Are we reading or scanning?

I spend about 8 hours a day using computer on average, and I read all the time.

Well, do I really?

I was in library last week. First time in about a year. 'Not good' you think, but then you have to realise that I can get any article I need online much faster than the hard copy, plus it will be saved with notes and searchable via my Mendeley database on any device. If I look for particular chapters of a book, I can usually get an e-book or just online excerpt from Google Scholar. Physical library became a dinosaur for me.

But it doesn't just stop here. I noticed I am reading less books every year, but much more journal articles, scientific and technological magazines, and whats most important - internet based publications. I have a RSS Reeder on iPad loaded with over 100 different feeds from areas ranging between physics, genetics and robotics to cooking, neuroscience and role-playing games, constantly updating it's content narrowed to selected keywords I am digging.

I snap, I scan, I copy and paste, I browse, I glance, I google, I wiki, and I usually get the point.

When I don't use a computer and read, I have usually a graphic novel for subway/train traveling or Instapaper on iPhone/iPad to read internet article snapshots that I didn't have time to read in the lab or at home. I capture bits and pieces of information, quick photos, memos, scans and bookmarks with Evernote for keyword-based digi-notebook.

So both the format and the style of my reading changed. Time is precious, so reading entire 40 pages journal article would take me a while. So when new article hits my Mendeley database, I open it on iPad, skip the intro and go straight into discussion, just glance on method and results. Read only first paragraphs, look for contextual info, extracting and coping into digitally-atattched notebook ONLY what is relevant to me. Ten minutes later I know more or less where I am and what it is about, but I don't necessary know details. I rank the article and move on. Later I take the articles with highest rank, and go through them in detail. Or not.

Still I have a tendency to get more distracted when it comes to reading a book, or long journal article. I procrastinate, delay, check some keywords online, make notes on my ideas, procrastinate.

I wonder whats your thoughts on that, did your reading habits changed over the past years?


[photo: Geek On Acid ©]

How would my dream tablet look like?

I wake up to the subtle ambient sound played from my tablet. It's different everyday. The tablet monitors my body movements during the night and it learns how long my REM/NREM sleep stages least and wake me up in the most optimal time (Sleep Cycle App). When I get up my tablet has already downloaded articles and news that are relevant to my research and personal interests (Mendeley or Papers), plus blogs, feeds and info that might be interesting for me (YourVersion, or rather some intelligent RSS system that learns my information-sucking habits). During breakfast I  scan through available info and choose which topics I want to explore more, saving them for later (Instapaper) and marking articles that are particularly interesting. On the way to work I get my e-mails, check calendar for daily goals, and look at social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube) which are clouded into one app. I quickly and silently dictate some short replies (using something similar to Google Speech Recognition on Android). 

When I get to work, longer journal and magazine articles are already downloaded to my device and integrated with my references database (Mendeley), with keywords and tags extracted, and with a visual representation of words frequency (Wordle). Reading is fully tactile with ability to make notes and comments on articles text (Skim). If I have any idea, bookmark or snapshot I want to make, I switch between applications and connect any info to my notebook database in the cloud (Evernote). Screen is easy for eyes, non-reflective, low-power consuming and with good contrast (next generation E-Ink). If you look close on the device, this tablet has 64GB drive, a 5-7 days on single battery charge, WiFi, 3G, GPS, low-weight, 3D microphone, accelerometer, headphone socket and front camera for making smooth video conferences (Skype). On my way back from work I listen to free music from the app that maps my musical preferences and habits (Last.fm) and allows me to listen everything for free (Spotify).

Consuming media, browsing, creating, communicating - everything is effortless and intuitive with my dream tablet, with multi-touch, Text 2.0 with eye-tracking, voice recognition and algorithms that constantly learn and map my behavior to create the better interface for me.

And what is certain - my dream tablet is closer than you think ;-)

Skinput, Text 2.0 and Atari Pink Floyd

You sit on the sofa, relax and you flick your finger - immediately projector in front of your turn on, and a tiny remote control icons are displayed on the skin of your arm. You tap the icons and switch the channels, another tap on the skin and you run some applications in background to get e-mails and news. Than you just flick your fingers, and display a nice table on your entire shoulder showing tunes that you have in your music library or list of movies. You 'click' your skin where the title is displayed...

This is Skinput - a new technology that will turn your skin into control surface. Researchers in Carnagie Mellon, in collaboration with Microsoft Research designed a sensor that will register vibrations and sound conducted by your skin. The sensor will also contain simple LED based projector, that will display icons, titles, whatever images you want on your skin, allowing you to control any devices around you. In the simplest format, you will be able to give commands to your devices only using simple finger taps, without even displaying anything on your skin. And mind you - this is Chris Harrison PhD project. Neat.

Next - tablets! Favourite media topic for the last couple of months, my technology search engines are filled 90% with iPad reviews. But one thing came through as potentially very interesting - eye-tracking tablet with Text 2.0. The idea is that tiny camera in front of your tablet will register your eye movement. You will be able to focus on a word and see definition of it, but Text 2.0 is something more - it will know when you skim the text and it will fade out irrelevant words for you. It will learn your reading habits, with possibility to give you feedback. Most important, it is completely new possibility of controlling applications just by LOOKING at particular points on the screen and vast possibilities for visual perception research. Above - Apple patent for eye-tracking - it's coming ;-)

Finally, some music, check out this album by Brad Smith - he made the entire Pink Floyd album 'Dark Side of the Moon' in the chiptune, atari-sound-like version. Especially listen to side two - awesomeness in 8-bit clothing - it made my day ;-)

Nexus One, Transparent Display, Project Natal and shit loads of touch tablets.

Its the beginning of 2010 and there is a lot of stuff happening in the technology world. Particularly, I have been focusing on Consumer Electronic Association (CES) conference to see if there is anything worth cyberpunk attention.

First - everyone has been hooked on the release of Google Nexus One phone (pictured below), which for me looks really like another iPhone copy. Some specs are better (larger screen, 5 Megapix camera, voice recognition, multitasking), but to be honest - I would expect more from Google. All the internet gossips about Nexus One came true, which was... very disappointing, because it was all so predictable! I really like the fact that you can dictate your SMS's to the Nexus, but I know from experience that as a non-native English speaker, those technologies doesn't work so well for me. Nothing really new there, it is like Google just recycled iPhone. Not impressed at all. However, what has to be admitted is that the real war is not in the hardware but software that matters in mobile phones at the moment. As Mike Harvey reflects in his Times review from yesterday that only Google Android OS is a real candidate to overtake Apple on the mobile market. We shall see how it develops, and what phone we will have in our pocket in a year time...


Second - the cool stuff, is the prototype for Samsung transparent OLED display and 0.05 mm OLED panels (pictured below in the format of window displayed during CES conference). Yes! I was waiting for it! I already see my mobile phone with transparent display scanning the reality around me with augmented labels, or my flat windows being my displays. Also, the perspective of reading a e-newspaper on 0.05 mm display is even more exciting. Ok, maybe I haven't outlined the most practical aspects of this technology (like hmmm... transparent medical body scanner - you know, the one from Aliens) but it still has very high cyberpunk-geek factor for me. It's the kind of stuff from sci-fi movies that comes true. Ah, shame it's still in research and development, no release date yet...


Third - Microsoft Project Natal for 'new' Xbox 360 - finally. 'You Are The Controller' as the advert says - full body gaming interface. I think it was inevitable after Nintendo Wii, but it will finally be here, this year, in your living room. Project Natal is a tiny camera (pictured below), that combines depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and software which provides camera with 3D full body motion capture, face capture, voice recognition, acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression. So you slash, shot, speak, shout, kick, or jump, and your on-screen gaming character does the same. However, on the CES they didn't actually demoed this device. Microsoft folks just showed cheesy clips of Natal and jumped around excited how amazing it's going to be. Demo please Microsoft, we want proper user demo. Anyway, its coming soon, this summer. I think I will actually buy Xbox just to experience it...


Forth, fifth, sixth... all the other releases are taken by so called 'Slates' or touch tablets. Lenovo Tablet, Dell Tablet, Freescale Tablet, T-Mobile Vega Android Tablet... This year on CES almost every possible company decided to release their own tablet, probably in competitive anticipation for widely-gossiped iSlate (that is supposedly coming soon from Apple). And, I totally agree with my pal from lab, David (who already criticized it here), that tablets don't fill any market gap, and therefore they are useless. Ebook I understand, because I want to read and store journal papers, newspapers and articles on the thin and light device with E-ink display (and they are cheap). Netbook I acknowledge, because I would like to have a light laptop working in the Cloud (and they are cheap). But I don't need a 10" copy of my iPhone with touch LCD or LED screen. Not useful for writing, not useful for reading, shit, it's a retarded technology and it's expensive. Enough for today.

[photo credits: Google, Engaget, Wikipedia]