I was hoping for an ereader with two screens (preferably e-ink) with invisible borders, hinged in the middle and a cardboard cover, not another app.

  10. ElReg!comments!Pierre

    Prior art?

    Is it just me or did the TouchBook do that about 1 year ago?

  11. ItsNotMe

    Ah...

    ...he just might have problems with Zinio on this one.

    http://www.zinio.com

  12. cosymart
    FAIL

    Am I missing something here...

    We don't need an electronic reader to emulate a book what we need is an e-reader to present the most suitable combination of colours/background for the electronic screen! Aaarrrh!!!!

    Why oh why do we still produce documents that are for reading on a screen in black and white? Don't get me started on the correct font either!

  13. csumpi
    FAIL

    Cute tech demo...

    ...otherwise completely useless.

    Who on earth reads a book by turning 4 pages at a time? Or flip back and forth stopping at random pages?

    1. DRendar
      Thumb Up

      Er, anyone who reads reference material or instruction manuals, or magazines perhaps.

      Not so much when reading novels and jazz mags.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Back-to-front design at its most pointless!

    We have to flip through 'dead tree' books because the pages have a fixed size, are not searchable, are physically joined together along one edge and obscure each other. So why the hell build the same inefficiencies into an electronic interface? Surely such boffinry would be better employed taking advantage of the flexibility offered by virtual, resizeable, searchable, thumbnail-able electronic pages to come up with more efficient navigation —not less!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    cute, would sell, but not faster and easier

    I turn off page turning animations (just keep "slide pages") on my readers. Sliding pages is enough cue that I've flicked through, and is unintrusive enough.

    The page turning is cute - for all of two minutes. Then it gets annoying, on device that does not have pages, and especially one that does not need to turn pages.

    A GOOD USER INTERFACE DOES NOT HAVE TO MIMIC PHYSICAL INTERFACES.

    Call me a luddite, you'd be wrong. A luddite is someone who needs to see pages turning on a ferdammt screen.

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