So true about the printed books, Elizabeth. I tend to stick with those for most everything but reference (where a search feature is useful). Not a fan of e-books for personal reading. You just can't do as much because your bound up with licensing rather than ownership. With a paper book, I can do whatever I want except actually copy it. I can loan it to a friend for whatever time period I want, I can give it to somebody, donate to the local library, or put it in a box knowing full well that I can read it in 20 year...or somebody else can after I'm long gone. Not so with the ebooks.
What I would like to see is an e-reaer that I can drop 5 feet and have it keep on working, and accidently step on it a few times without doing any damage. Possibly some of those built for the military organizations may be that tough, but the prices for the tough ones will probably also be tough. And, are there any waterproof e-readers? Not just splash resistant, but ones that don't fail after sinking to the bottom of the pool?
William, I agree that the printed book will live on for the time being...but who knows down the road? I myself am an avid reader and literature geek, and while I have an e-reader that I use on my iPad (iBooks)--and find it incredibly handy--I still buy printed books as well. Until all the licesning issues are hammered out (and the generations that grew up without the Internet are still alive), I think there will be printed books. But somewhere in perhaps the not-so-distant future the printed book may go the way of the dinosaur or become the domain of collectors, just like vinyl records, tapes and CDs did when digital music became all the rage.
Yes, the trick to turning pages does seem to be in a robotic finger sensitive enough to turn a page without damaging it, especially when it comes to books printed on old or fragile paper. Qidenus seems to have come up with innovative technology for this, and as sensors and technology become even more sophisticated, I'm sure there will be further developments in this space.
Another invention with a clear benefit to many of us, indeed. BUT it will probably not signal the end of the printed book, but rather the much improved availability. And it is certainly true that turning pages is not a trivial task, not only because some texts are quite frail, but also because in many instances pages stick to each other. That is the second challenge.
A descriptive analysis of this product would be a good topic for an article in an engineering publication such as Design News. Knowing how other folks solved a problem makes the rest of us better design engineers. It really does.
Turning pages is indeed a challenge. I was involved with some of the same problems with document feeders for copiers many years ago. One of the cleverest, best and most gentle approaches I saw at the time was from 3M. They had a "page picker" that used a "sticky finger". The finger had a special (3M, of course) tape that indexed across its head that was just sticky enough to gently pick up the page but would release it (with no residue) with very gentle pressure. I saw it on one production copier and then never saw it again. It was a great example of "out of the box" thinking and very gentle.
Having used an e-reader for several years I am well aware of the chaos in the publishing industry as all the involved parties try to get what they consider to be their fair share of the proceeds. If one library digitizes a book, it is unlikely they will be allowed to lend that digitized books to another librarie without charging a fee and giving some of that fee to the publisher. According to some published data, e-books are outselling paper books by a large margin and the large retail sellers of e-books have already had to offer their buyers rebates as a result of class-action lawsuits. The device in the article and others like it are a boon to archivists, researchers and readers but a curse to the publishers.
Interesting application of robotics. I am familiar with systems that scan large number of documents such as legal files and corporate documents. Wonder if Google will get a few of these to speed up its process of electronic capture of literature in the public domain, and excerpts of more modern publications.
Thank you for calling to my attention your company, Markus. It's hard to mention every single competitor to a product when writing a story but now that I know about ScanRobot I will do a bit more research and keep your company in mind for future stories on this topic.
You have forgotten something - the ScanRobot® 2.0 MDS => look at this: http://www.treventus.com/automatic-book-scanner-scanrobot.html. I'm working for Treventus, so please apologise for writing in my own benefit, but you have mentioned the other competitors. Until nobody says otherwise, ScanRobot is the market-leader (more than hundred all over the world) and should have a place in the article.
Put in a book - wait a few minutes and download it to a device of your choice. Online in one click ... that is automatic.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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