This is simply wonderful. There’s some synchronicity, too, in the fact that RMO sent a laser pointer video today. Cross-coastal Dynamic Medium sightings.
I watched the latest book-above-the-bookshelf video about a dozen times and wondered: what might it feel like to rearrange the chapters using the laser somehow. What would the interaction be? Could you pull up several books, one at a time (or at the same time) and extract chapters from each to make your own custom book? Where would that “custom book” live on the physical bookshelf? After all, if it lived only virtually on the computer, it would be ephemeral.
I think it would be fascinating to extend this prototype one level up the rung, so that pointing the laser at the books on the shelf allows you to change the contents of the projection (i.e. which book you are navigating). I know that’s always been the plan, but feeling it in action would be mind-blowing.
I love when the iPad shows up in the video, almost like a sidekick going on the laser pointing adventure. “Hello, remember me from the days when all interactions required touching glass? Can’t I still be involved somehow?"
In this prototype, the iPad acts as a frame with which you are navigating a book—seeing only an iPad-worth (page-worth) of content at a time. It’s almost like a magnifying glass held over a map, except that the magnifying glass doesn’t move—only its “shadow” on the map does. Strangely, the laser almost acts as a periscope, reflecting what it sees anywhere the iPad happens to be.
I suppose two people could hypothetical read a book this way at the same time (two different colored lasers might be one way to prototype it).
I also started to wonder what would happen if you had a laser’s movement automated: “page turn” mode, where it moves perfectly from page to page on the projected image whenever you say “next page.” Or a constant-rate skimming across the pages. Or what if the lasers were like this?
On Mar 4, 2015, at 10:28 PM, Bret Victor wrote:
Now with the entire 238-page book, broken into chapters.Looks a bit better in person than in the video. The thumbs are pretty small, and the wrapping isn't ideal (might be better wrapped to columns?), but it does give a nice "map" of the book. You know exactly where you are, both within the chapter and within the book. And jumping anywhere (including to the beginning of any chapter) is really easy and feels good.(By the way, the weird vertical black line near the right side is due to a hanging string that's blocking the projector, which is holding up the Maxwell hanging-mobile-diorama thing.)<IMG_7199.JPG><IMG_7200.JPG>