TextArc

[TextArc.org] A TextArc is a visual representation of a text—the entire text (twice!) on a single page. A funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary; it uses the viewer's eye to help uncover meaning. Here are more detailed overviews of the interactive work and the prints.
TextArc is a tool designed to help people discover patterns and concepts in any text by leveraging a powerful, underused resource: human visual processing.
TextArc exposes the nature and style of a document's content, not by algorithmic winnowing but by arranging and showing every word. It taps into our pre-attentive ability to scan for brighter (here, more frequent) words, compare them, and let the eye read those words in a balancing act between them . The eye and mind scan for ideas, then follow the ideas down to where and how they appear in the text.

by Paul | 26 October 2004 |  Discuss [0]

  Print and Electronic Text Convergence

[C-2-C Project] Within this volume we look specifically at the changing definition of a book. A book is no longer a tangible thing; a book is what a book does. It is an information architecture. We examine the various manifestations of electronic book readers and imminent technologies, such electronic ink, including a case study on the use of ebook reading devices by a lending library, and speculate about other uses of such devices. We see the convergence of print and etext - manifestations of the same thing - electronically stored text, with the difference demonstrated only in their final rendering. We look at changes in print technologies and the shift in mindset necessary to accommodate emergent forms of digital text - as information services within a product-service system, the changing shape of digital design and changes in printing technologies from letterpress to the rise of digital printing.

 Sharp’s sub-1mm e-book reader

[engadget] Sharp claims it will have a paper-thin (i.e., under 1mm) reader in shops by 2007. It’s working on a colour “LCD paper” that doesn’t need a light source, apparently by upping the amount of light the paper reflects. Sharp already has tie-ups with 7000 content providers for the Zaurus Town site it offers to users of its handhelds, so it sounds like it could slide into the e-book (or rather e-newspaper and e-manga) market with relative ease.

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