What is it about?

This work is combining the unique physical feel of paper books with the interactivity and content-rich experience of digital media. We are proposing a hybrid electronic device that looks and feels like a book, but with simple and familiar interactions it becomes an interface for the digital world.

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Why is it important?

Paper books offer a unique physical feel, which supports the reading experience through enhanced browsing, bookmarking, free-form annotations, memory and reduced eye strain. In contrast, electronic solutions, such as tablets and e-readers, offer interactive links, updatable information, easier content sharing, and efficient collaboration. To combine the best aspects of paper and digital information for reading, we demonstrate two mechanisms for augmenting paper with light sensors that trigger digital links on a nearby smartphone.

Perspectives

It has been a great experience presenting this to CHI2021, the biggest event around Human Computer Interactions, and it is a great way to introduce a concept that I will be trying to improve utilising more and more fully printed components and sensors.

Georgios Bairaktaris
University of Surrey

This is the latest development in our effort to design meaningful, natural ways of interacting with physical objects that bring the versatility and immediacy of digital content. It is also a step toward miniaturising the active electronics to improve their ease of use, fabrication and potential for responsible disposal or recycling.

Radu Sporea
University of Surrey

Light tags were invented prior to the Next Generation Paper (NGP) project. However, they were better implemented and refined on that project with input from colleagues at VTT Finland. The Magic Bookmark was developed on the NGP project and as part of George Bairaktaris' PhD work.

David Frohlich
University of Surrey

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Printed Light Tags and the Magic Bookmark, May 2021, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3411763.3451566.
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