Digital book readers
Digital book readers, often referred to as e-readers, are electronic devices designed specifically for reading digital content, such as e-books, magazines, and newspapers. The evolution of this technology began in the 1970s, with early efforts aimed at digitizing literature and archiving books, notably through initiatives like Project Gutenberg. However, it wasn't until the introduction of electronic ink technology by E Ink in the early twenty-first century that e-readers became more user-friendly and visually appealing, closely mimicking the experience of reading from paper.
The first widely available e-reader utilizing this technology was the Sony Librié, released in 2004, with the Amazon Kindle later popularizing the format in the United States. E-readers offer significant advantages, such as portability and high-capacity storage, allowing users to carry hundreds of books in a single device. They often feature customizable reading experiences, including adjustable font sizes, touch-screen navigation, and built-in dictionaries, enhancing accessibility for diverse reading preferences.
Additionally, modern e-readers support wireless connectivity, enabling users to easily download books and access a range of digital content such as blogs and educational materials. With ongoing advancements, some devices now integrate color displays and interactive features, broadening their application in educational settings and leisure reading. Overall, digital book readers represent a significant shift in how people engage with written content in a digital age.
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Digital book readers
Summary: The twenty-first-century surge in e-books began with the advent of “electronic ink” and future innovations include sketchpad-like functionality.
People have been reading digital content on computer screens since the 1970s, but the technology used for most computer screens at the end of the twentieth century made them somewhat less useful for replacing paper books, magazines, and newspapers. In 1971, volunteers started digitizing and archiving books for Project Gutenberg, whose goal was to encourage the development of electronic books. Research on electronic paper began in the 1970s. Many open and proprietary digital document formats were devised for potential use in e-books, like Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF), created by mathematician and engineer John Warnock. However, most early attempts at digital books were unsuccessful or aimed at niche technical audiences.
In the early twenty-first century, the E Ink company introduced electronic ink technology, which revolutionized digital books. The company was co-founded by several individuals, including physicist Joseph Jacobson and Russell Wilcox, who has a degree in applied mathematics. The resulting “electronic paper” has a high contrast ratio similar to standard paper, and for most users it closely matches the experience of reading on standard paper. One early application was flexible, changeable store signs. The 2004 Sony Librié, released in Japan, was the first e-reader to make the technology widely available, while the Amazon Kindle is credited with popularizing it in the United States. As of 2010, there were many variations on e-readers with the ability to display multiple e-book formats. Some of the most popular included the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle, and the Barnes & Noble Nook. Motorola’s FONE F3 was the first portable phone to include this technology.
Electronic Ink
Electronic ink technology is based on microcapsules, which were already in use for applications like scratch-and-sniff stickers and time-release medications. Rotating microcapsule spheres for electronic ink are filled with a clear liquid containing a mix of small, electrically charged black and white particles. Some implementations contain on the order of 100,000 spheres per square inch. Electronic paper is a sheet of plastic coated with millions of microcapsules and equipped with an electronic device to draw the black and white particles into desired patterns of black and white dots.
When viewed from a distance, the patterns create words and pictures. The dots can also be mixtures of black and white, resulting in a range of grayscale tones. To change the image, computer programs in the reader send an electronic pulse to rearrange the pattern. Microcapsules are bistatic, which means they stay in place once they are arranged without drawing continuous electrical power. This factor contributes to long battery life. Electronic paper also has no backlighting like personal computer screens; it uses light reflection for viewing, just like ordinary paper. Scientists are investigating red, green, and blue filters to produce full-color electronic ink images. A version of the Barnes & Noble Nook released in 2010 uses a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen for color and touch-screen functionality. Some praise this, while others consider it to be a step backward in e-reader technology.
Early twenty-first-century digital book readers embody several other features that make them well-suited alternatives for leisure reading and textbooks in schools. One important aspect is their portability with high-capacity storage. Typical readers have the capability to store hundreds of books, so all required textbooks could be stored in single digital reader. Connectivity via wireless networking allows the downloading of a variety of books or teacher-created documents, including RSS feeds for blogs and Web content. RSS was developed by programmers like David Winer, who has degrees in mathematics and computer science. The reading experience is customizable; some e-readers have touch-screen navigation, adjustable font levels, the ability to take notes directly on screen or highlight text sections, built-in dictionaries, or search functions.
Readers that debuted in 2010 featured applications to allow users to write or draw, like a tablet PC, which would be important for many mathematical subjects, like geometry. Some mathematics educators have explored the use of electronic ink to support mathematics distance education. For example, electronic ink tools in a chat program allowed students and instructors to post and edit mathematical formulas, diagrams, and graphs while communicating in real time.
Bibliography
Howard, Nicole. The Book: The Life Story of a Technology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.
Kipphan, Helmut. Handbook of Print Media: Technologies and Production Methods. New York: Springer, 2001.